Train Like a Champion

In late March, Adidas hosted a running camp in Santa Monica, California, with seven of their top athletes, who demonstrated their preparations for the World Championships in Athletics in Berlin, Germany in August. We sat down with each of the “Super 7” athletes to get some advice on how to prepare for a major goal race.

The thrill of road racing can be addictive, but having an ambitious goal race in your calendar can also lead to pre-race jitters and general panic over whether you’ve trained properly. Runners of all levels, even the world’s best, face similar fears, so we asked seven champions for some advice on how to get the most our of training and final preparations for a big event.

Haile Gebrselassie, marathon world record holder

Haile Gebrselassie says he still has the same motivation now as he did when he was a young runner. Despite having set 26 world records, he says he’s always targeting a new goal. Gebrselassie’s advice to stay motivated leading up to a big race:

Target a new race distance

If you find your running is getting stale or tiresome, that means it’s time to switch things up and try something different – maybe add some hills or some tempo runs, or train for a different race distance. The former 5000m and 10,000m champion has moved up to the marathon, and now says he’s been thinking about dropping down to try some 800m or 1500m races.

Don’t do too much

Gebrselassie says it’s important to maintain a balance with your training and racing. Running is a very tough sport, he says, and it can be easy to overtrain and burn out, so it’s key to not do too much, or you won’t enjoy running anymore.

Don’t Fear Failure

“Bad results happen,” Gebrselassie says. “Some runners get so upset when they drop out or have a bad race, but I think bad results can teach you things you need to improve.”

Jeremy Wariner, 400m Olympic gold and silver medallist

Jeremy Wariner has an exceptional combination of power and speed that enables him to hurtle around a 400m oval in just over 43 seconds. Interestingly, his body’s build is much leaner than the typical 400m runner, but his performances over the last few years, including a string of eight straight wins in the Golden League in 2006, and an Olympic gold in 2004, have made the track world redefine the optimal body type for the distance. The soft-spoken Texan has this advice for runners:

Eat real food

Because he trains a lot and has a high metabolism, Wariner says he doesn’t have a strict diet. He eats what he wants, when he wants and doesn’t monitor how much he consumes. But a few years ago, he realized that eating too much processed food was making him feel sick, so he cut out fast food and began cooking more meals at home, including Texas barbecue. He says this made him feel much stronger.

Train through the pain

With its combination of sprint speed and distance, the 400m is often considered one of the most painful events in track and field. “Coming down the final straightaway, oh, it’s hell,” Wariner says. But he makes it hurt even more during practice sessions to teach his body to fight through the pain. He says runners racing any distance can benefit from training through the pain. And once the pain subsides, Wariner says, it’s heaven.

Veronica Campbell-Brown, 100m and 200m world champion

The Jamaican 200m runner says she’s not looking around to see who her rivals are for the World Championships. “Whoever makes it to the final is a contender,” she says. “And I’ll be watching them when the gun goes off.” Her words of wisdom for racing:

Visualize the race

To stay calm before a big event, Campbell-Brown uses visualization techniques. Leading up to the race, she’ll have gone over the race hundreds of times in her head, imagining a perfect scenario. She says runners can use these techniques to stay calm and win the mental battle at the start line. If negative thoughts or worries creep into you mind, you can just replay the race in your head to banish the negative energy. “I think the mind is one of the most powerful instruments,” Campbell-Brown says. “It’s amazing what it can do. As a distance runner, if you believe that you can sprint at the end of a race, then you can do it.”

Channel your nerves

“When I’m nervous at the start of a race, it’s good. It means I’m ready. But I keep it under control.”

Allyson Felix, Beijing silver-medallist, reigning world champion 100m

As a pure sprinter, most of Allyson Felix’s workouts involve short bursts of speed and various drills. The relaxed, 23-year-old Californian says she considers herself a recreational runner, since she often struggles with motivation to get out for a 30- or 40-minute jog for general fitness. Her advice to other runners:

Find a friend

Felix always runs with a small group of other sprinters on Wednesdays. At first, she used to do these runs on her own and it felt onerous. When she took along some friends with her, she suddenly found herself looking forward to something she used to hate.

Channel your attitude

Felix says she grew up in a large, happy family, and her mom always encouraged her to pursue different sports. She says parents should do their best to keep their kids active, which will set them up to be happier and healthier in the long run. Running can make you feel great, she says, and you can channel this optimism into your non-running life and vice-versa. In this sense, running and fitness can become an extension of who you are.

Tyson Gay, 100m and 200m world champion

After running an American record of 9.77 for the 100m in the qualifying heats at the Beijing Olympics, Tyson Gay suffered a hamstring injury that forced him out of medal contention, but the American says he’s back in full form and ready to take on rival Usain Bolt of Jamaica at the World Championships.

Work on your weakness

Gay knows he’ll have to have a good burst out of the blocks if he wants to beat Bolt, so he’s been fine-tuning his starts. He says runners training for a race should use the initial phase of their training to work out the kinks in their running form, or fix any weak links, whether it be a lack of basic speed or poor running form.

The finishing kick

Gay sees a lot of long-distance runners holding their arms and shoulders too high and tight as they finish races. He says they should do what sprinters do and use their arms to drive the forward momentum of the legs, keeping the arms and shoulders a little wider to open up the chest, and driving the hands back behind the hips to generate maximum propulsion for a strong finish.

Christine Ohuruogu, 400m Olympic gold medallist

Ohuruogu, who won Britain’s only gold medal on the track in Beijing, says she can’t imagine what it will be like in the London Olympics in 2012. She lives a stone’s throw from what will be the Olympic stadium and will have the pressure of being the defending Olympic champion in the 400m. How does she handle the pressure?

Find a coach

If you have a serious race target, Ohuruogu says finding a good coach or trainer can make a big difference. The coach should be reasonable – someone you can work with as a team.

Blanka Vlasic, world-champion high jumper

Croatian high jumper Blanka Vlasic has some words of wisdom for distance runners:

Specificity

A lean, flexible 6’4″, with elastic fast-twitch muscles, Vlasic is built to jump. The Olympic silver medallist and current world champion says runners should focus on training the muscles and the movements for their sport. As a high jumper, she doesn’t do any running longer than 150m, and performs circle drills to work on generating centripetal force on her approach to the bar. Runners, she says, should work on drills that mimic the running motion to improve their efficiency.