The 24-year-old Briton outlines his training and progress under coach Mark Weil.
As British indoor 3000m champion Tom Keane looks forward to opportunities in the summer, he looks back in good humor on the 2022 training camp in Colorado, which inexplicably produced one world title (for Jake Wightman) and a 3:40 1500m in Luxembourg (for him).
Whiteman and Keane have trained together on numerous occasions, most recently in Flagstaff, Arizona, late last year. Of course, there is mutual benefit, but as Keane points out: “If I knew he was in a good place, I knew I was going to be in a good place and that gave me confidence going into the races.” Except that it didn’t always work out. “It was weird,” he says, “because I was doing every session (with Jake) in Colorado, then I was second in the B race in Luxembourg, and he won the Worlds by 3:29.
Keane laughs, but he admits that maybe there was a lesson there, too.
Last year is a perfect example. In 2025, he ran a personal best 3000m in Glasgow in January (7:45.87) and 1500m 3:35.12 in Boston in February. He then made his senior debut for Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the Indoor Athletics Championships in Apeldoorn. It was a successful indoor season that had the potential to set him up for a fantastic summer, but the results didn’t quite live up to his expectations.
“Nothing really went wrong,” he says. “I ran loads and loads and just ran 3:35 over and over in as many different ways as possible. I think that’s something, at least it was consistent, but it was just disappointing not to have that one breakthrough run where everything clicks and you’re a second and a half, two seconds off a PB.”
“Plateau” trumps “progress,” perhaps, but a very solid benchmark to build from.
January 2026 Keane’s camp to Potchefstroom in South Africa, coinciding with a move to adidas; an exciting opportunity that he hopes will enable him to be “a bit more professional” with his physique and focus entirely on his own needs, marked the beginning of a new era.
He returned to Great Britain to win his first British title in a thrilling 3000m, finishing 7:51.68 ahead of second-placed Henry McLuckie (7:51.70). Remarkably, he did this by keeping his mileage high and without too many ‘speed sessions’. In fact, there wasn’t much focus on the indoor season.
“I feel strong and more confident than I have (before) going into a major outdoor season,” she says, acknowledging the benefits of a slightly different approach to training this year.
“I kind of made a little progress indoors last year, but when I ran that pretty respectable 1,500m (3:35.12 in Boston), it ended up being my best of the season, so I think we just focused a lot on doing really fast things. Looking back at the mileage, I had actually covered 4,030 kilometers. Up to 80 in the camp, obviously (the UK Indoor Championships) was a bit of a dip, but we’ll get back into it and hopefully be more consistent, not all winter.
The 24-year-old University of Birmingham graduate has plenty to look forward to as she sets her sights on this summer’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham. “I still have a pretty strong connection with Birmingham, so to be there and race in front of the home crowd would be pretty special,” he says. Especially the European team will be tough. The 1500m in Great Britain continues to represent the world standard, but that is a positive in itself.
“I think both of those teams are having a really successful summer,” he says. “If I can run the qualifying time for the Europeans (3:33.50) then that would be a good PB and I’d be very happy, so that’s definitely the goal for the season. Honestly, I feel like it was there last year, it just never clicked, so I’m confident in getting there.
“I actually think because so many of the 1500m runners are from Great Britain, it almost seems more attainable (achieving success). I prefer it this way. It makes your life quite difficult to make a team, but if you can make a British team then you know you are a serious contender to go deep into the Champions League, which is quite exciting.”
Regular academic week (Potchefstroom, South Africa, January 2026)
Keane, who is based outside Cambridge, trains mostly alone but links up with his club (Cambridge and Coleridge) on Tuesday evenings.
Alongside trainer Mark Weil and athletes including Callum Dodds and Tom Bridger, he spent January 2026 in Potchefstroom, where he averaged around 80 miles a week.
- Monday. (morning) 8-9 miles at a steady pace (sub-6 minute miles); (pm) 5 miles easy (on grass) and 30 minutes cross trainer
- Tuesday. (am) hills or longer runs such as 10 x 600m at 3km after 90 seconds; (pm) easy jogging and gym
- Wednesday. (morning) 6 miles followed by a pre-treatment session; (pm) 6 miles
- Thursday. (morning) tempo session – eg 6 x 1M splits 75s (road) – controlled effort at 5min/mile pace; (pm) 5 miles of easy plus speed drills and sprints
- Friday 45 minutes of cross training or complete rest (alternate each week)
- Saturday. (morning) split 800m repeats at 3km pace or faster eg 2 x (600m-200m/500m-300m/400m-400m) 60s between efforts, 3min between sets; (pm) 30 minutes easy run, 30 minutes cross train, plus gym
- Sunday: 14-15 miles
Favorite session: “My favorite session is five sets of 300m (1500m pace), then 200m (flat out) with five minutes between sets.”
Least favorite session. “Probably 500s or 600s on the track, I just think if you’re running a 500m or 600m on the track, you’re basically running the same pace as you do for a 400m effort, but longer.”
