Cathal Lombard Breakthrough

Man...this guy must be real talented....that program looked like a joke to me? Run 27.30 of that.....is amazing, 130km/week during base. Very little AT-work.

Sorry but if this is the thing he do, I think he is on something, success shouldn't be that easy.

It's unfortunate to hear this comment that there is something up with Cathal's performance. The man is a Hero, and He has got there by pure determination and good coaching guidance.

This man will shake it up on the run up to Athens!! I bet He will beat meb in Athens and any race that he meets him in prior to this, He has loads left in the tank as he was celebrating directly after the time on Friday.

By the way I bet Mark can go close to this time remember he set the record in 2000 and hasn't had many 10's since.

jay-z wrote:

Man...this guy must be real talented....that program looked like a joke to me? Run 27.30 of that.....is amazing, 130km/week during base. Very little AT-work.

Sorry but if this is the thing he do, I think he is on something, success shouldn't be that easy.

Yes, Cathal is super talented. He might not have done anything on an international or even national scale until last year but that?s because he hadn't discovered how incredibly thought he was. Just wait until his brother Fiacra, who whipped his arse for years, gets on the same juicy training program. There will be no stopping them then!

easy?

Do that kind of drills and plyos and then say that again!!!

Actually more guys are training too hard than too easy.

Paddy wrote:

It's unfortunate to hear this comment that there is something up with Cathal's performance. The man is a Hero, and He has got there by pure determination and good coaching guidance.

This man will shake it up on the run up to Athens!! I bet He will beat meb in Athens and any race that he meets him in prior to this, He has loads left in the tank as he was celebrating directly after the time on Friday.

Correct me if I am wrong, but didn't he just loose to Meb by more than 9 seconds.

Check out the article on Paula Radcliffe in this month's Running Times. She added in plyometrics and conditioning drills, and it made all the difference for her as well. There's something to be learned from these runners.

Hi Joe

Are you from Cavan or Letrim

Padraig

athens bound wrote:

Winter training

The training is quite interesting, considering that is winter he is doing 13:30 5000m sessions, utlising the 5 tier system and concentrating on strength via plyometrics and hillwork.

The session : 5 long efforts of 5 to 9 mins with 60 seconds rest is a 10000m session and he would be covering more than 3000m's in that session

The 15min tempo run would cover more than 5K's quite comfortably and if progressive he should be reaching 5.5km

The 8 by 70m sprints would be maintaining leg speed as 6x60m is for leg speed development

the 16 by 70m would develop form as well as maintain the leg speed.

The Sunday easy run, could easily be 90 to 2Hrs and could be run at speeds close to 3.30 per K

the 90min steady covering 15miles is not that quick and unless the distance is accurately measured the athlete may be running a further distance

the hillwork would develop speed endurance, as well as improve form and economy. it does not mention the amount of hills however a guess would say 8 to 10. The 3mins would probably cover 1K

This program is a balanced 10 000m program which allows for racing at 5000m even down to a quick 1500m, as well as allowing for a fast 15K and 21K on the roads.

The plyometrics done could only add to this.

A great balanced program and certainly not easy.

for the easy shouters go try 5 x 2000m with 90seconds rest at your present 10K effort and see whether it is a breeze. Then try think of doing 5 x 3K with a 60 second rest

It was a great results, after the race I looked up his bio and was suprised at how fast he improves. It gives me motivation that you can continue onto later in life and run fast when you are in your late 20's and set big prs if you find a right training

Actually Joe,

The curious thing is that to those who know Lombard is NOT super talented. I'm not talking about people who have just heard of him in the past two yrs but people who grew up racing against him. Also (to teh earlier poster) he knocked 1 minute off his PR last yr not 35 seconds and he never broke 30 minutes before Watford.

The guy has always been super dedicated and anal about the whole lifestyle approach to running. He never showed any promise as a junior or in the early 20s despite being perhaps the hardest working athlete around. His leg speed was never good. Having spoken to several similar-age athletes in teh past 12 months about Cathal everyone is dumbfounded about his improvement.

While I don't knock his new training approach he's not the first to do drills and gym work. I don't mean to sound like a cynic, i'm not. More realistically he's probably benefitting now from years of hard slog.

So kids don't jump ship and start bounding your way to college each morning, plyos are working for Lombard now because of his earlier approach not in spite of it. This is perhaps the greatest breakthrough since billy mills set a 40sec PR in 64 !

On Joe Doonan: Besides McKiernan (an obvious talent) and Lombard who else has he coached ?

He also coached Noel Berkley, good road runner 62 half and 47 10 miler...

He also coached Noel Berkley, good road runner 62 half and 47 10 miler... though I don't think he or Mckiernan adopted so much bounding!

i think berkely only turned to him late in his career (but i could be wrong).

Does a coach only get rated by the big name runners he coaches or by transforming many ordinary runners into something decent?

Something which always puzzles me.

Plyometrics can either work or not. Lombard certainly has done the groundwork over the years and his approach and dedication have brought results.

When an athlete moves to a new level, it is often like a new gateway opening.

Wow . I can actually run.

The Kenyans for years said that you can train like us, eat like us and live with us, however that will not make you us.

For one, they have the belief in themselves and the sacrifice and dedication to live the sport, afterall for many of them this is their livelihood.

From what I can gather, Lombard was a dedicated athlete who was doing the 'bulk' of the work and things weren't working out for some reason or another.

Something has clicked and a new athlete has emerged.

It can be done

10k 5 tier wrote:

Does a coach only get rated by the big name runners he coaches or by transforming many ordinary runners into something decent?

Are you being rhetorical? I honestly just wanted to know if Joe Doonan had a history with other athletes. Is he working at a grass roots level? Has he coached juniors? Is he coaching club runners? Does he pick and choose his athletes? Has he refused to coach other athletes?

And by the way, Lombard HAS been transformed from (just) an ordinary runner to something decent though only some of the credit can go to Doonan.

wannabekila wrote:

10k 5 tier wrote:

Does a coach only get rated by the big name runners he coaches or by transforming many ordinary runners into something decent?

Are you being rhetorical?

If if was trying rhetoric would I have placed this below?

Something which always puzzles me.

:)

Hope you don't see this as rhetorical?

;-)

he had a lot of talent he just overtrained.Instead of doing 6*1k he'd do 12*1k. He ran world cross in 99(Belfast) at 22-23 ran world student cross twice and was regularly top 4-5 in Irish Nationals with Keith Kelly, Vinny Mulvey and Seamus Power.He has a great coach and a positive approach through total dedication. Good look to him.

10k 5 tier wrote:

[quote]

Something which always puzzles me.

I assumed that the above syntax was related to the statement that followed it not the one that preceded it. Seemed like more of a header than a footnote given that it's not a full sentence.

wannabekila wrote:

10k 5 tier wrote:

[quote]

Something which always puzzles me.

I assumed that the above syntax was related to the statement that followed it not the one that preceded it. Seemed like more of a header than a footnote given that it's not a full sentence.

you dudes must be rather bored to get hung up about grammar

lol

it was a genuine question, even without the ?

the above was not a question.

It is still interesting to see the approach Doonan has had which has brought some fine results. And in this thread, the bulk of my reply was at analysing this training.

If only we were discussing that analysis and not syntax

;-)