by Larry EderCoaching Athletics Quarterly is one of the eight titles published by Shooting Star Media, Inc. The magazine has a focus of sprints in the Spring, Throws in Summer, Jumps in the Fall and Distance in the Winter. In the recent Winter 08/09 issue, we have some tremendous interviews with Chris Solinsky, Kara Goucher and Bernard Lagat. My two favorite pieces are on training however. There is a piece on 10k training by Danny Grimes, former coach and 1987 World Championship Marathon team member. There is a tremendous interview with Valeriu Tomescu, husband and coach of Constantina Tomescu-Dita, the 2008 Olympic marathon gold medalist.
Valeriu shows, that like all good training programs, one must experiment and one must work hard over a long time to develop strong distance runners. Special thanks to Brendan Reilly for the very nice release ( shown below). I encourage all to read the article.
Coach Valeriu Tomescu Reveals Gold Medal Training and Strategy
For Immediate Release: March 5, 2009
Valeriu Tomescu, coach of Beijing Olympic Marathon champion Constantina Dita, provides an in-depth account of the training behind Dita’s gold medal run
in the current Winter 2008/2009 edition of Coaching Athletics magazinehttp://www.coachingathelticsq.com.
In an article titled “In the Spotlight: Valeriu Tomescu on Training a Gold Medalist,†Tomescu discusses his own development as a coach, training theories, specific ideas on training women long-distance runners, and the application of that knowledge to his successful guidance of Dita’s athletic career. Tomescu’s approach can be very scientific, and the article brings out the scientific basis of many of his training ideas.
Despite the Olympic gold and many other successes, Tomescu comes across as pleasantly humble in the article, acknowledging that there is a wide range of successful coaching approaches. “As for a training method being perfect, I would say there is no such thing. There are too many other factors to run the perfect race to just [rely on one’s] training. When I see books about the “secrets of marathoning†or “secrets of training,†I would say loud and clear: “THERE ARE NO SECRETS!†and apologize for disappointing some people.â€
The article is now online at http://www.coachingathleticsq.com/read_feature/spotlight-valeriu-tomescu-training-gold-medalist
Tomescu and Dita are currently preparing in Colorado, USA, for the April 26th Flora London Marathon, in which Dita will once again face a superb women’s field put together by Race Director David Bedford.
Tomescu has recently kicked off both a new website (www.teamtomescu.com) and a new “Team Tomescu,†through which he will gradually begin coaching a wider range of athletes. He can be contacted directly at e-mail address olimpicsus@yahoo.com, or via Boulder Wave, Inc. (tel/fax +1-303-554-0597, or e-mail at boulderwave@comcast.net), which is the management company for both Tomescu and Olympic champion Dita.
