Simon Lawson Interview
Monday 30 November 2009
Athletics Weekly icluded in last week's edition a two page interview with Simon Lawson who described his training schedules and general philosophy towards his sport.
Combining time consuming training with his university studies as a medical student is extremely demanding but Simon has a system and his successes this year speak for themselves.
Read the full interview.
Following is a transcript of an interview with Simon Lawson printed in Athletics Weekly on 26 November 2009.
“Breaking the mould”
Jackie Newton talked to Simon Lawson about his high mileage and marathon ambitions, which go against the norm for British teenage elite athletes.
Cardiff athlete Simon Lawson is known for mega-mileage and his plans to step up to the marathon next year at the age of only 20 are in stark contrast with the orthodox thinking in Britain, which is that 26 miles is for 30-somethings.
This year’s European junior 5000m silver medallist has run 64:49 and 64:50 for the half marathon this year and logs around 140 miles per week.
He is currently studying medicine at Cardiff University but still finds time to fit in his high volume and time-consuming training.
At a time when many are saying that British endurance athletes are not training hard enough, Lawson is following the African approach instead. He admits this routine may not work, but he believes it is worth a try.
Athletics Weekly: You are famed for your high mileage – have you built up to that over a long time?
Simon Lawson: I was introduced to cross country in year seven. My PE teacher, Dave Griffin, had a huge influence on me.
He always encouraged me, showed great interest in my athletics and gave up an enormous amount of time to organise training sessions after school and at the weekends. Without his support, I would not have taken up running or persevered when things weren’t going well. He is one of the few people to have stuck by me since the start and it gives me a real sense of satisfaction to be doing well now after all that he did for me.
I started coaching myself when I was 15 as I felt as though I knew what I was doing and, at the time, I was training on my own, so I created my own plan and decided that I would try it and see. This basically involved running miles and miles every day. I have been running very high mileage since I was about 14. For a few years I was racing really badly. This was probably because I was training so hard.
I was putting in the kind of work needed to prepare for the marathon but I was racing over 1500m. I started to get a bit disillusioned with the athletics scene and took two years off from competing seriously. I focused on my exams and on securing a place at medical school. I started university and began putting in lots of miles again, but did no specific work or sessions.
I didn’t race until January, when I did a local 10km race, which I won. I was entered into the Inter-Counties Cross-Country where I finished ninth, which I felt was a bad run. I felt quite fit, though, and decided to give the Bath Half-marathon a go. I ran reasonably well and realised that my training had made me aerobically fit and good over the longer distances, but that I had lost the speed I had when racing 1500m.
After that, I didn’t race until June when I did a 10,000m which Welsh Athletics had put on. I didn’t really know what to expect as I’d not been on a track for about 18 months and had also trained that morning, but it went well and I achieved the European junior Championships qualifying time and the Welsh under-20 record. At this point I started to take things more seriously.
AW: So, how do you fit it in?
SL: It’s not always easy, especially with the type of training I do. I’ll be up at 5am to run for an hour and then go to the gym for an hour. I‘m normally in lectures 9am–5pm and I use my lunchtime to run and I also run at the end of the day, as well as spending another hour in the gym. If I get a break between lectures, I fit some more miles in then too. I do my university work when I get home. It’s quite challenging, but it helps give me a structure and ensures I get both aspects done.
AW: Did you add more specific work instead of just running?
SL: I added speed work and speed endurance. I usually do specific work on a Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, with steady runs in between. Sunday is usually a long run, which is an easier day. I do two sessions on core stability each day, usually for an hour each.
AW: Which athletes inspire you now?
SL: I’m not really motivated by anyone or anything. I have a bit of a crazy personality and love the feeling of pushing myself really hard every day in training. It’s almost like I’m trying to prove a point to myself and other people that my body can handle all the training, despite what everyone has told me over the years. My motivation is to do as well as I can and run good times. I hope to prove a point to everybody who has told me what I am doing is wrong. I want to qualify for the European Championships in the marathon and Commonwealth Games 10,000m.
AW: What will you do to ensure you achieve these goals?
SL: I plan to focus on the road in the New Year. I want to bring my 10km time down, run a good 5km and get into a fast half-marathon to attempt 63-64 minutes ahead of the London Marathon. I hope to take the unconventional approach of “moving up” early, learning the event and improving and in the summer I will look to improve all of my track times.
AW: Do you train with anyone else?
SL: I train mostly on my own but my clubmate, James Williams, has been helping coach me since the end of the summer. It works well as he is a good friend and has a lot of experience. I set out my mileage and arrange with him what to do in the specific sessions. Nat Lane also helps by joining in with these sessions.
AW: What other support do you have?
SL: A local company, Ace Orthotics, check my running gait and biomechanics every three months and give me running shoes. My parents and two brothers have been incredible to put up with my weird training and eating habits. They mean the world to me. Their support is something I am truly blessed to have.
Jacqui Brace from Welsh Athletics gives me a lot of encouragement and support. She helps me find the races I need. She organised the 10,000m in Neath where I achieved the time for the Europeans with 30:03.09.
AW: Was it a great feeling to run for GB at the European Junior Championships?
SL: There was some uncertainty as to whether or not they would select athletes for the 10,000m, so initially I was disappointed to have no response from UKA, even though I had gone well under the qualifying time.
I also wanted to run the 5000m as I had won the trial race with a qualifying time and had been told I could double if I achieved the criteria. I spoke to the selectors, but when the team was announced I was only selected for the 10,000m. I contacted UKA, but was told they considered it too much to race in both events. I now feel frustrated as I think I could have won a medal in both and thought it was the wrong decision, but I was proud to go to the European Championships and represent Great Britain.
AW: What sort of support do you feel young endurance runners should expect?
SL: First of all, I don’t think I’m particularly talented and my times are not incredible and my achievements have come through a lot of hard work. The (UKA) endurance panel are supposed to believe in high mileage and hard training, which is what I am trying to do in order to give myself as much chance as possible at being competitive against the Africans and the rest of the world in the future.
There is so much criticism of men’s endurance in this country, but those critics don’t make any effort to offer any knowledge or make contact with promising youngsters. It is very disheartening and easy to see why people drift away from our sport as it is a constant fight to get support and help.
I believe that in your mid-twenties it is too late to start building-up for distances between 10k and the marathon. If you do that, you are giving the Africans a 10-year head start. Personally, I‘m giving it a go and it may or may not pay off, but at least I will be able to say I gave myself the best chance possible. I have been developing an aerobic base and, more importantly, conditioning my body so that I can handle 150 to 180 miles without breaking down.
Lawson’s typical training week
(Core stability and strength twice per day, every day)
Mon am 60mins pm 90mins
Tues am 60mins pm road session
Wed am 60mins pm 75mins
Thur am 60mins pm tempo/track session
Fri am 60mins pm 75mins
Sat am grass session pm 45mins
Sun am 2hrs pm 45mins
(Fits in a third run where possible which is usually 30-35 mins either at lunchtime or late evening)
Examples of sessions:
Tuesdays – either:
6 x 1 mile
3 x 2 miles
10 x 1km
8 x 1200m
Thursdays – either:
1km, 2km, 1km, 2km @ tempo followed by 8 x 300m fast
20 x 400m fast
2km at tempo, 12 x 400m fast, 2km at tempo
Tempo 45-60 mins
Saturdays – either:
10 minute effort followed by 8 x 3 min hard then 10 min effort
4 x 3 min, 2 min, 1 min efforts