Coach

A new start I suppose and a new member to team 'Jonesy' and maybe the most important one. I remember talking to Paul Evans once and he told me to do 6 things...Get a good coach, get a good physio, surround yourself with supportive family and friends, train your nuts off.....and if you do all that then get yourself a good accountant!

I have been missing the first one for a few years now but have done alright up to a point. I have very supportive people, a fantastic physio who has kept me injury free for years and have always trained hard so it was only a matter of time to find a good coach. I was coached by my Dad for my early years which was fine and he had coached sub 30 athletes in his time but it can be hard to live with your coach because you end up talking running all the time which is something I don't really like to do, when I am home I like to switch off from running and do other stuff I enjoy. We never fell out over it but decided it was best for him to step aside and let me find someone else; I never did really having met Nick Morgan and just thought a coach would come along in good time. Nick was never a 'coach' but we decided sessions, plans etc, between us and to be fair we went from 31minute 10k's to sub 30 and have done all my personal bests with just him so hasn't been to bad but we both always agreed we probably needed a coach with experience in the next level where we have never been to come on board.

Now finding a coach that ticks all the boxes is not easy, you have to agree on basic training philosophies because it's pointless me going with a coach who thinks you should run 40miles a week flat out because I don't agree and it would never work. You have to trust the coach because I will be putting my future in his/her hands so have to believe they know what they are doing. You have to obviously like the person otherwise you won't even want to see them let alone talk to them all the time, and so on.

I had a few ideas if you like, as to who I would go with and in the end it was down to about 4 or 5 guys who I thought about. In the end the decision was easier than I thought it would be and the person ticked all the boxes and more so was in no doubt, the only question was would he want another athlete to coach?! George Edwards is the new man in charge of training and the best thing is that he has a vast amount of experience of taking 'good' distance athletes and making them into 'top class' athletes and a prime example would be Nigel Adams (guest runner) who teamed up with George as a 30.20 10k runner at a similar age to myself and got him down to 28.30 on the roads and 61.57 Half Marathon by 'tweaking' and 'good structure' as George would put it.....that said Nigel was bit of an animal. It will be different to have someone sending me training and having someone there with a wealth of experience and looking forward to some of his training ideas but it is not rocket science and is on the same lines as myself and nick, to race fast you have to train fast (previous sub 2.15 marathon athletes would include mile reps in long runs)...not just at sessions but all week. Other things like him living close to come to the track and push me harder in sessions or tell me to back off if he can see me struggling will be great, along with other benefits I haven't had the last few years. Nick will still be on board providing information if needed and is looking forward to learning himself.

It will also be something new for George as he usually only coach's runners at his club and was the mastermind behind the winning 12stage relay team for Swansea back in the 90's. "It will be very strange to be really rooting for an athlete at a different club in the National relays" he said.

Who knows I might even do cross country this year!

Simx