French athlete: William Struyven
Club: French Army, and Stade Laurentin, Nice
Height: 6.0, weight 135-140 (9.6 stones)62 kilos
Best times: 1500/3:56, 5000/14:01, 10.000/29:02,
Half marathon/63:04
Coach: Pascal Drewitz and Father 'Charlie'
Training:
50-70 miles a week most of the year, with one month off (in August) when he goes to the beach in Nice, and relaxes with his girlfriend.
Struyven does not do a lot of mileage, but he likes to run at a good speed in training, even on easy runs. Some coaches think it is a mistake to run most runs at a fastish pace (Struyven almost never runs slower than 6 mins mile pace), but it seems to suit William.
You may be puzzled by the 'non French' sounding name. William's parents were from the Northern French region close to Belgium, hence a more Flemish sounding name.
Struyven typically does two key track sessions per week.
On Tuesdays it is 'longer reps' such as 5 to 8 times 1000m at goal race pace, with shortish (approx half the time of the interval), or 3 times 2000m.
He sometimes does the longer sessions on the grass and soccer fields on a 1000m loop measured by Pascal Drewitz at the Cagnes sur Mer Stadium area.
On Thursdays, shorter stuff - 200/300/400 intervals.
I used to go and watch those sessions as I had a flat in Cagnes sur Mer, and it was strange to watch William get blown away by much faster athletes on the short intervals. I recall watching the middle distance runners doing repeat 200's in the 26-27 secs range, with William struggling to run around 29 secs! William does not have natural speed, but he is a diesel who can keep going and going, at very close to his native pace.
On the other days, William just does basic runs of 40-60 minutes duration, and very rarely does doubles. His long runs are not very long - only around 60 minutes in duration.
But William likes to run at a good pace in training, always around 5:40-6:00 minute miles, and almost no one can keep with him on those runs. He has built a very solid base for racing at 10.000 to half marathon, but because he is short on mileage (usually only runs 60 miles a week) his attempt at the Paris Marathon a few years ago ended in failure (2:24) after going through the half marathon in 1:06. His legs went at around 30km and he basically jogged in.
Because he likes to run fast almost all the time, William is often injured, and despite everyone telling him to train in a more sensible way (with some easy runs recommended), William is very head strong, and when he goes training he likes to push the pedal to the metal.
His father, Charlie Struyven, has been training William since he was a 10 year old boy, winning all the boy races in the Cote d'Azure.
In the Nice Half Marathon for the past 10 years or so, William was usually the first non Kenyan across the line.
I recall running the race in 1996, and seeing William (then aged just 22 years) running with the Kenyans and challenging them! It was so impressive, it brought tears to my eyes.....what a sight...and that year he crossed the line in 63:08.
Ghost
christophe_moulton@yahoo.ca