THE MAVERICK
TEAM GB MIDDLE-DISTANCE STAR ELLIOT GILES HAS FOLLOWED HIS OWN UNIQUE PATH BACK FROM HORRIFIC INJURIES TO BECOME A RECORDBREAKER AND CONTENDER FOR OLYMPIC GLORY IN TOKYO
His 1:43.63 knocked over a second off Coe’s 1983 time and it was the secondfastest indoor 800m in history. What made it even more remarkable was that it marked the latest chapter in a story that has seen Giles fight his way back not only from persistent injuries, but also the terrible damage his body suffered in a motorbike accident in 2014. Giles, 27, has rebuilt himself by adapting his training to suit his body, running just 15 miles a week. Indeed, the ‘world’s greatest crosstrainer’ shows runners at every level that there are many paths to becoming the best we can be. Runner’s World caught up with Giles to hear about the power of thinking outside the box and refusing to take ‘no’ for an answer.
RW How did your running journey begin?
EG ‘I started running just after I left school, when I was 16. I got fed up with playing other sports and decided to try running. So I went down to the local running club and got turned away, but luckily my first coach, Eddie [Cockayne], gave me a shot and took me under his wing and it blossomed from there.’
They turned you away? Seems a bit of a not-signing-the-Beatles moment…
‘I’ll take that as a massive compliment, but I’m not quite there yet! Birchfield [Harriers] are quite strict on who they let in because they’re a big club, with a long waiting list, but I figured if I didn’t try my luck, I’d never find out. Luckily, as I was turned away at the registration desk, my coach-to-be was walking past and said “I’ll take him on. Let him come with me and I’ll give him a trial” and we hit it off.’
Sixteen is late to start running. A lot of the people you were up against must have joined the club at six or seven
‘I’d always played loads of sports and kept fit. Yes, I came to running late in terms of being a professional, but I think that if I had started any earlier, I probably wouldn’t have continued because I had got bored of so many different sports. I think I may not have been running at this point if I’d come to it any earlier.’
How close was your accident to costing you your career?
‘The crash was back in 2014. I was 19 and my PB was 1:53, so at that point you could argue I wasn’t even really considered to be an athlete because 1:53 didn’t even get you an invitation to the British Champs. But a lot of the start of my career was spent on the sidelines. In my first year, I managed to get an England vest, but then 17, 18 and 19 were all injury years. So the crash came after this long period of injury and it helped me gather myself and rebuild slowly through the help of [coach] James Brewer. He was based at my university, Twickenham St Mary’s, and he is largely the reason I was able to put the pieces of the puzzle together. He slowed me down whereas, prior to that, I was stuck in a cycle of run for six weeks, get injured, run for six weeks, get injured. I’ve got a Word document that shows it all and when I look back, I don’t know how I’m where I am now with how little training I was able to commit to over the years.
‘I think that’s why my performances of late have improved so much, because back then I only had guts and determination; I never had consistency. It’s only been in the last year that I’ve had a full year of training and I was able to come out at the Indoors off the back of the only winter I’ve been through without having a significant injury. That showed in the fact I ran as well as I did.’
The injuries you sustained in the accident were horrific. How did it happen? And how were you in the aftermath? ‘It happened in Birmingham city centre. I had picked my younger brother up from rugby training and I was in the left lane of a three-lane road leading up to a set of traffic lights. A lady in the far-right lane made a late manoeuvre, jumping across two lanes, not realising I was coming up to go past the lights. So as she came across, she sideswiped us. My brother went over the top of the bike and where she hit me, my knee was wedged between the bike and the car. Then I was thrown off to the side and I landed on the kerb, so I damaged my lower back. I hit my head on a bollard and was knocked out. Even now, I can only give you what I’ve seen on the CCTV and what my brother remembers.
‘He was OK, but he saw big bro knocked out, so it was pretty scary. I woke up in pain in the hospital. The bruising on my lower back made it feel as though my back almost wasn’t a part of me. I also tore my PCL [posterior cruciate ligament, in the knee] and ruptured my glute, and I suffered brain damage. Even now, the glute is still sort of deformed – where it detached from the muscle, it’s reattached in kind of a ball instead of a curved shape. My PCL sorted itself out because I spent three weeks bed-bound after the accident.
‘It was tough, but I always think when you go through adversity, it shapes your character and shows you what you can achieve.’
It must have been incredibly tough at the time
‘It was the worst period of my life. Because my head was such a mess and I’d suffered brain damage, I didn’t really understand what was going on. I couldn’t move out of bed for three weeks – I had to wee in a milk bottle because I couldn’t get up. I couldn’t go to the toilet for a number two for three weeks, so I had constant constipation, and then I had trapped wind and was wincing, and every time I winced I couldn’t crouch because my back was hurting so much. Every time my knee moved, it felt like it was going to fall off. And because the nerves were damaged, I had no sensation in part of my lower back and my right side.
‘It was rough. I remember going through one period, about two weeks in, when I felt so down and out, and my hands started peeling. I could just peel the skin off my hands and I can only put it down to a form of heightened depression. I’ve never experienced a low like it.
‘It would be wrong to say I was really an athlete back then – my PB was 1:53 and I was on the back of constant injuries – but I knew if could get through that period, then I would be able to become an athlete. I believed I could be one of the best, I’d just never had the opportunity to prove it. And I guess after those three weeks in bed I knew that, relatively, the running was easy. I just had to
WHEN ELLIOT GILES BROKE SEB COE’S BRITISH 800M INDOOR RECORD IN FEBRUARY IT WAS, BY ANY MEASURE, A REMARKABLE RUN.
take it slowly. Standing on the start line when you’re fit is the easy bit – the dark days are what shapes the champions.’
It must have taken some serious determination and self-belief to come back
‘I think I was just a young, stupid kid who wouldn’t take no for an answer. My problem is that my superpower is also my biggest downfall. Because I’m willing to push through the pain, I often make problems out of nothing. When I should just stop, my mind tells me I can get through anything. But it’s my superpower when I step on the start line, because I’m more than willing to go through that pain. There are pros and cons to having that mindset, which is why I run very limited miles now and only three or four days a week.’
It’s incredible to hear an elite athlete only running three days a week. How have you adjusted your training to work for your body?
‘I just do the three sessions a week and maybe a drill session around that. I don’t do any long runs any more. I’d had so many calf tears and Achilles issues that something had to change. I had to figure out a different way to train because I knew I didn’t need the same running load as the other guys to compete at the world level. What I needed was consistency, because consistency trumps talent every time. The way to get that consistency was to focus on the key sessions and top up the rest with cross-training.
‘By limiting training to three days a week, I became consistent – you’re training for six weeks back to back and then those six weeks become six months. I was doing stuff in training and not feeling fatigued or tired; not feeling like my
Achilles was going to snap or my calf was going to snap. It was the first year where I ran pain-free and I wasn’t considering, “Am I going to finish the race?” or “Am I going to get through the session?” That consistency, on top of everything I’d built as foundations, really rocketed me forward.’
It’s refreshing to hear that it can be successful to work with the body you’ve got rather than try to fit in to the ‘standard’ way of training…
‘There are different ways to make it work. But my 15 miles a week have to be taken with a pinch of salt because I do cross-train like an absolute animal. In fact, I’d argue that I cross-train better than anyone in the world in my event. I’d back myself that I work harder than any of the other guys. While they do a 15-mile run, I’ll go out on the Elliptigo. It’s a weird contraption, like a cross-trainer on wheels, and it weighs about 24kg, so it’s an absolute lump to get up a hill. It’s hard work. In fact, it’s about 33 per cent harder than cycling and my challenge is to keep up with a group on bikes.
‘I know I’m getting a real workout because I often bonk. I push myself so hard that I start seeing stars and shaking, so I’m definitely working as hard; it’s just that•
my training takes a different form. And it shows that you don’t necessarily have to run big mileage, which is why a lot of athletes get injured.’
Is all of your cross-training on the Elliptigo?
‘No, I mix it up. On a session day, I’ll do my session, then the gym, then I’ll hit the bike hard. On the days when I’m just cross-training, it’s the Elliptigo, which is running without the impact. I don’t get the arm movement or the same range, but I’m getting everything else and I can almost guarantee I’m working my aerobic system harder than everybody else. I’m surprised it’s not used more by marathon runners because they ping out some serious mileage and the trauma their bodies take is insane.’
With limited time on your feet, is there one session you value above others? ‘Probably five 300s. It’s not about the session, it’s more a test of character. It’s a really hard session to get your head around and most people don’t have the guts to really attack it the way you’re supposed to, whereas I always know that this session is not about times, it’s about effort, so it’s eyeballs out from the get-go. Anybody can run quick when they’re relaxed and it’s going good, but I get to the third rep in that session and suddenly I’m questioning everything. Then the fourth rep is a complete write-off and in the fifth rep, you feel like you physically can’t walk to the line.
‘If you attack the first two reps like they’re your last two, then the last three reps are going to hurt, but you’re testing your character. I know that session will always hurt a million times more than a race. Racing hurts, but it doesn’t hurt anywhere near as much as training does if you’re doing it right.’
Do you have any complete rest days?
‘We [Giles lives with his girlfriend] have a little dog and we’re lucky to live in a nice part of the UK, and I like walking just to clear my mind and be free. So pretty much every day I’ll go for that walk, but if I’m fried, I’ll lie in bed or watch Netflix all day.’
It’s not just your training that’s unconventional; tell us about the ‘van life’
‘I grew up camping and doing outdoor activities like canoeing, kayaking and sailing. We would go to Scotland and walk, or take the bikes and disappear, and I’ve always enjoyed that lifestyle. So I had this idea to convert a van into a camper. The problem was I did it during the track season, which was probably the stupidest thing I’ve ever done. But the reason I did it was because I was in such a bad place. I’d run with a slipped disc at the Commonwealths and I was in a lot of pain and in such a bad place that I came back and bought this disability bus to cheer myself up, and converted it. I put in a king-sized bed, fridge, cooker, sink, shower…there’s electric, solar on the roof, a composting toilet, so it has all the creature comforts.
‘Then it went from the original plan of a trip around Europe with friends to moving in to it for six months, but after a while you think, I probably need to get back in a house because I’m trying to be a professional athlete. I had to provide GPS coordinates to show anti-doping exactly where I was. So I thought, I can live in a van after my career, but now I better get the focus back on where I need to be.’
There’s been a lot of focus recently on what athletes are wearing on their feet. Do you think footwear makes a big difference?
‘I think so. I’ve changed up my shoes and I think that’s contributed to why I’m getting injured less; the cushioning means the impact is greatly reduced. At the moment, I’m wearing Nike Air Zoom Fly 3 and Nike Air Zoom Tempo Next%. I wore the Nike Air Zoom Victory spikes for the Indoors and I’m testing the Nike Air Zoom Maxfly.’
Will you be wearing the Maxfly in Tokyo?
‘I think so. I like an aggressive spike, but I also like some cushioning. I want to know I can do a session in them without feeling like my calf is going to snap. The Maxfly are cushioned while being aggressive and when you marry those two things together, it gives you something you can perform in and then go out and do the same the following day. I ran the Indoors in the Victory, but I was always looking for something slightly more aggressive. You don’t want any wasted energy, especially when you’re running from the front, and the stiffer the spike, then, in theory, if your body can handle it, the quicker you can go.’
Can you tell us more about that Indoor record run? Was it a shock when you saw the time?
‘I had this aura of invincibility at that time. I laid down the foundations early. My first Indoor race, I opened in 1:45.5, which is pretty quick and I was still very comfortable, so I knew I was going to pop something big because I always shift about two seconds from what I open with.
‘The evening before that race, I was getting the shakes in bed and thought I was ill. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen that day and I said to myself, it’s either going to be great or it’s going to be disastrous, so I figured I may as well strive for great.
‘It was the first race where the pacer asked me what I wanted, so it was set up for me. The guys in the race were looking to me, they were happy to sit on me and let me do the work, which is not what I’m used to, but great, because I want to do the work. Let me do the work, you guys can ride the wave and if you’re going to beat me, then I’m going to make you work for it.
‘I was gutted not to race again after that because I knew I was getting quicker. But my coach said, “No, I’m shutting you down now. We don’t need any more from this. The main aim is the outdoors.” So we made a call and shut down early.’
After the record at the Indoors, what qualifies as success in Tokyo?
‘I think quite short-term when I train, so I haven’t thought about Tokyo too much. I’m focused on tomorrow and getting my body right. Of course, the main goal is Tokyo, but I try not to think too far ahead. I’m super excited for it, but the competition in the UK is so high that if you think too far ahead, you might get caught napping.’
Why do you think we are enjoying such a golden period of middle-distance running in the UK now?
‘I hope it does become golden. It’s not quite there yet because none of us have won a medal. But I think we’re edging there. And there’s a spread of ages – I’m 27 and there are others going down to the age of about 19. I plan on being around for a good five or six years, so they’re not going to shrug me off anytime soon – I’m going to make them work for it!
‘The why now, for me, comes back to spending so much time on the sidelines unable to compete until I found out what works for me. I think when you have one person running well, it brings on the next and that brings on the next, and then that hunger sparks and we’re all realising that we’re not just running for second and third place now. We’re contenders and we are going to have to be brave enough to run from the front and run hard. We can’t settle for second best any more. Nobody remembers the guy who came second; they only ever remember the guy who won it.’
‘RACING DOESN’T HURT ANYWHERE NEAR AS MUCH AS TRAINING DOES IF YOU’RE DOING IT RIGHT’