PERFORMANCE HOW THEY TRAIN: CHRIS McALISTER
C
HRIS MCALISTER likes
to wind up his training
partners with football
banter. This year he’s
probably wound up some of his
hurdles rivals with his PB.AW: Why the 400m hurdles?
Chris McAlister: I started out as
a 400m runner and I only really got
in the school team because nobody
else wanted to do it. I wanted to try
hurdles and was spotted hurdling
terribly by coach Judy Vernon who
gave me some pointers (among
other things she told me how far
apart the hurdles actually were ...)
and this got me going and I haven’t
looked back since.AW: Tell us about your training
set-up and coach?
CM: I’ve trained with a Sutton-based
400m hurdles group led by Marina
Armstrong since 2013, although that
includes the three years I spent at
the University of Birmingham.AW: Obviously training with
Jacob Paul (PB 49.49) must be
a great motivator? However,
can you push too hard against
each other in training or is that
something you and Marina are
mindful of?
CM: Jacob and I are good mates
which helps keep training fun.
Having his experience around has
helped me a lot and it motivates
me strongly. We push each other
hard in training and we know ithelps both of us. Marina tries to
stop us getting too competitive and
sometimes we have to take it down
a notch. So I give him some stick for
Chelsea losing again or something!AW: Having seen how hard
you train, how do you keep
motivated to do those tough
sessions week in week out?
CM: We have a strong group which
keeps me on my game throughout
the winter. We all get on well too
so training is a lot of fun. I set
progressions for myself which I
want each session which keeps my
mind focused. I also watched my
girlfriend, Mari Smith (2:02.34 800m
runner), absolutely smash it at the
European Indoors so I knew I had to
step it up to match her but I’m still
a way off that.AW: Speaking of which, what’s
the hardest session you’ve
completed and why?
CM: Marina ensures we work on
every part of the race, including the
end when you’re drowning in lactic- for this she usually sets a big
lactic burner like a couple of 500s
or 600s and then sets up the last
three hurdles for us to go over two
minutes later. I don’t think I moved
for about an hour after one of those!
AW: You recently broke 50
seconds for the first time (49.92
in Geneva). Did this come as a
surprise or had you seen the
numbers in training?CM: I put together a really good
winter, far ahead of where I’ve been
before, so I knew I had lots in the
tank for the season. I’ve ran a few
nice runs over eight hurdles in
training and when I got it right on
the day I knew I could get close.
I know there’s lots of hard work
ahead to stay there consistently
and get down to low 49s so I’m not
done yet!AW: Your sub-48 400m indoors
this year (47.99 at the British
Indoor Championships) must
have been a sign of quick times
to come over the hurdles?
CM: I was lucky to just dip 48, it
showed me my winter was going
well, as we’d only been working
on longer stuff until then. It was a
shame to go out in the heats at the
British indoors with that time, but a
sub-48 from lane one got me very
excited for outdoors.AW: Will the flat 400m be in
your plans this summer?
CM: I might be able to squeeze one
in ... one of the dads in my training
group has a good PB for the 400m
flat so I’d like to beat that at some
point, but we’ll see how things go.AW: To run sub 48 seconds, how
fast do you need to be on the
flat?
CM: There is a strong correlation
between the two – I’d imagine I’d
have to be a 44-second 400m
flat runner to get 47, so threeJOHN SHEPHERD TALKS TO CHRIS McALISTER, THE LATEST UK
SUB-50 400m HURDLER, ABOUT HIS TRAINING AND SEASON’S AIMS
Tackling one
lap hurdles
Chris McAlister: endurance
and good technique is key
to 400m hurdles running