Clonliffe Harriers' Coaching Corner

Singer

Hidden away on Clonliffe Harriers' website is a treasure trove of 10 Word documents from one of their coaches:

http://clonliffeharriersac.com/coaching-corner/

There's nothing too earth shattering in the coaching instructions, it looks to be pretty solid stuff. However there are a load of great references and stories about the greats of Irish running and how they approached their training. Here are some choice quotes:

When I joined Clonliffe in 1972 we usually ran 15 miles on a Tuesday night , 17 miles on Thursday nights and 20-22 miles on Sunday mornings . What a joy it was to do those steady runs in the company of legends such as Frank Murphy ( “Big Frank”) , Danny McDaid , Paddy Marley , Pádraig Keane ,Des McCormack and a host of others . Needless to say , I learned a lot from those legendary runners. We did at least 10 miles on each of the other days . It was an unwritten rule that it wasn’t worth your while to go out for a run unless you did at least 10 miles! And oh yes : let’s not forget the 5 mile jog we did most mornings as well .

Ronnie Delaney always packed a toilet roll in his gear bag : just illustrates the attention to detail which champion runners show

John Treacy ran an Irish 5000m. record on his own in the National Championships in Belfield in 1980 .Afterwards , he said “ I knew I was going to have a good one because I felt lousy warming up” !

Jerry Kiernan ,on the other hand , taught his students as usual until 12 noon on the day he ran an Irish record for 3000m.back in 1977. He took two buses from Foxrock out to Dublin airport ,got to Crystal Palace in the early evening and ,at about 8 p.m., ran 7:54.7 . Got back to Dublin shortly before midnight and was back in his classroom at 9 a.m. the next morning !

Don’t run on dangerous surfaces e.g. icy footpaths. It is all too easy to slip on ice thereby straining or breaking something. Back in the mid 80s, when both men were at their peak, Dave Taylor brought John Treacy for a run in the foothills of the Dublin mountains. It was in January and the back roads were quite icy in spots. Not long into the run , Treacy announced that he would not continue : “I’m not taking risks with my career”. So he turned back and went home. And don’t let anybody accuse Treacy of being soft !

TRR_the_turd

Thanks for the link. Will read these with interest. The author of these articles is an absolute legend of Irish athletics! A gent and a genius when it comes to coaching!

pconn062

Fantastic resource, thanks a million for posting.

RacoonQueen

This looks like it'll provide great reading...and more to come I hope!

I love this, can relate to this for interval/tempo training sessions. Not for races though...cos ha I don't race!

John Treacy ran an Irish 5000m. record on his own in the National Championships in Belfield in 1980 .Afterwards , he said “ I knew I was going to have a good one because I felt lousy warming up” !

dublin runner

Thanks for posting.

A fantastic resource and as Dave said, a real athletics man. He is just incredibly dedicated to the sport.

I look forward to reading over the next few days!

Working class heroes

+1 to all of the above. Great read.

AuldManKing

Gold!

Some great explanations in here - really useful resource.

Singer

Coaching Corner was updated last month with a new document about “Nutrition and Hydration”, featuring the usual great stories and content.

http://clonliffeharriersac.com/coaching-corner/

Paddy and Danny shared a flat in the year prior to the Munich Olympics and were regularly clocking 100+ miles per week .One night , Laro arrived at their flat with a huge crate of Guinness with strict instructions to drink one bottle -and no more – of the famous Liffey water each night. “ And that’s what we did” , recounts Paddy ; “ we never exceeded one bottle per night ; we wouldn’t dream of disobeying Laro’s orders”. The wily Laro was very aware that Guinness has a high percentage of Brewer’s Yeast which, in turn , is rich in Vitamin B which is very instrumental in supplying our energy needs.

... let’s hear the words of Laro Byrne once more “ A little of what you fancy every now and again will do you no harm”. And finally ,let me repeat once more this warning : Beware of fads and fallacies which the many quacks and charlatans try to foist on us for commercial gain for themselves.

Quite a few legendary Clonliffe Harriers liked to take a drink on the night before a race as they believed it helped to relax them and led to better sleep. Niall Bruton had two pints of beer the night before he won the World Students’ Games 1500m.title in 1991 and Jerry Kiernan had a bottle of Bud the evening before his superb run in the 1984 Olympic marathon.

Singer

There have since been two updates:

"Periodisation" and "Complementary or Supplementary Forms of Training"

All the coaching docs are available here: http://clonliffeharriersac.com/coaching-corner/

Itziger

Singer wrote: »

There have since been two updates:

"Periodisation" and "Complementary or Supplementary Forms of Training"

All the coaching docs are available here: http://clonliffeharriersac.com/coaching-corner/

Just read most of the 'periodisation' doc there. While a lot of it seems like common sense, it is important to remind yourself of it from time to time. Also important to remember that we're not Galen Rupp* or Seb Coe!!!!

*12x200 uphill after the 12x200 in xx secs, anyone????????

Singer

From the horse's mouth:

https://twitter.com/ClonliffeHAC/status/920766121124532224

Singer

Singer wrote: »

From the horse's mouth:

https://twitter.com/ClonliffeHAC/status/920766121124532224

Coincidentally I read this good piece this morning warning about reading too much into the results from blood tests, the provision of which to non-elite runners appears to be a growing industry in the USA: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/a-blood-test-promised-to-make-me-a-better-runner-but-it-just-made-me-worry-i-pee-too-much/

RayCun

Singer wrote: »

Coincidentally I read this good piece this morning warning about reading too much into the results from blood tests, the provision of which to non-elite runners appears to be a growing industry in the USA: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/a-blood-test-promised-to-make-me-a-better-runner-but-it-just-made-me-worry-i-pee-too-much/

Did you follow the link from Steve Magness too? :pac:

Singer

RayCun wrote: »

Did you follow the link from Steve Magness too? :pac:

All I do on this thread is post links I get from elsewhere!

Singer

The Coaching Corner series has come to an end - the last one posted is about "The Coach and Athlete": https://clonliffeharriersac.com/coaching-corner/