Simon Croft

Simon was already a very competitive runner with several podium places in races to his credit when I first met him.

Two weeks previous Simon had just missed out by 3 minutes 26 seconds on a Championship Qualifying time for the London Marathon. Good for age time had been reached though so his place in the race was guaranteed.

Having spent some time training for the Marathon the initial aim of the coaching was to get back to the times he had been running prior and then to kick on to even faster times.

The First Target

Having watched Simon run a few times and also observed him in a few training sessions a specific set of routines and drills to improve lower leg strength as well as neurological pathway performance (how the brain tells you to do things and in what order) were put together. This along with a specific set of training sessions working on maximum velocity and short distance intervals would form the basis of the first 8 weeks of training.

A breezy day on St Anne’s seafront meant a difficult headwind during the second half of the race but having run the same race a year earlier in a time of 17 mins 30 seconds it was clear the hard work over the last 8 weeks had paid off and a time of 16 mins 34 seconds was recorded to finish second overall!

It is also worth noting that in training for this race, Simon ran 2 other 5 km races in the weeks before and set 2 identical times of 16 mins 29 seconds both faster than his St Annes time. Simon was now running consistently around the 16:30 mark some 20 seconds faster than his previous Personal Best and had run his first ever sub 5 min mile (4 mins 50 seconds) at the Clan Midsummer Mile race.

How fast can you go?!

Following the success of the previous 8 weeks of training, it was decided to see how fast Simon could run in a more competitive field where many of the top 100 would be running at a similar / faster pace to him. Mid Cheshire 5 km provided the perfect opportunity for this and gave him 5 weeks to train for it! Simon had taken on the challenge of running sub 16 though have to admit I knew that it was going to take a lot of effort and commitment from Simon over the next weeks to see him achieve it.

The training for this was much similar to the previous 8 weeks, overall leg strength, short distance speed/endurance intervals and the ongoing neurological pathway training continued but at higher intensities now that Simon was getting used to the training regime. It is worth noting that it doesn’t matter how good you are, if you are not used to full-time training regimes then they will always need building over time to avoid injury and over-training.

I think Mid Cheshire 5 km was the only time I have so far seen Simon look slightly nervous before a race. It was a significantly fast field with the top 5 all going sub 15 mins but the fast training paid off and Simon ran a fantastic 15 mins 55 seconds to finish 37th overall.
The improvement in Simon’s 5 km time from the 17:19 at Avenham 5 km to the Mid Cheshire 15:55 is nearly 9% which over 12 weeks of training shows the commitment given.

Completing the Circle

What about that London Marathon Championship Entry that was missed by just over 3 mins…… London Marathon allows runners to enter this race if they can run a sub 2 hr 45 mins marathon, but crucially for Simon, they also allow them to run in it if they can run a sub 1 hr 15 mins Half Marathon.

Following nearly a month off training to allow the body to recover and have a holiday training consisted of longer distance intervals, longer runs and lots more hill/strength work and routines to prepare the body for a longer race. With a controlled race based on the pace required, Simon recorded a London Marathon Championship Qualifying time of 1 hr 14 mins 11 seconds at the Lancaster Half Marathon.

Simon has knocked 2 min 47 seconds off his half marathon time since working with RunSmart Coaching this equates to a 7.5% improvement over the distance.

From the athlete’s Perspective!

To be honest I’d never given coaching much thought. I always thought of that as being for truly elite runners who would have coaches barking instructions at them at the track and making them run mile after mile after mile. It was only the successes of a couple of other people I know that made me think it could work for me.

I knew I could improve but never truly committed to a structured training routine or targeted a specific race/distance. I would just run whenever I felt like it and if I didn’t feel like it then I didn’t do it. Even with this, I was improving, probably more down to luck and competitiveness than judgement.

After a meeting with Damian, we put plans and targets in place and I had a schedule to follow to help improve my times and strengthen weaker areas.

I’ve now had around 20 weeks of coaching have smashed my 1 mile, 5 km, 5 mile and half marathon PB’s as well as having numerous top 3 finishes in races, culminating in 1st place at the Lancaster Half Marathon in 1.14:11. Considering half marathons have not been the main focus of training it shows just how far I’ve come and how much the training has worked.