We have received a communication from Niclas Baker on his preparations for Paris. It all looks like hard work to me. We wish him well in his efforts to reach Paris. What perseverance is does but take!!

An OE in the “Lone Star State” of Texas

I start my day with my alarm going off at 8am but most days I am graced by an even earlier 6am wakeup by my upstairs neighbours’ stomping.

Starting the day off with two bottles of water by the side of my bed totalling a litre. I check for emails and what’s happening across the pond that I may need to be aware of. I head to the kitchen around 8:30 and make breakfast which will be one of two meals depending on the workout. 2 eggs, 2 bacon and a protein shake or a bowl of oats & a protein shake which is all washed down with again, another litre of water. This time I have added electrolytes as you can imagine 2 litres of plain water within the first 90 minutes of the day is quite sickly. I shower, get ready & stroll to the track which is about a 10minute walk from my apartment.

I arrive at 10am, greet my coach and teammates and proceed to warm-up. This consists of a jog round the track and about a dozen drills completed up and back over 30metres and then repeated. We finish with some sprints over 50metres and head back to do personal activations and hurdle mobility. After this we gather round coach who explains to us the purpose of our workout and what he expects. He groups us off into 100/200m group, 400m group and hurdlers. The warm-up takes about 45minutes.
Our sessions are consistent in respect to the days. Monday Thursday are always speed days with Tuesday Friday are tempo/speed endurance days. Wednesdays and every other Saturday is a recovery day, Sunday is off completely. Bearing in mind this structure varies during race season as our speed days essentially becoming our races. We gym 3 times a week in the winter and twice in the summer, focusing primarily on; Olympic lifts, power cleans and snatches. We do a lot of blocks starts and reps over 200 & 250m and 350m. We never run more than 3 reps in an endurance session and there is massive emphasis on technique. If your technique is poor during a run, coach will stop your session. All runs are run at 400m race pace or faster, there is no slow running, jogging, plodding.

The group consists of 5 international 4x400m Gold medalists spanning the Rio & Tokyo Olympics, Commonwealth Games and multiple world championships. With national champions, World under20 champions and athletes who have made finals on the US Collegiate system.

Post training is followed with lunch which is normally fish, vegetables and rice. Then I either nap, explore Houston or go to a friend’s house.

I opened up my season on March 14th with my second fastest season opener in the 200m. I am very much in a good place both mentally and physically, with another 200m upcoming on March 23rd. I do not open my 400m season for another month so all the work I am doing is getting ready for April.

Niclas Baker