Qualifying for the World Championships (and beyond)

Claire qualified for the World Championships after placing well at her second race. That’s got to be both massively exhilarating, but also absolutely terrifying, right? Claire tells me: “When I qualified I emailed Mark like ‘erm, you’ll never guess what’s happened! We’ve got A LOT of work to do!’ – and there’s that need to reassure yourself that it wasn’t just a fluke as well. That was in the back of my mind all the time from when I qualified – that it was only because someone else punctured, was injured or had a bad day.”

Of course, that wasn’t the case – Claire won. Then she qualified again for the 2016 World Championships, and won her age group there, too.

Having done so much, in such a short space of time has to give way to the question: ‘what’s next’?

For Claire, as an experienced runner, improving on her 10k and 5k times would involve a lot of work for small gains in time, whilst she knows the same amount of dedication and time put into her cycling could pay greater dividends. Having come just outside of the top 20 in the 25 Mile National Time Trial Championship, she’d consider putting a focus on the solo cycling sport, saying: “Sometimes I love running, but other times I find myself favouring cycling. And the good thing about the bike is you can go out for 3 to 4 hours and go so far and see so much. It’s freedom, alone time. If I were to race just on the bike… I might try a few road races but I find being in a bunch nerve racking, whilst I really enjoy Time Trials – I’d rather sit there for an hour at threshold than do lots of little sprints.”

Long distance Duathlon, where the run portion typically becomes a marathon in total, is another option, but that requires a leap of faith – Claire says: “I am really tempted by the long distance, but I’d have to mentally separate the two races. If I wanted to go into a race like that and do well I’d have to target training to that distance, and I’d still want to go to a standard distance and be quick… you cant have best of both worlds.”

Mark coaches four athletes, giving each personalised training plans. He knows there are a lot of coaches with many more athletes on the books, and comments: “[There are some online coaches] where you give someone £100 a month for training and you get a cut and paste plan. I’ve got two athletes who have come from that sort of training structure [but it doesn’t work as well]. You can give four people that you think are the same the same training schedule, and everyone will tackle it differently, approach it mentally differently. The personal side of it is so much bigger than the training side.”

Asked for his tips for aspiring athletes – either multisport or cyclists – he gives me some key principles:

Use your time wisely

“[People often think] that you have to be out for 15 to 16 hours a week to be good. But it’s all about making the most of the time you’ve got. If you only have 4 hours a week to get better then you need to train differently – at a higher intensity. If you go out and ride seven hours a week at a steady pace, you’ll become very good at riding seven hours a week at a steady pace. You’ll turn yourself into a really effective tortoise. Then you want to go faster and you wont be able to because your body becomes used to that training. The longer you do that the harder it is to pull yourself out of it. Even this time of year I have athletes doing interval sessions, and if you don’t have a coach there are loads of great sessions online – check out Sufferfest or Trainer Road.”

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Be honest and realistic

“You’ve got to be honest with yourself about how much time you have to train a week. You might think you’ve got 10 hours, but then two weeks in [to your plan] when your partner wants to cut your head off and you haven’t seen your kids for a week ‘cos you’re in the garage all the time [you’ll realise you don’t]. You have to be honest about time you have, and what you can expect to do with that.”

How to Actually Plan Training and Stick to It

“Probably one of the biggest mistakes amateur sports people make is when they have a bad day, going harder the next day. As a coach I know what they need to do tomorrow is stay in bed! You’re better to miss one day tomorrow than whole of next week. People talk a lot about the benefits of rest and recovery – but still ignore it.”

Next up for Claire will be the European Duathlon Championships, and then she’ll work towards the World Duathlon Championships in Canada, taking place in August 2017. We wish her all the best!

Claire is an ambassador for Sundried Activewear – check out their range here.