The Olympic 800m champion is the latest in a long list of runners who have incorporated dune training into their training with great success.
Training techniques in vogue for today’s endurance runners include tempo efforts, cross-training and, of course, Norwegian-style double-threshold sessions. Thanks to Keeley Hodgkinson, however, dune running is making a comeback.
The Olympic 800m champion puts herself through grueling training on Formby Beach, especially during the winter base building period. A short distance from her home in Manchester, the 22-year-old travels there to train with trainer Trevor Painter’s group. “It’s a really brutal session,” Painter says. “It shapes your mind as well as your physiology.”
Hard running on the beach and especially on the dunes is nothing new to middle and long distance runners, of course. The effort builds strength and endurance and promotes good running form as the body struggles to grip the soft, uneven surface.
Frank Horville with BMC racers (Mark Shearman)
Coincidentally, 124 years before Hodgkinson won gold in Paris, another British 800m runner, Alfred Tysoe, won the men’s Olympic title, also in Paris, after doing most of his preparation on the South Coast sand dunes in Blackpool. on, a few miles north. Formby.
Not only did Taisoy win the 800m Olympic title in 1900, but soon after won a three-quarter mile duel against 1500m Olympic gold medalist Charles Bennett. Victory over Bennett earned him the title of “undisputed middle distance champion of the world” and Tysoe’s form was built on the dunes of the popular Lancashire tourist town, although he died aged just 27 after suffering from pleurisy.
Obituary Athletic news said in October 1901 that “it is probable that from 880 yards to a mile he has no excellence in the amateur ranks” and added that he was “a natural runner with a graceful, quick step and excellent finishing ability”.
Neil Caddy on the Dunes of Cornwall (Mark Shearman)
Moreover, Tysoe ran the same times as Hodgkinson, and the men’s world record for 880 yards at the time was 1:53.4, a fraction slower than women’s 800m world record: 1:53.28 that Hodgkinson has in his sights.
While Tysoe is a forgotten champion, better known are the workouts that led to Herb Elliott’s 1960 Olympic 1,500m victory in a world record 3:35.6 to boot. Elliott is known for training at Portsy, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia, every weekend under trainer Percy Cerutti. During that time he endured countless repetitions up and down the sand dunes in addition to raw food and ocean bathing.
Merthyr Maur (Mark Shearman)
British middle distance runners have also used the dunes at Merthyr Mawr in South Wales for many years, with Steve Ovett, among others, a regular visitor to the area to embark on tough hilly training sessions, often in bare feet.
Steve Ovett with Harry Wilson (Mark Shearman)
Exercising on the beach, of course, was also popularized in the multiple Oscar-winning movie Chariots of Fire. Recently, the Marathon d’Sables ultra-distance race has become known as one of the toughest races on earth, in part because the sand underfoot makes it so difficult.
Red Bull “quick sand” race
There are even beach races in the UK, such as the Blyth Sands event in the North East of England, the Red Bull ‘quick sand’ race in Margate and a beach race on Blackpool beach too.
Red Bull “quick sand” race
So what are you waiting for? Ditch those super shoes this weekend and hit the beach instead.
(Mark Shearman)
The English National was a resounding success in September
A few years ago, Weston Park, near Telford, hosted the G8 summit, which included Bill Clinton, Boris Yeltsin and Tony Blair. The much-delayed English National Cross Country Champions took place at the same venue last weekend.
There was concern that the fields would not be strong, but it appears that the nation’s leading distance runners backed it up quite well. Holding the event in the September sun may seem odd, but it wasn’t always cold or wet on the traditional February date.
READ MORE. National coverage of English
I remember that in 2012 The National Assembly on Parliament Hill, a few months before the London Olympics, was uncharacteristically subdued, with an ice cream van at the edge of the field doing noisy trade and T-shirt-wearing spectators.
It’s a numbers game
I missed it English National Cross attend a football match instead this year. Blasphemy, I know, for a sports reporter.
In my defense, I haven’t been to a football game in years and I always like to compare “other sports” to athletics. Isn’t it good to finally get a broader view of the sports spectrum rather than just participating in athletics events and nothing else?
I was one of almost 17,000 spectators to watch Plymouth Argyle beat Sunderland 3-2 in the Sky Bet Championship and for just under £30 I saw plenty of goals in 90 minutes of entertainment.
Was the overall experience better than an athletics grand prix meeting with a crowd of similar size? No, but then again I’m a little biased towards the #1 Olympic sport.
However, I was reminded why the wider media covers football more than athletics. Even this “second-rate” early season game had a much larger crowd than you’d get at, say, the British Athletics Championship, and this included around 1,700 Sunderland fans making the admirable 400-mile pilgrimage from one corner of England to England. other.
» Subscribe to AW Magazine herecheck out our new podcast! here or subscribe to our digital archive of back issues from 1945 to the present day here
The post Why Keely Hodgkinson’s Beach Sessions Can Work For You appeared first AW:.
