Paul McKee interviewed for Andersonstown News
Project 400 member Paul McKee was recently interviewed by Andersonstown News where they caught up on his training progress and got to discuss some of the topics in the athletics news of late.
Extract is taken from the Andersonstown News, www.belfastmedia.com.
Beechmount Harrier Paul McKee gives the Andersonstown News a unique insight into his training regime ahead of the Beijing Olympics in August. The 400m star is beginning to increase the intensity of his work-outs and plans to begin racing after a tough six-week block of training. Meanwhile he discusses James McIlroy’s retirement and the controversy surrounding British sprinter Dwain Chambers.
I was in South Africa in January for three brilliant weeks of warm
weather training. It was a great trip and it really broke up the winter nicely. I had
four months of good training before that so I was ready to lift the quality of work but that can be quite dangerous in the cold weather because of injury. So I went warm weather training and put in a lot of hard work. That was instead of doing an indoor season, I felt that would maybe take too much out of me and affect me going to the Olympics.
Even though training was going well, I actually thought I could have done well in the indoors, I spoke to the coach about it (Stuart Hogg) and he decided that he didn’t want anything to interfere with the Olympic preparation.
I got back home in February and then it was back into more hard graft and I’ve been training away since. I had a bit of hamstring trouble but I’ve been keeping on top of it and I’m going to see a specialist in London. I had a bit of a tired spell last week as well, were I was just feeling drained during sessions. But when you’re training hard not every session is going to be a
cracker. I was maybe a wee bit concerned but I bounced back yesterday (Wednesday) and did a really good session.
So things have been going generally quite well. I’m six weeks away from racing but I do need those six weeks of good work. That’s the plan because you don’t want to peak too early. If I was ready to race now I would be tired by the time the Olympics come around so I think at this stage of the year I’m on target.
I’m hoping to get a bit of quality work in before I go to Portugal with the Irish team on April 28 for two weeks. I want to be ready to do some sharp stuff when I get out there.
Surprise
Stuart and the whole squad are coming out so when I’m doing the harder 400m training I’ve a good training partner in Brian Doyle, who is going really well. I think he will surprise a few people this year. I definitely expect him to make the Irish 4×400m relay team. The relay team has basically a less than 50/50 chance of making the Olympics but we’re going to give it a good go.
The relay team is really up against it to qualify because we don’t have many opportunities.
Our first one is in Belgium on June 14. You’ve to be in the top 16 in the world to qualify, the problem is most of the countries achieved that at the World Championships last year. We weren’t there in Osaka, which was a fast track. You have to get two times and then they take the average.
So it’s tough and we’ll be out for the second time in Estonia during the Europa Cup trying to achieve a fast time. But my priority is the individual 400m. Tricky. So I have to be careful that the relay doesn’t get in the way of my own preparation. It’s tricky trying to balance things out.
Paul Doyle, an American with a lot of Irish connections, gets me into races and he’s got me into a race in Senegal, Dakar on May 17. That will be my first race. It’s a bit of a journey but I’ll be half way there as I’ll be in the south of Portugal just before it. It will be a quite interesting experience and I’ll spend a couple of days there. It should be a good meet and it will be my first attempt at the Olympic qualifying time but I expect it to take a few races.Then I’ll go to Geneva on May 31 for another race.
The weather here has been holding me back a bit because when it’s that cold it’s hard to get the quality in. The evidence was there in South Africa because the times I was hitting were well up. I need to open my season fairly quick because I can’t be too far off the time. I need to open with a low 46-second time. I know there’s a good chance that I will progress in five or six races. I’ve said it now so I have to go out and do the business. I’m not expecting to get the time in my first race but I can go to Geneva quite fresh and have a real go. In an ideal world I’d like to get it quite early to take the pressure
off.
Sad news
I was sad to hear James retired (James McIlroy from Larne was the top British 800m runner for the last decade. He was forced to retire recently due to financial problems and a lack of funding). I was glad to see him back running well during the indoor season this year.
He was a hard, honest trainer then when I heard he retired I was
shocked. When he talked about the financial side of things and the potential of
losing his house in order to make Beijing it struck a cord with me because I’m in the exact same position.
I sympathise with him but in saying that there’s no way I could give up five months before the Olympics. There is that strain that I’m not earning money and there’s bills coming in. But I know that if I was to give up now I’d regret it in later life.
I will have a serious decision at the end of the summer but that all depends on how the athletics goes.
Chambers controversy
The thing about the Dwain Chambers issue is that I think they should double the ban from two years to four. A two-year ban is almost like a bad injury, so I definitely would be
in favour of a lengthier sentence.
There’s a lot of hypocrisy in British athletics about the issue. They welcomed him back before in Gothenburg and then the witch-hunt against him this year was strange. Suddenly all the ex athletes who said he was fine in Gothenburg were now coming out against him. They also had another athlete in a similar situation and they never mentioned him.
If there’s a problem with the rules criticise them not the individual. Chambers didn’t make the rules so just let him get on with it and I’ve never thought like that about a drug cheat. It’s frustrating but there will always be drug cheats in the sport.
Paul McKee was talking to Ed McGinley
If you have any questions for Paul please leave a comment here on Project400 and Paul will do his best to respond.