How They Train: Martyn Rooney

At London, Martyn Rooney of Team GB finished 5th in the SF in a time 45.31. 6 days later, he ran a 44.1 anchor relay leg to help his team finish 4th. (He also anchored the 4x400m SF… so 4 races in 7 days)

I really feel Team GB could have, should have won a medal in the 4x400m relay as Jack Green ran 44.42 in the SF, but ran 45.9 in the Finals. Moreover, Dai Green ran 45.53 in the finals. (splits from T&FN)

If I was the coach of Team GB, I would have used Robert Tobin and Richard Buck whose season’s bests are 45.47 and 45.61 respectively. On fresh legs, with a running start, and in front of the home crowd, surely these 2 lads could run 44-mid (based on Rooney’s performance)

Right, Shirley?

Last March, Athletics Weekly posted an in depth article on his training including full week training logs from different parts of the season.

For the full article , go to How they train – Martyn Rooney.

Average Training week in Winter

» Monday
(am) Speed drills. General technique drills for sprinting, working on posture, ground contact, bounding and arm carriage, plus 20-30 minute cardiovascular run.
(pm) Team Dakin circuits: consist of general conditioning exercises – press-ups, sit-ups, ab roll-outs, ball throws.

» Tuesday
(am) Lactic tolerance session: 6x300m – broken up into 3x300m with a three-minute recovery and 10-minute recovery between sets.
(pm) Calf, quad, hamstring loading in the gym. Including an abs circuit and stretching session, plus 20-minute aqua jog.

» Wednesday
(am) Weights including half-squat, single-leg squats, push press, cleans, dead lifts, snatch, dumb bell snatch, step-ups, dumb bell bench and lat pull-downs. The repetitions and sets of these exercises change during the season, increasing and decreasing in reps, sets and recovery. In the winter 6×5-10 on each exercise, with two to four minutes’ rest. During the spring and summer, more dynamic explosive lifting, doing 3×3 on most of the exercises with up to five minutes’ recovery. Lifting up to 100kg in cleans. Squats – 150kg. Step-ups – up to 90kg.
(pm) Maintenance treatment (massage or acupuncture, just depends on how body is coping).

» Thursday
(am) Cardiovascular-type running session: 4×3 minutes with a four-minute recovery.
(pm) Rudi* drills: aimed at posture and flexibility. The aim is to improve body control while working on flexibility and range of movement (set by Fuzz Ahmed). These include ankle rolls, high-knee hugs, high-knee walking concentrating on arm technique, moving glute stretch, moving hamstring stretch, toe-walking, side skipping. Hamstring loading.

*Rudi drills are named after a coach in Birmingham whom jumps coach Fuzz Ahmed has worked with

» Friday
(am) Weights (as above) plus abs circuit and a stretching session.
(pm) Maintenance treatment.

» Saturday
(am) Team Dakin fartlek 25-45 minutes plus calf conditioning.

» Sunday
Rest.

Average week in Summer

» Sunday
Travel back from race.

» Monday
(am) Speed drills (as winter) plus 20-minute jog.
(pm) Maintenance treatment.

» Tuesday
(am) Intense session: 2x350m with 20-minute recovery if early in the season, or 4x120m with walk-back recovery if later in the season.
(pm) Abs circuit plus treatment if needed.

» Wednesday
(am) Weights (as winter but with fewer reps and higher intensity).
(pm) Abs circuit plus strides.

» Thursday
Blocks around the bend establishing race rhythm for the first 150m. Two with full recovery if going well, and more if race pace has not been established. Bend sprints are done to find a race pace and ingrain it into the body so it becomes natural in a race. Light abs workout.

» Friday
Travel to race plus light 10-20 minutes jog (most races are abroad).

» Saturday
Race.