Craig Mottram Training – How to Run an Australian Record. A Recipe for Success

Do you want to run an Australian Record? Do you want to run twelve and a half laps of an athletic track faster than any Australian has ever run – faster than Clarke, Scott, Barrett, Moneghetti, Troop and a host of other great Aussie runners?

Well, you’ll need the following ingredients:

• perseverance – doing the sessions even when you’d rather go out with your mates or sleep
• discipline – eating correctly, doing the supplementary exercises that make you stronger and less likely to get injured, going to bed on
• recovery – knowing when to ease off so your body can rebuild and become
• staying injury free – you can’t improve if you’re not
• expert coaching.
• knowledgeable management.
• a balanced life – you can’t be an athlete 24 / Knowing when to relax and ‘turn off’.
• a great support team (physio, masseur, training partners, family and friends). You can’t do it on your own!
• a race plan. – run even pace early on. Richie Jeremiah will lead the first three laps @ 63 seconds pace.
• strong belief – yes! I can do it, even when Cherono throws in a 60-second lap at the 3000-metre mark and scoots ahead to a 25-metre lead. Stick to the game plan!
• focus – ignore the headwind down the home straight, but soak up the local support from the crowd.
• a ton of determination – your body is a sea of tiredness, your legs feel like lead and you have to raise a sprint over the last lap to hold off Cherono and dip under Troopy’s old You over-ride the signals and run the last 400 metres in 60 seconds.
• and of course, talent. You can’t put in what God has left out! However, life is full of talented people who don’t make the grade. Carefully mix the above ingredients, cook slowly over many years and you may just come up with something that

Oh, by the way – I thought you’d like a peek at Craig Mottram’s Training Diary in the lead up to his Australian 5000 metres Record. During these 25 days, Craig put the icing on the cake that has taken years in the making (or is that baking?)