↵ BROWSE ALL +65 ATHLETES / Steve Cram
80’s British middle distance athlete, multiple world record holder and major titles winner. Notably he was the first man to go sub 3:30 in the 1500m. Steve is now a popular global athletics commentator.
Personal Bests:
Training:
Steve started running at the age of 10 and by 15 would train once a day 7 days a week. By his professional years he’d follow a 5 meso-cycle periodization plan within a 1 year macro-cycle. Phases include:
- Endurance (22 weeks) Oct-Feb
– Avg mileage = 60-80mpw
– Fast routine runs
– A “challenging” workout (e.g. hills / long repetitions) or XC/Road races on Saturdays
– Long Run (10-14 miles) on Sundays
– Evening group runs included serges on hilly sections (150-500m length)
– Easy Morning Runs of 4-5 miles (Monday to Friday)
– More intense, tempo paced runs of 5-8 miles in the evening (Monday to Thursday)
– Barely any track work done here - Altitude (3 weeks) March
– Mainly to join training camp of others who at altitude - Pre-competition (9 weeks) March-May
– Weekly mileage = 60-70mpw
– Speed endurance focused
– Includes track intervals 200-800m (15sec rest per 100m), and at controlled efforts based on strategic feel
– They’d classify none of sessions to have long rest
– Increased the volume of quality training in conjunction with decreased total volume
– Routine runs remain at same pace - Competition (15 weeks) June-Aug
– Start with 3000m races, then 800m/1500m with no pacing and practically solo efforts, then race in big competitions
– Usually 2 weekly track sessions (faster & shorter: e.g. 6-8 x 200m)
– Tempo Runs
– Reduced mileage and tapering - Rest and recovery (3 weeks) Sep
Source: British Milers Club
“Other types of training can help give you all-round body strength, but running is specific and that’s one of the things in training which a lot of people tend to neglect. When you get out on the track nobody’s going to ask you to pick up a weight halfway round, nor to do 10 press-ups at the end of each lap” – Steve Cram
Additional: checkout Athletics Weekly’s article for more on Cram’s training