Phil Healy got the 2018 sprint and hurdle season off to a flyer with a IAAF World Indoor standard in Athlone last weekend. 53.15 is bang on the standard, is an outright PB (indoors and outdoors), is #2 on the Irish indoor All-Time list and #7 on the outright (indoor and outdoor) list. It's also just a start. Still justified in celebrating somewhat as we may not have too many other Irish athletes claim qualifying standards for Birmingham in March.
As always, getting to this stage is complex with many ups and downs, tweaks, loops on thought process and trial and error. Coach Shane McCormack had organised a Cold Weather Training Camp in Curracloe back in November with a resilience session from a group of Irish Army Rangers in the Basecamp East group part of the weekend. After an exhausting day on the dunes and in the sea, the groups assembled in the nearby forest to get warm, light fires and cook fish. The fire lighting wasn't too successful but after several false starts the groups finally got there.
Coaching is like building a fire. You need the basics but after that it's trial and error, see what works, adapt for weather conditions, see what fuel you have, learn from your mistakes and eventually, most times, you will get there. Shane has worked to a Concurrent training approach in recent years, probably more short to long but still a Concurrent approach. However, after the Club TLG Learning weekend with James Hillier in October, he brought in some more volume. Specifically 600m runs into sessions.
Like building a fire, if you throw too big a log on too early, the fire will die. You need to have the foundation in place, the fire properly caught to really get it burning. Fair to say, McCormack and Healy have the fire burning, plan now is to keep it burning and cook some big fish in the indoor season ahead.
www.basecampeast.ie is led by Ruadhri Kedney, of Menapians and 400m running fame, and is a phenomenal team building idea for anyone out there looking for something different.
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