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.

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 over 250 athletes, including international athletes Jonathan "Jonny" Hay,[7] Ellis Cross,[8] Louise Small[9] and many others.

In 2003, Woods was employed by UK Athletics 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. Retrieved 2014-08-16.
  8. ↑ "Athlete Profile". Thepowerof10.info. Retrieved 2018-02-25.
  9. ↑ "Athlete Profile". Thepowerof10.info. Retrieved 2018-02-25.
  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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