New Levels Coach Matt Long walks our over 35 community down the pathway of performance
Performance pathways
In February this year our New Levels Performance Teams were launched to much fanfare on our social media pages and no doubt you will have been following their progress of late. “Oh to be young and gifted!” sighed one of my own athletes as he flicked through mens and womens line ups and noted that most young and fresh faced wearers of our minted green vests were already England or Great Britain internationals. “I wish I had run in my twenties and I guess I’ll never know how good I could have been”, said my 50 something athlete with a wistful smile.
All of us in life can sometimes feel that we have missed the proverbial ‘boat’ and I will make sure I cheer him up by sending him a copy of this very article which challenges the conventional assumption that the words ‘middle aged’ and ‘recreational’ automatically go hand in hand. Of course there’s absolutely nothing wrong if you, like me, see the highlight of your week as your Saturday 9am trot round parkrun but this being said there is a performance pathway open to the over 35s and pleasingly an increasing number of New Levels athletes are grabbing hold of it with both hands.
Thanks to the work of England Masters Programme Lead, Chris Hollinshead and his predecessors Tom Craggs and Charlotte Fisher, there is a thriving series of international road races all the way from 5k, 10k, half marathon through to full marathon. This year has seen the programme diversify further to include an international trail racing opportunity to cater for you ‘off roaders’. A minority of opportunities are based around selection whereas mainly the opportunity to pull on a white England vest is dependent on the attainment of minimal qualifying standards plus a top 3 age category finish in one of several qualification races which are deliberately dotted around the country. To date the England teams have competed against Wales but there are plans to involve both Northern Ireland and the Army in future fixtures giving the events a full ‘home countries international’ feel.
Here we look at four athletes who are part of the New Levels family but who have used the England Athletics Masters Programme in differential ways- all the way through from full international honours, development team selectee, triallist and lastly to training day attendee.
Full InternationalNew Levels M45 athlete Darryll Thomas says with wisdom, “As I’ve aged, the things that motivated my running as a younger athlete, predominantly chasing personal bests, have diminished and I’ve sought new ways to maintain my desire. The England masters programme has proven to be a fantastic way of achieving this”. Darryll is now an accomplished international athlete having represented England on 3 occasions, twice over the full marathon distance in 2022 and 2023 and once at the half marathon distance in 2024. He is excited about his 4th cap which is due to be over the shorter 10k distance in July this year. With gusto he conveys that, “Its a really special occasion at these events and a great honour to wear a national vest, something that would never have been possible if it wasn’t for the Masters programme”.
Development Team
F45 Zoe Jennison does not get one to one coaching through New Levels but is part of our wider family. She has been to virtually every monthly Friday track night session since their inception last year and values them so much that she makes a 100 mile, 3 hour round trip from her home in Redditch all the way to Loughborough. She is keen to credit New Levels Coaching in helping her to overcome some significant physical challenges, telling us that, “I love the structure and sense of community provided by New Levels Coaching and their monthly Friday sessions at Loughborough. I live with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, which causes frequent joint dislocations and subluxations and I once had to take nearly a decade away from running—there were times I couldn’t even walk, let alone train. The New Levels group sessions have been instrumental in helping me return not just to running, but to competing.
Subject to selection, Zoe hopes to represent the England Development Team in an international match against Wales over 5k in mid May in Shrewsbury, where she attended the first ever England Masters training day which was a mixture of classroom based learning, S and C activity and track based endurance session. The idea behind a Development Team is to serve as a bridge to full international honours for those athletes showing commitment and potential to the England Masters pathway. An emotional Zoe confesses that, “To reach an England Masters Development Team would mean more to me than words can express. To get the opportunity to compete at this level would be like a miracle built on determination, resilience, and sheer strength of mind. It is proof that the challenges we face don’t have to define us—and that with the right mindset and the right people around you, anything is possible.
Triallist
M50 Will Brindley attended an England Masters Training day on 1st February this year at the prestigious Brunel University. Of particular value were Team GB Olympic physio Ruddy Farquharson’s strength and conditioning exercises which were particularly applicable for masters runners, in order to prevent injury. Will enthuses that , “Ruddy emphasised that these were extremely beneficial for runners, strengthening ankles, knees and ligaments that had a big impact and were ‘low hanging fruit’ meaning easy wins. My New Levels Coach and I have incorporated these into my training plan. Overall it was a highly impactive, informative and inspirational day. Indeed just last month Will had a stab at the England Masters Trial race for Trail Running in the Forest of Dean and wasn’t’ too far off qualifying for the international race to be held at the same venue in September. He concludes that, “Both the training day and trial race has set me up with a pathway to attaining an England callup, which I am working towards”.
Training Days
Unlike Will, M55 Jason Smith has not yet tried an England Masters qualifying or trials race but was made most welcome at the Brunel training day as it was more convenient for him to attend than the ones held in Shrewsbury in the Midlands and Keighley in the North. Jason says without hesitation, “Spending the day with like-minded masters athletes was incredibly inspiring. I also gained valuable insights from England Masters Lead Chris Hollinshead and his coaching team on how to set realistic performance goals for the season and build around that to ensure that my training and races are focused and relevant to my goals. Importantly, a lot of time was spent on strategies to balance the training demands on masters athletes to sustain productive training and high performance. That was invaluable!”. Whilst focusing his efforts on the Paula Radcliffe Marathon Academy experience for much of this year, Jason is likely to try for an international vest in the future”.
So how can I get involved?
See https://www.englandathletics.org/team-england/age-group-masters/masters-teams/ and feel free to email mattlongcoach@gmail.com for queries.
Matt Long has coached three athletes to become world champions and has served as an England Masters Team Manager and Coach for the last 5 years.
