I've found that my athletes run their best races after about 10 weeks of intense training.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I run year-round and then ramp up my training for a race a few months before.
There is always the excitement of running races.
Many run primarily for the exercise, but others run to condition themselves for well-publicized races of various distances.
I'm a competitor. I really enjoyed the race more than just going out and running to run.
I have run two Olympic 'A' standard times over the past 12 months and with the time I ran at the African Championships last week I know my speed and fitness are constantly improving so that I will peak in time for the Olympics.
The real preparation for races is done in the off-season. I put in the hard work during the summer and fall, and I'm always working on technique so that when the actual races come around I'm ready to go.
I couldn't disappoint people. I did not want to fail and exhaust myself, because I was the kind of runner who trained so little that I couldn't race again within another 10 days.
I've run a lot of miles over the years, some fast and some not so fast. I've won some big races and I've had some big disappointments, but I enjoy the freedom of running and the challenge of training and competition as much now as when I first started back in high school.
I raced locally for a year, went to Europe the year after and went to the Olympics the year after that.
I raced supremely well. I felt I was as well fitted to do it as I had ever been, and as perhaps I might ever be. I went climbing three weeks before, because I was feeling fed up with running.