I have been following Liam for many months on strava and I have known for a long time that I could really improve him. Liam's training problems were always obvious to me and like countless other athletes that I have worked with Liam needed to learn to slow down in order to race faster. Of course it is never quite that simple, Liam also lacked any structure and his weekly volume was not up to the level that he needed.
A few weeks back I received an email from Liam asking for my help, stating that he had hit a brick wall and needed guidance on how to improve. I quickly set about a plan to build for the Dorney 10k in August and after that the Oxford Half Marathon in October.
We got started 5 weeks ago, I slowed all of Liam's runs and restricted him with a heart rate monitor. Liam was already entered into the Chiltern Chase on July 4th 21 as part of his club championship before we started working together. I could tell from his training runs that in only 5 weeks Liam had improved so I knew he could go to the race with a very confident state of mind.
I am very pleased to announce that not only did Liam finish in 2nd place but he also smashed his pb by 31 seconds in a time of 37 minutes and 3 seconds! What is even more amazing is that this particular race is undulating, mostly off road and even muddy in sections!
Liam is clearly a very talented runner and I am really looking forward to the coming weeks as we move towards target, I know he can improve more, watch this space!
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