Anyone know how Tim Hutchins trained for cross-country? He was very tough in xc and maybe we can learn from him.
Anyone know how Tim Hutchins trained for cross-country? He was very tough in xc and maybe we can learn from him.
He was one of Horwill's sub-4.00 guys (3.54?), so he's no Lydiard-trained guy. Hard and fast.
One of the Brits might know more, like waz or bazza...
Hutchings was an awesome runner - competitive from 1500m upwards and, of course, especially good over the country. Really nice guy too.
He was essentially a Horwill guy, following the five-pace training theory and wasn't one for mega mileage. I recall that after he took silver in the 89 World X/C he said he was in the shape of his life and reckoned he could have run sub-27:30 for 10k at that time. A couple of years ago Athletics Weekly ran a series of articles detailing his exact winter training leading up to his his silver medal - I've got them in the loft somewhere (which doesn't help you much!)
Hutchings does a fairly good job commentating on Eurosport now and coaches the Graffin twins - two of better distance runners at the moment.
Lot of artciles by Horwill can be found here:
ran 75-90 mpw during the year he was 2nd at world xc, 2-3 workouts per week. posted his training in AW a few years back, typical week
mon- 5 miles steady/9 miles steady
tues- 5 miles steady/5x1k in 2:35-40 (200 jog rest)
wed- 12 miles steady
thur- 5 miles steady/10x400 in 59 (100 jog)
fri- 5 miles steady/5 miles
sat- 8k race, 1st in 22:50
sun- 13 miles steady
steady was sub 6:00 pace
The guy who helps me out with my running (and no mean performer himself 4.00 mile through to 64 for a half) knows him quite well and said that when he asked him if he followed the schedules that Horwill was publishing, and which Horwill thought he was doing, he responded 'no way mate, if I did everything he siad I'd be dead'. Horwill has a reputation for survival of the fittest, her words ina group of 20 he is coaching theer might be 1 or 2 running well but generally tehy are all teetering along a knife edge of illness/injury. He has had limited success really considering the volume of athleets he has been involved with.
horwill is a really good speaker, but i also think that his sessions are brutal, they also take place every other day and the recovery is really short, he liked 4x1600 at 5k pace with 30-60 secs rest, that has to be harder than the race itself!