Training of famous runners - Members Only

Milly Clark – an unfinished work It is always difficult to judge an unfinished work. And the marathon career of Milly Clark falls into that category. It is at the one time so brief, yet also so brilliant. A training-run debut – “we just thought it was an opportunity to get used to having drinks and practicing my gel intake,” she said in an iRun interview – was followed by a 2:29:07 serious debut in the October 2015 Amsterdam marathon. Amsterdam, in turn, earned Clark a spot in the Rio Olympic team where, in just her second serious marathon she was a top-20 finisher and first Australian home ahead of her more experienced teammates Jess Trengove and Lisa Weightman.

With one of the most famous smiles in sport, Haile Gebrselassie is without a doubt one of the greatest distance runners in history. Geb first turned heads as a teenager, winning both the 5000m and 10,000m events at the 1992 IAAF World Junior Championships.  Geb was just getting started, with a career than would span over 25 years and involve success at the highest level in distances from 5000m to the marathon. With two Olympic gold medals and four World Championship titles over 10,000m, few match Haile’s track accomplishments; he set an astonishing 27 world records during his career. Furthermore, when the time came to switch to road running, he succeeded there too, winning the Berlin Marathon for four consecutive years, the Dubai Marathon for three straight years, as well as setting two marathon world records (2:04.26 then 2:03.59).

The realm of athletics has been significantly impacted by groundbreaking scientific and technological innovations. However, amidst this era of advancement, Olympic 5000m runner Andy Butchart chooses to adhere to a training approach that is refreshingly simple and steeped in tradition, resulting in remarkable achievements.

The below interview is thanks to Neil MacDonald, who caught up with Dick Telford in January 2003.  With Neil’s permission, the interview has been restored so that today’s generation can appreciate and learn from one of Australia’s greatest ever coaches. Neil MacDonald managed the Geelong Region Cross Country team from 2000-2007. DICK...

Lisa Ondieki ran her first marathon in December, 1983 at the Rocket City Marathon in Huntsville, Alabama, and it would be fair to say that her career took off like a rocket. Within 12 months, Ondieki, then Lisa Martin, was an Olympic seventh placegetter, the Australian record holder with first, a 2:29:03 at the Los Angeles Olympic Games, and then, a 2:27:40 in Chicago and embarked on a career which saw her become Australia’s only Olympic marathon medallist, a dual Commonwealth Games champion and, for a long time, holder of the ‘world record’ for a women’s race on an out-and-back or loop course.

1998 NCAA 800m Champion Khadevis Robinson's College Training Diaries If you watched any major American track meet between the years of 1999 and 2012, chances are you know of Khadevis Robinson. Robinson is without a doubt one of the best American 800m runners of his generation, with eight combined USA...

© 2017 Runner’s Tribe, all rights reserved. "This time David (Rudisha) had a three-month rest after his last race on 29 August, in Zurich. Three months without any kind of training. He needed this long break for charging his batteries physically and mentally. When he resumed training, we had to...

    “There are lots of elements to running a successful marathon and I’ll bet insights into them are woven throughout all of the interviews in this book!”  – Lisa Ondieki from Australian Marathon Stars © 2021 Runner’s Tribe, all rights reserved. Lisa Ondieki certainly rates as Australia’s top female marathoner, her...

Norway, celebrated for its Winter Olympics prowess, traditionally excels in mid-distance running and field events. Legendary athletes like Grete Waitz, Ingrid Kristiansen, and the Ingebrigtsen family have left an indelible mark in these disciplines. However, Karsten Warholm is rewriting the narrative, ushering in a new era of Norwegian sprinting.

© 2017 Runner’s Tribe, all rights reserved. “The marathon was what it was all about in those days.” – Pat Carroll Profile Coaches: Pat Clohessy, Dick Telford Date of birth: 17 August 1961 Personal Bests 1500m: 3:39.03 3000m: 7:47.66 5000m: 13:25.49 10,000m: 28:30.55 10,000m road: 28:00 Half marathon: 61:11 Marathon: 2:09.39 Career...