Nick Willis shares his wisdom with LetsRun.com

It's a good interview with Willis.

I remember Willis talking about retiring a few years ago but he has stuck with it. Rio showed that was a good decision. Lagat once commented about continuing to run so his young children would have memories of him running. I wonder if that's a factor for Willis and other older runners with kids like Farah.

I loved it as well. I love how Willis is always thinking about his training. When I was coaching, I'd say to my freshmen, "Ultimately, I want us to be co-coaches."

A coach can perfectly prescribe everything but ultimately we never know how you feel on a given day. We don't know if you are stressed by a relative's health (whether it's a grandparent in college or child as a pro), had to stay up late (for an exam in college or deal with a sick child as a pro), etc so it helps if the athlete understands what one is trying to accomplish on a given day/time of year.

Of course, it's a fine line as there are athletes that can over think it so trust of the actual coach is key.

And Willis clearly trusts Warhurst.

http://cdn.letsrun.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/wyner-willis-400x300.jpg

What you are seeing above is a photo from this past weekend. I happened to be in Ann Arbor for a wedding and texted Willis. He showed up the night before the wedding with Ron and the groom was thrilled as he's a former 3:41 guy.

Great guy, great career, great interview.

A Fayetteville Manlius alum - who ran 1000 miles in 10 weeks in HS - was there and was going to talk to Willis about Willis' upcoming plans to do that for the first time in his career but the FM alum got tongue tied/star struck and didn't tell him how it's done.

Nice article. Thanks for publishing it, and looking forward to part 2.

Been following Willis since early 2000's. A great guy and a great read. I agree with other poster, excited for Part II to come out soon. Good work, crew!

Interesting that Willis considers that Centro was in sub-3:30 shape in Rio. He clearly needs to consult the basement experts of LRC.

No mention of his addiction to porn. :(

Give Til It Hurts wrote:

Interesting that Willis considers that Centro was in sub-3:30 shape in Rio. He clearly needs to consult the basement experts of LRC.

I think he definitely was. This workout he did in front of Weldon three weeks before the Olympics was ridiculous. He ran 1:53-1:49.3-1:47.9 for 3x800 and that was AFTER racing a 1:47.1 earlier in the meet.

Here's the thread (Weldon didn't see the first 800 but I can confirm it was 3x800, not 2x800):

Now considering Centro ran 3:30.40 in 2015 and got 8th at Worlds that year to a bunch of sub-3:30 guys and then came back a year later and beat all of them in Rio, I have no doubt he could have run sub-3:30 in a Monaco-style race with his Olympic fitness level.

That's clearly the case. Just think of how difficult it is to run multiple 800s at 1500 pr pace (of course, he had full rest, but still), let alone at faster than 1500 pr pace. 1:52 800m is 3:30 1500m pace, which is just ahead of his pr.

He did these 800s at 3:32 1500m pace, 3:24.9 pace, and 3:22.3 pace.

Not one question about his porn addiction?

He beat it.

Porno petey wrote:

Not one question about his porn addiction?

Next time please ask him why the Monaco track is so fast. You don't just run your top 3 times there with it not being a faster track somehow. It has to be figured out.

Bad Wigins wrote:

Next time please ask him why the Monaco track is so fast. You don't just run your top 3 times there with it not being a faster track somehow. It has to be figured out.

If you check the archives, he actually posted why is is so fast. He used a name like "Nick up in Flagstaff." He claims that you basically walk straight from the warm up track to the stadium without any sitting around and the pacing is always really good.

"What you wankin bout Willis?"

I did a LR with Nick a couple years ago and the pace was so slow I took a nap for a few hours after, stretched, and went out for another 6 because I was worried I didn't get enough of a run in in my "zone".

He's serious about easy days easy, and it clearly works; he's a great source of advice and will talk to anybody about running!

Great guy, one of the very few at that level who I have 0 doping suspicions.

Part II is now up:

http://www.letsrun.com/news/2017/09/nick-willis-qa-part-ii-importance-moderation-taoufik-makhloufis-absence-asbel-kiprops-5k-potential/

Bad Wigins wrote:

Next time please ask him why the Monaco track is so fast. You don't just run your top 3 times there with it not being a faster track somehow. It has to be figured out.

I talked to him about Monaco at the cocktail party I was at this weekend. I forgot how it came up. Maybe because the groom at the wedding once rabbitted Willis and I was complaining about how bad the rabbits are at most meets. I said, "Why don'tmeet directors simply hire someone to stand on the track at the 100m mark, 200m, 300 m mark so we get a perfect rabbit job?"

Anyway, he said one of the reasons why Monaco is so fast is because the meet director really does a great job on it. In addition to assembling a great job and hiring two or three rabbits, he also pays a racer to go with the rabbits. Becuase is no one goes with the rabbits, you won't get a fast time. So Tim C gets paid and everyone has the opportunity to run fast.

He also said the meet director is smart as he puts starts the big guns and guys who will get out fast (like Kiprop) next to guys who are likely to be slow starters (like maybe Gregson or Willis) so the big guns don't have to waste energy getting off the line.

Little details matter.

Willis also said he thought the DL format hurts the milers. Milers would probably make more money if the meet didn't have to pay out equal money for events that have little commercial appeal.

Wow that is one smart race director. Seems to be way ahead of the curve. So much for the myth of the "trampoline track".

Someone ought to point out to Willis that a dog sub 4 attempt would be a victory for us all. :)

LetsRun.com wrote:

Part II is now up:

http://www.letsrun.com/news/2017/09/nick-willis-qa-part-ii-importance-moderation-taoufik-makhloufis-absence-asbel-kiprops-5k-potential/

I like how he neither mentioned Hicham, Ngeny or Lagat when talking about great 1500m runners. Boy is smart. And Asbel Kiprop seems to be a little bit lazy.