Mick Woods

Michael 'Mick' Woods
Born (1949-02-15) 15 February 1949
(Great Britain)
Occupation Former distance runner, sports lecturer, running coach

Michael 'Mick' Woods (born 15 February 1949 in Great Britain) is a former long-distance runner and a middle/long distance running coach.[1] He is currently a coach at Aldershot, Farnham & District AC[2] and sports lecturer[3] at St Mary's University in London. As an athlete, Woods ran internationally for Ireland and ran in over 70 marathons, with a personal best of 2:20.12.[4] Woods is now one of the nation's leading endurance running coaches.[4]

Athletics career

Mick Woods' first marathon was the Polytechnic Marathon in 1971. He has been a member of Aldershot, Farnham and District Athletics Club since 1964. Woods ended up completing more than 70 marathons in his career with a personal best of 2:20:12, achieved in the London Marathon in 1983. He represented Ireland in various international marathon races.

When I asked if he could have run a marathon quicker, Mick allegedly replied, "yes but I wasn't coaching me".

Coaching career

Woods is based at St Mary's University in London. He has been coaching since 1986[5] and has been extremely successful, putting numerous junior athletes into European Championships, GB teams and even the Olympic Games.[6] Woods is currently coach to many GB athletes including Olympian Steph Twell,[7] 10,000m, European cross country champion Emelia Górecka,[8] and international athlete Jonathan "Jonny" Hay.[9]

In 2003, Woods was employed by the UKAthletics as a performance coach.[10]

In 2008, he was presented with the English Athletics Association Coach Of The Year Award.[11]

In 2014, Woods was asked by Athletics Weekly about his retirement and his response was, "I like seeing athletes come through and improve and I coach athletes to race. As I get older, such a busy lifestyle is becoming more of a challenge, but I do not envisage retiring. Athletics is in my blood”.[12]

Personal bests

Marathon - 2:20.12[5] - London, England, 1983

References

  1. ↑ "Athlete Profile". Thepowerof10.info. Retrieved 2014-08-16.
  2. ↑ afd.org.uk
  3. ↑ "SMUC Coaching Staff".
  4. 1 2 "Mick Woods in action! |". Smrac.org.uk. 2013-01-24. Retrieved 2014-08-16.
  5. 1 2 "Coaching Staff | Endurance Performance and Coaching Centre (EPACC) | St Mary's University, Twickenham". Smuc.ac.uk. Retrieved 2014-08-16.
  6. ↑ "Independent Report".
  7. ↑ "Athlete Profile". Thepowerof10.info. 1989-08-17. Retrieved 2014-08-16.
  8. ↑ "Athlete Profile". Thepowerof10.info. 1994-01-29. Retrieved 2014-08-16.
  9. ↑ "Athlete Profile". Thepowerof10.info. Retrieved 2014-08-16.
  10. ↑ Eightlane (2013-03-07). "Interview with Mick Woods of AFD". Eightlane. Retrieved 2014-08-16.
  11. ↑ "News". England Athletics. 2014-08-12. Retrieved 2014-08-16.
  12. ↑ "AW: A day in the life of Mick Woods".
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