My road to Rio

Sorry, but I just have to say this once and for all in really plain language. In 4 years time Mike wants to race with the very best athletes in the world, the upper echelon. Maybe even to make Mo Farah redundant. He's been training for a month of two now and feels quite good about it and is pleased by his improvements.

NO BL**DY WAY is it going to happen. Sorry. 

How long to get fit enough to compete at elite levels? How long to impress selectors with your racecraft and prove yourself in major tournaments across the world? They don't give out Olympic places in 5,000metres and 10,000 metres to people with potential. They give them to proven winners.

Sorry Mike, unless you start talking about the Olympics in Istanbul 2020, you haven't got a hope. The goal you have in your head is WAY more difficult than you comprehend. If you had more time, perhaps you could do it. But talk of Rio is utter nonsense. Stop making a monkey of yourself, join an AC and start working hard. Come back to this thread in a year's time and then tell us what your ambitions are, because right now, you don't know what you are talking about. And you blithley ignore the people that do have a bit of a clue...

It might sound harsh, but it's the same when kids find out that Father Christmas is a fairy tale. However, it is healthy to understand what is real and what is not. Good luck fella, but get real. Please.

Good post Johnny D....i think it'll take Mike mixing with the likes of you (2nd U20 at 5k this year...great going!!), at an AC to understand the aim in mind.

So what about you then...is Olympic B standard in your mind? About 45secs or so off? Do you see that as doable for Rio yourself?

Maybe we have got a genuine Olympic hopeful on the thread after all.

I'm keeping my eye on Johnny D.

I guess the draw to running compared to football is just miniscule....it's one thing being inspired by Mo's once in a lifetime achievement, but when you have the weekly glamour of the Premier league, with the more interesting sport, higher wages, and no need to run 100miles a week, then it really takes special will to want to become a top runner!

All the more reason to celebrate the success of Adam Gemili, one of the rare occasions someone comes from football to running after realising they're better at running in a straight line than running after a ball.  Seems like a nice fella as well. 

Tricky - what do you mean Father Christmas is a fairy tale!!!

I think that the great advice on here is being missed - no-one is saying that MR won't make a good runner, just that getting to Olympic standard and selected in 4 years with no current formal track record is completely unrealistic.

I know people to say you should aim high but there is always the risk if you aim to high the arrow is going to come straight back down and hit you where it hurts.

MR - the best thing you can do is join a good AC and see what their coach thinks and how you compare with others that have been training and competing for a few years. Then reassess your goals and maybe (just maybe) we will just need to postpone this thread for four years!?!

We are better at some other sports, but often the priviledged stuff like rowing. Football is still accessible to all, even if the ticket prices at the top end have takne it away from the natural working class roots.

We're not actually that good at running either don't forget. Mo Farah is African, trains outside the UK athletics system, has the best coach in the world, trains in America, and often goes to Kenya for altitude training. He couldn't be less like your classic English runner.

Also, unless it's the Olympics, how interesting is watching your average running race compared to football. Let alone, interesting enough to watch very week.

The knee thing is annoying. In my experience, it's the people who have played footy for years who end up with the knackered knees. It's the twisting and turning, and the physical contact that mashes them, not just running in a straight line over and over again.

The only time you see young kids out running when the Olympics are on the telly, after a week it's back to football, can't see this changing we need more covarge at local and national level all year round.   

hey thats not true!!!!! im simon and im 15 years old and im a very keen runner. i run every day to squeaze the best out of me and im currently running a 34minute 10k so my training is obvslly paying of.

Andy - sounds like your mates werent made of the right stuff to have become good runners anyway. If they cant be bothered to  race they dont sound like the types to put the hard mileage in training thats required either. 

if football is kicking a bag of air around then athletics is just running round in circles.  there is a reason why athletics is hardly on the tv but football is 24/7.  The general public seem to prefer it

DASH RIPROD wrote (see)

That's a cracking time for your age Simon although you do realise that putting your real name down will lead to stalking of your times by various forumites. Not mentioning any names or suggesting Liverpool's current captain in any way..

+1 to that! 

Cheeky friggers...me and Simon are buddies from a previous thread, so no stalkies required.

That's enough from you Dancing...unless you're local and around my age, then we can go for a run sometime

Stevie G . wrote (see)

The knee thing is annoying. In my experience, it's the people who have played footy for years who end up with the knackered knees. It's the twisting and turning, and the physical contact that mashes them, not just running in a straight line over and over again.

Having not played football in any meaningful way since school, I was a bit miffed to have to have an operation on my left knee 8 weeks ago. Great diet, plenty of rest, careful rotation of a selection of running shoes, neutral gait, quiet running pattern, BMI just over 20.0 and i hear that my meniscus is knackered. I know an exception does not make or break a rule. It was just annoying that's all, when I've heard so many people tell me that it was my own fault for running so much.

 I felt the same way when the surgeon blamed old age, or genetic factors, as in, "There's naff all you can do about it". How am I going to be faster than the kids now then, if I am only allowed to run 3x a week?!?

Tricky, so sorry to hear about your Meniscus problem, it must be terrible to have that on top of your knee issues. If you're generally concerned at your children running faster than you, you could start to slip them chocolate treats, and fry their foods whilst you steam your own, sneaky but effective, after a couple of years of this my children are now quite obese and I can safely outrun the little tykes.