AW 41
@ATHLETICSWEEKLY
Gary Lough, Farah was guided by
Alberto Salazar who once remarked
that Farah was “...the weakest
athlete I’d ever trained ... he was a
90lb weakling. The No.1 thing that
has helped Mo is not the 110 miles
a week he puts in on the road, but
the seven hours a fortnight he does
in the gym”.
During his time at the Oregon
Project, Farah incorporated an array
of strength and conditioning work
into his programme including
Olympic lifting, gym ball windscreenwipers and crunches, Russian twists
with a medicine ball and work with
the kettlebell – to name but a few.
This strength no doubt helped when
he hit the track but quickly bounced
up. And of course, Farah is a lover of
football and Arsenal – you only have
to see how he goes for it in Soccer
Aid matches to see that he doesn’t
mind a bit of rough and tumble.
While Virén, coached by Rolf
Haikkola, did not use weights, it
would be a mistake to believe his
fundamental and foundationalphysical development was normal.
It is significant that while a police
officer, the man from Myrskylä did
a significant proportion of his
running on forest trails. This would
have facilitated the development of
lower leg strength and challenged
his stabilising muscles.
Add to this Virén’s love of cross
country skiing, his all-body agility,
balance and co-ordination and
his core would have all been
developed. In learning to become
a competent cross-country skier,
and crucially Virén would have
fallen many a time but critically he
would have been developing the
physiological and psychological
attributes needed to rise again –
and rise quickly as he did in that
Munich Olympics 10,000m final.It therefore seems to me that
endurance athletes need to plan
for potential falls in races. Okay,
I’m not saying that coaches should
instruct their running partners
to trip each other but that there
should be a plan in place and
some psychological preparation
and perhaps some physical. Again,
this need not involve judo or karate
but it could and probably should
include specific strength work.
Race planning and more
importantly race craft should of
course equip the athlete with the
skills necessary to stay out of
trouble, but there will be times when
a push or a shove from a runner
behind will have a domino effect
and an athlete further ahead may
take a tumble. You need to be ready
and able to pick yourself up and
get back into contention with the
presence of mind needed to do
so and then run a sensible – and
maybe like Farah and Virén – a
winning race.■ Matt Long is an England
Athletics coach education
tutor and is leading the
national roll out of youth
endurance workshops on
behalf of England team
manager Scott GracePreparing for the fall
Foundational athletic
movement and psychological
reflection- Why is it just as important that I focus
on my fundamental and foundational
athletic movement patterns even
though I run? - What specific points in my periodised
programme of training give me the
greatest opportunity to return to
developing my fundamental and
foundational athletic movement
patterns? - What am I specifically doing to
continue to develop my fundamental
and foundational athletic movement
patterns in terms of strength and
conditioning, drills or cross training? - What psychological preparation have
I done to ready be for race falls? - What plans have I in place should I fall?
Mo Farah fell in the 10,000m in Rio (inset) but worked
his way through the field from the back to take victory’
‘
There will be times when a push or a
shove from a runner behind will have a
domino effect and an athlete further
ahead may take a tumble. You need to
be ready and able to pick yourself up