The Swedish records are rolling in for Andreas Almgren. After Sunday’s half marathon in Barcelona, he is the first Swede under the dream limit of one hour with a time of 59.23.
– I would still say that it was quite expected for me. I thought I could run around 59.30 if I got it right, he says.
The historically injured runner has had a good training period heading into this year’s season. During the autumn, he chose to do a lot of cycling – under the guidance of one of the world’s best cycling coaches, Mattias Reck. The running training itself, like many others, is inspired by the Ingebrigtsen brothers’ set-up with so-called threshold sessions.
– In terms of endurance, I am better now than I have ever been before. I want to be good at anything from 1,500 to 10,000 meters and I feel like I’m in a very good place right now to build further down towards those distances.
With age and experience behind him, he now hopes to avoid injuries in the future.
This summer, Almgren aims to run 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters at the Olympics in Paris. When it comes to the EC, the competition schedule with Diamond League competitions is tight and Almgren reasons that it is not possible to compete in all competitions.
– I would guess that there will be a stretch at the EC and then it is probably 10,000 that applies, but there is a possibility that I will double there as well, we will see how it develops.
Hear Andreas Almgren’s thoughts on training and avoiding injuries in the player below.
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Photo: Fredrik Karlsson / BILDBYRÅN