George Gandy’s Tips on Running for Fitness

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George Gandy is an accomplished athletics coach. His most famous student was Lord Seb Coe, who he helped to win two Olympic gold medals and break 12 World records. He also trained European 5000m champion Jack Buckner and Jon Brown (UK Male Athlete of the Year for 2004), who came 4th in the Marathon at two consecutive Olympic Games (Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004).

“When I arrived at Loughborough in the late 1970s some of the conditioning work this guy gave me provided the basis for much of what I achieved. It was revolutionary stuff.” Lord Seb Coe, IAAF Vice President.

His most recent protegé is Lisa Dobriskey (see more below), who won silver in the 2009 World Athletic Championships in Berlin. George Gandy has been helping runners reach the top for 4 decades now.

George Gandy is now Director of Athletics at the Sports Development Centre at Loughborough University. He was inducted in to the UK Coaching Hall of Fame in 2003 by HRH The Princess Royal, and in this year he was awarded the British Milers Club Coach of the Year Award, 2008.  He also received an honorary doctorate from Loughborough University for outstanding services to their athletics program over the last 4 decades. He spoke to the Loughborough Echo about the state of youngsters today, and how so few are realizing their athletic potential:

“People are not playing as much sport as they used to be. It used to be that 95 per cent of kids would leave school having taken some part in athletics be it area sports or other competitions. Now for a guess I bet that figure is about 20 per cent. I am not sure who is at fault, whether it’s the government or the organizing bodies for not encouraging kids to take up sports, but youngsters just don’t use their legs anymore. They’re getting a car everywhere and not going out and playing like I used to when I was growing up in the north east. If things keep going like this eventually we will evolve without legs because we don’t use them and as a result a smaller percentage are growing up as natural athletes. We used to churn out a top middle-distance runner every 10 years or so but in the future it may only be every 25 years.” George Gandy, Loughborough University, 2008.

George Gandy’s Tips for Getting Fit with Running

George Gandy published these fitness tips in The Guardian earlier this year:

• Running Tip 1: Go longer – Lengthen one of your weekly runs by five to 10 minutes. Keep the pace slow and easy. The only objective of this run is to make it longer.
• Running Tip 2: Go faster – Take another of your runs and aim to run some of it at a faster pace. For example, run comfortably out to a particular point, and then run back harder. Or divide the run into three segments, running the first part easy, the second part brisk and the final part at a pace somewhere in between.
• Running Tip 3: Get the balance right – If you’re running three times a week, keep your final session as an easy run. If you’re running five times a week or more, include an additional harder session. But no matter how frequently you run, two to three harder sessions (including the long run) is plenty. Any additional runs you do beyond that should be easy.
• Running Tip 4: Mix it up – You ideally want a mix in the nature of the surfaces you run on. If you’re running four to five times per week, one or two sessions on roads is plenty.
• Running Tip 5: Stay in good condition – A worthwhile addition to your routine is some kind of conditioning exercise. Core stability training, yoga and Pilates all help with body awareness, posture and core strength, which you need to be able to maintain without thinking about when you’re running.
• Running Tip 6: Listen to your body – I get my athletes to mark themselves out of 10 on how they are feeling on a Monday morning. Are they physically/mentally in a position to benefit from the training that is ahead? If not, the plan needs to be modified and we need to look back over what they’ve done previously to see what might be causing the problem. That’s why it’s so important to keep track of your training and how your body is responding to it. You need to learn to back off where necessary.

This is good solid advice from an expert coach. If you want to get fit, and run better, then follow these rules. Maybe one day you could represent your country!

Lisa Dobriskey – Training and Diet for 800m and 1500m

Lisa Dobriskey is an up and coming middle distance runner from Kent, UK. The 25 year old from Ashford is coached by George Gandy, who she describes as a bit of a character (he also trained Seb Coe a few years back, introducing him to new weight training methods to improve his running) and also Stella Bandu (an endurance and steeplechase coach based in Ashford).

Lisa won the gold medal in the women’s 1500m event at the 2006 Commonwealth Games and finished 4th in the final of the 1500m in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. As of 22 August 2008 she is ranked fourth in the world for the 1500m, but hopes to show are true potential this weekend in London. Her personal best is 4:02.10. The Women’s 1500m final starts at 3.30pm BST on Saturday 25th July 2009.

Lisa Dorbriskey’s Diet

Lisa has had trouble with iron deficiency in recent years. This is not a rare condition in runners, in fact one study of female athletes suggested that 50% of all women runners are deficient in iron. She now takes an iron supplement that she also endorses through a sponsorship deal, call Spatone.

“I started to take Spatone before the Olympics in 2008 which has really helped my iron levels. I haven’t had side effects and my iron levels have really improved.”

Lisa does not follow a high protein diet like sprinters require, she just eats a balanced healthy diet, and treats herself every now and then. She does not worry about her weight until the big championships, and then she works with a nutritionist to get leaner just for the competition.

Lisa Dobriskey Training Regime:

Like all athletes Lisa follows two different training schedules, one for when she is competing, which is generally lighter, and one for the rest of the time, which is more intensive, which she calls full training.

• Her full training week starts with a one long run of 90 minutes every Sunday (shorter in winter).
• Mondays are for running drills and functional weight training.
• On Tuesdays she goes for an easy recovery run in the morning, followed by a track session in the afternoon.
• Wednesday starts with another long run (about 60 minutes) and the circuit training in the afternoon.
• On Thursdays she does a relaxed run in the morning, and then concentrates on speed drills and preds (preds define a running speed that is calculated using a formula based on age and maximum heart rate to improve endurance).
• Friday is rest day!
• Saturday varies during the year, generally more track work in summer.

Track sessions often involve interval training. It always varies, but generally follows a routine like this:

• Start with three 400m runs at a pace a little faster than 1500m, with 5mins recovery after each.
• Then two 400m runs at 800m pace with 1 minute recovery between them, with 10 minutes recovery period.
• Finally a 400m fast run
• The total session lasts about half an hour. Intense, but effective!

Competition Training Schedule

This schedule assumes that the race is on the Saturday, obviously the schedule will shift if the race is on another day.

• The week starts the same with a long run on a Sunday
• Monday morning is tracks training, concentrating on running and drills, following by an easy loosener run later in the day.
• Tuesday morning is another easy run, and then in the afternoon a  track session, but less intensive, about 80% work level
• On Wednesdays she starts with a short run  of about half an hour, then an easy run in the afternoon / evening.
• Thursday is time to start concentrating on competition day, with warm up and warm down rehearsals plus some strides.
• Friday is rest day again!
• Saturday is competition day. Rest, with the rehearsed warms ups, then a 1500m run, followed by television interviews and warm downs!

Athletes train hard. Although you do not need to train as hard as them to get in good shape, if you are striving to be in excellent shape then you certainly need to be prepared to put the hours in with running, gym work and strict nutrition.

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Tags: running