Fanzone > Athlete of the month > January 2005
I have selected Emily Pidgeon as the first Athlete of the Month. I have been really impressed with Emily's talent and strength and have been watching her results for a while now. She definitely has a lot of talent but is also prepared to work hard and be patient. She isn't just looking to be the best in Britain, she and her coach have their goal set at being the best she can be.
I remember reading an impressive quote which said that they don't believe Emily is ahead of others her age or training too hard, they believe she is where she needs to be in order to compete with the best her age on the world stage. This is important as I believe that as much as it is important that Emily and others don't train too much too soon, it is also very important to lay a quality training base early and put all the tough mental blocks in place to allow a steady progression in training and results.
Certain criticism of them reminds me of similar criticism that I and my coach faced when I was younger. It is important to realise that there is nothing wrong with high quality hard training and learing to push your body and get the best effort from it. Of course young athletes should not overtrain and do too much quantity but there is nothing wrong with making sure that the training is high quality. I didn't run high mileage when I was growing up but I did run all the training I did as hard and as well as I could. Quantity can always be added later but quality is always important.
What I also like about Emily is that when she races she gives it 100% everytime she's not just trying to win but to give the best account of herself that she can each time. It was a shame that she wasn't able to compete in the recent European Cross Country Champs and see what she could have done but there will be plenty of future chances and she will have set herself other targets for this season. I really wish her luck in achieving these and continuing her progression.
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