Simon Rogers: RT Interview: NZ

By Daniel Wallis

Simon Rogers, son of 1984 Olympic 1500m finalist Tony Rogers, has justfinished his first year at Purdue University in Indiana. Before leaving New Zealand Rogers finished 2^nd in the New Zealand Under-19 1500m, running 3:51.10, while that same year was 3^rd over 3000m in a time of 8:29.00. While struggling with injury over the cross-country and indoor track season, Rogers ran an impressive 3:46 1500m this outdoor season to earn a spot to the NCAA East-Preliminary round as a freshman. 

The Runnerstribe caught up with Simon to ask him about the season, adjustment to life in the US, and his plans for the summer. 

As the son of a 1500m Olympic-finalist, how did you perceive athletics growing up? Did you always want to run? 

I was always interested to learn about Dad’s running career and what athletics was all about. Growing up I took part in kids athletics but wasn’t really a stand out by any means. I was probably more concerned with my cricket or rugby games in the years before high school. But entering high school things changed a bit and I started to do some structured training for track and cross country, and by about 14 found that I wasn’t going to be an All Black so cross country became my winter sport. Then around 16 cricket was getting in the way of track, so that’s when I made the full-time commitment to athletics as my sport and to having Dad coach me.

How was it being coached by your father in NZ? Did running seem to fit in everywhere or was athletics left from the dinner table?

Running has always been a big part of my life, even before I even took part in it. A lot of family holiday’s were to running events around the country where dad was either in a coaching or organizing role, and I would love being immersed in the sport in any way possible. So when dad started coaching me, the only thing that changed was that I was now running as one of his athletes. It does become interesting when you leave the track after a workout and continue to talk about training or racing over cooking dinner on the BBQ, but it’s what I’ve always enjoyed about our relationship. It only been this past year that I have really come to appreciate how much knowledge Dad possesses as a high-performance coach and how much he has taught me over the years.

What prompted the move to Purdue?

The move to the States was always a goal of mine, and I feel I am very fortunate to be where I am. It was obvious that with so many of the young middle-distance guys my age leaving to the states over the past few years, that there is a huge advantage both in training and racing at a very competitive level. In my search for colleges I wanted to also take into account the academic side life, and chose a school that would allow me to continue with my degree in Sport Science and Psychology. Athletically being part of the Big-10 conference is a huge advantage as the level of distance running in our conference is very deep, with 25 guys running under 3.48 for the 1500 this season in our conference alone.

How was the initial adjustment? Does anything stand out as being difficult regarding the transition from NZ to the states?

Initially I guess I didn’t really know what to expect when I arrived last August, and this year has been huge in terms of learning a variety of lessons. The style of XC racing is very different from NZ in terms the aggressive nature of going out in around 2.40 for the first km in some races.

The big thing was just adjusting to a new program and the training over here, it takes some getting used to when suddenly you change aspects on your approach to training.

How is the training compared to what you were doing in NZ? What is a typical training week for Cross, Indoors, and Outdoors. 

During XC it took me a while to adjust to the heat and humidity of late summer and early fall in Indiana and as a result the workouts were pretty intense. One workout that stands out in mind was on a blistering hot day on our cross course where we did a 2mile tempo in 10mins then ran a mile to recover (7min pace) then into 5x1km at a fast pace with short recovery. We had lots of good workouts like this on our course which has some good hills in it, as well as intense fartlek sessions where the effort time is just faster than race pace, and the recovery portion is at steady run pace.

As for indoors, my training was just trying to get me fit as quick as possible after having around 6weeks out with an unfortunate ankle injury just 2 days prior to the conference cross country. So nothing really to spectacular indoors, just ladder workouts or 400s and 200s at goal race pace.

Outdoors I was finally feeling like I knew what I was doing, and felt somewhat normal again in terms of my fitness and consistency.  I had left off the year before in NZ at 3.51 for 1500 and just wanted to pick up from there. Typical training week this spring was around 40-45miles with 1 hard longer interval workout either Monday Tuesday, 1000s or ladders. A 7mile somewhere in the mid week, then some light 200s or 150s later in the week leading into the race for that week, with easy runs on the other days.

How have you found racing in the states different from NZ? How do you feel about racing three consecutive seasons? 

The volume of racing I did this year was defiantly greater than back home, and probably just so that I would be able to get as much experience in the first year here. With all those lessons in mind, I hope to race a little less next year so I can take my season all the way to Nationals in June. That will just take patience and consistency through cross-country and indoors.

Do you feel as if the deep level of athletes in the states has pushed you too a new level in performance?

Yea the depth here has pushed me to work harder and has defiantly led to me improving physical and mental toughness from where I was a year ago. Walking away from our conference meet last month after just missing advancing to the 1500 final by 0.02seconds, I realised that I will have to come back next year not only stronger, but with an even bigger aggressive and confident approach.

What do you like to do outside of training/racing? 

Right now I’ve been taking a summer class, which is a class normally over a whole semester squeezed into 4 weeks so that’s been keeping me busy. But generally when I’m not doing schoolwork I’m hanging out with the team - a great bunch of people. It’s really cool how we have such a range of people on our team, and both the men’s and women’s distance runners are coached by the same 2 coaches.

What are your training and non-training plans for the summer?

Once this class finishes up on the 11^th of June I’ll be hanging out in West Lafayette for a another week then will be heading home to NZ for 6 weeks of good solid training, where I hope to get some of my first ever weeks of 60+miles. I’m still a low mileage kind of guy, but hoping to set a much stronger base for next year.

Is your coach individualistic or is it very much a blanket training system for all the runners? Has your Dad played any role in your training since you have been at Purdue?

Our Coach takes great time and effort to individualize our training, and my mileage was slightly lower than my training partner for the mile/1500 so my coach realized that my background had yet to go beyond 50mile weeks. In cross the workouts are broken in to 3 or 4 groups according to fitness/ability level but the workout is still based on the same idea. But as we went through indoors and outdoors we became very individualized and by the 3.46 I was definitely seeing the benefits.

As for Dad’s influence, he has continued to provide great advice, especially in the way of helping me initially to adjust to changes and new approaches to training, as well as being there to bounce ideas off for training and racing.