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Olympic rowing champion talks running

Olympic gold medal rower Peter Reed has come a long way since his PE teacher at school described him as an ‘unremarkable’ athlete. Spikesmag.com caught with the 6ft 6ins British athlete and discovered how running has helped propel him to glory on the rowing lake.

How much running do you do?

PR: Actually, it is very little. We use running for warm up through the winter, but because we are big heavy guys at about 100kg and 16st we are not that co-ordinated at running. I like to feel because I am an athlete that I could and should be a good runner. I struggle to think of a sport that doesn’t involve movement by definition. That’s important for an athlete to be self-aware of their movements and co-ordinated in their movements because it is our most natural movement apart from walking.

Didn’t you start working with a renowned sprint coach, Michael Antoniades, though?

PR: The work I did with Michael down at Sports Dimensions is very important to me because there was a period of about 3 months when I didn’t want to get in the boat post-Beijing. We did some training before Beijing, but I wanted to be a more skilful runner after Beijing. That’s the time when you get free rein over your training programme. When you are back in your (rowing) training programme you are so flat out with three sessions a day there isn’t any time to do the recreational things that other sportsmen do. I wanted to get skilful at running.

How did you come to discover Michael, who has worked with the likes of Olympic 400m champion Christine Ohuruogu and Chelsea footballers?

PR: His gym is at Stamford Brook, about a minute’s walk from my flat. He is a great bloke and we got chatting. I was obviously very interested in the technical movement and training and Mike is very knowledgeable and got me running properly.

How did he make you a more accomplished runner?

PR: Everyone knows roughly how to run, it is like a fast walk, but I got some proper technical coaching of how to move my arms, how to get my feet positioned properly and how to run with more cyclic motion. It is all very interesting. It does relate strongly to rowing and to other sports and you start to realise it is all about efficiency and movement and that is exactly the same as rowing. It is interesting to be taught a different sport because you remember how to learn. If you learn about another sport it is very refreshing and you take some of what you learn into your own sport.

I was running very much on my heels, rather than on the balls of my feet and my stride was too long, so I was sticking my heels out in front of my body, which was effectively slowing me down. In rowing terms it was like putting a blade in the water too far and pushing towards the bowels, so putting a break on every time I take a step. They were very quick to get me of running in a cyclic motion, so my feet land beneath me and I am always pushing backwards. They also made sure my arms angles were at 90 degrees and pumping from my shoulders and not over-working and over-stretching. It was all very interesting stuff and stuff I’d not thought about before.

How did running specifically help your rowing?

PR: I found it was very beneficial to my fitness, especially if I was having a period off (rowing). It was important for my cardio and a change of scenery. Running in a field is very different to going backwards down a river and it is refreshing to get a change. Running is also very much about your legs – and it is good to get some strength back into the muscles.

How far would you run?

PR: I can’t imagine that I would run more than 10km and that would be during the off-season. Maybe, I would go with my girlfriend down by the river just for a change of scenery. It is a nice sociable thing to do.

What kind of pace can you run at?

PR: Not very fast. I’d like to think I could run 10km in about 45 minutes.

What track and field event do you think you are best suited to?

PR: I think if I trained for it javelin. I’m quite broad with long arms and I’m strong and powerful. I wonder if Steve Backley could give me some lessons? I wouldn’t be much good at running or jumping, but at school I was good at shot put – but how good is a spindly kid at shot put?