Liam Adams Interview: Stepping it up

Favourite distance: 5000m

Career highlight to date: Winning the 2011 City2Surf

Favourite TV series: I don’t really have a favourite TV series at the moment, but I religiously watch EPL & AFL on a weekly basis.

RT: Liam, thanks for your time. You have had a great 2011 so far, culminating with victory at the Sydney City to Surf. How special was that win?

LA: Yes it was quite special for me. It’s a prestigious event, rich in history and is held in such high regard by distance runners & pretty much the general public too. It’s just amazing how largely recognised this race is to people who don’t even follow the sport! Having a look over the City2Surf Honour Roll, there have been quite a few big name winners which kind of makes me feel a bit out of place. It definitely has to go down as my biggest win to date!

RT: Prior to the race did you think you could beat Michael Shelley? He is a pretty daunting person to have to attempt to beat over a hilly 14km course.

LA:  It is quite daunting coming up against a gutsy runner with such a large range. I would have to say his inspirational run at Delhi is a pretty good example of that & the type of runner he is. My winter season had been the best I’ve ever had, so I knew I was in pretty good shape for the race but I didn’t really know or think it was good enough to match it with Shelley. Michael was the firm favourite and after his narrow loss to Benny Saint the previous year, he was definitely hungry for the win and going to be hard to beat!

RT: This year you have upped your game. What do you put it down to?

LA: I personally think I upped my game last year in terms of training but it just didn’t show in my results. Although there were a couple of results that I was quite pleased with such as my silver at world uni cross, my 38^th at the world cross, and my win at the Burnie 10! So far this year the training and results have all been quite pleasing, so hopefully I can continue this form into the track season.

RT: Has anything changed with your training?

LA: The training is actually quite similar to last year. The only real difference is that I’ve probably been a bit more consistent with stringing weeks of high mileage together and that I’ve been able to train just that bit harder during those weeks. This winter has gone quite well & surprising I’ve somehow been able to match (off basically no track work), some of my better quality summer track session from last year.

RT: Can you provide an example of a typical weeks training during winter?

LA:

*Warm-ups & cool-downs are roughly 5km each. This is roughly my typical winter week but Tuesday & Thursday sessions vary weekly.

RT: What are the goals for this coming Aussie summer?

LA: I really want to annihilate my 5000m and 10000m PB’s this year. I said the same last year but didn’t really have the best preparation for the Zatopek and unfortunately contracted a severe chest infection when it came toward the big 5km races at the end of the season. Last years track season analysis discussion with the coach was quite productive and I believe this year’s preparation will be much better. I’m not going to throw out times that I think I will do, but I truly believe I will do personal bests in all track distances that I compete in this season.

RT: If you had to choose one session that you believe really works for you and gets you fit what would it be?

LA: That’s a actually a tough one, there are quite a few session that you could choose from that are quite dependent on the period of the season or the phase that you’re in for building up to whatever race it is. If I was to choose one it would probably be 3x4km around the tan with 3 minutes recovery. I usually run between 11.30-11min for the tan splits and the 4km times are usually between 11.30-12min.

RT: Hardest run ever completed?

LA: The hardest run would have to be my first world cross-country championship at Mombasa Kenya. The conditions were extreme- roughly around 35 degrees 85% humidity and pretty much unbearable for running! The weather got to me early and I started to hurt probably about 1 or 2km’s into the race. It felt like the longest most painful race I had ever done! The time I did was so slow that in fact I was able to beat the time in a threshold run that I did the following week.

RT: Going back to Falls Creek this summer?

LA: Most definitely, I’m quite a big fan of altitude training. I always seem to run well off altitude so I’m hoping to do at least a couple of stints up at falls this summer season.