{"id":1040006875,"date":"2025-08-27T10:49:36","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T09:49:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/athleticsweekly.com\/?p=1040006875"},"modified":"2025-08-28T12:33:39","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T11:33:39","slug":"how-they-train-alastair-chalmers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/athleticsweekly.com\/performance\/how-they-train-alastair-chalmers-1040006875\/","title":{"rendered":"How they train: Alastair Chalmers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 400m hurdler's confidence is befitting of an athlete who ran a 48.30 PB from lane two in \u201chorrible conditions\u201d in Rehlinger in June<\/p>\n

\u201cThings are going very well right now,\u201d says the 25-year-old. \u201cI honestly think it\u2019s just the accumulation of good training, a good set-up, and staying healthy. I\u2019ve got a great team around me and I\u2019m at the stage where I\u2019m consistently running world class times, which is really nice.\u201d<\/p>\n

The University of Bath graduate credits coach Matt Elias with much of his progress. The pair started working together in Cardiff at the end of 2019 and successfully navigated the pandemic period during which Chalmers returned home to Guernsey. He has since won multiple national titles, two European Team Championships silver medals, Commonwealth Games bronze and European indoor 4x400m mixed relay bronze. He is also ranked fifth on the British all-time list.<\/p>\n

His previous best mark of 48.54 \u2013 achieved while running under protest at the memorable 2024 UK Championships \u2013 was a last-gasp (and successful) attempt to secure qualification for the Olympic Games in Paris. This time around, with the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo pending, the hunting was done early; in fact, by the end of June Chalmers had recorded five of his 10 fastest ever performances and on each occasion surpassed the mark of 48.70 he worked so hard to achieve last year.<\/p>

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Of those who have run quicker, only British record-holder Kriss Akabusi (47.82) and Dai Greene (47.84) have run under 48 seconds. Between them, the pair have won a host of world, European and Commonwealth titles.<\/p>\n

In an event which has moved on globally due to the extraordinary performances of athletes such as world record-holder Karsten Warholm (45.94) and the sub-47 quartet of Rai Benjamin, Alison Dos Santos, Kevin Young and Abderrahman Samba, as well as progressing within the UK (at the time of writing (in July) Chalmers, Seamus Derbyshire and Tyri Donovan had all run inside the World Championships qualifying time of 48.50), Chalmers believes his own sub-48 clocking is imminent; but making the final of the World Championships is what would make him truly happy.<\/p>\n

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Alastair Chalmers (Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI honestly think that if everything comes together I could run sub-48 this year,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m just being patient with it. I\u2019m trying not to be too outrageous with what I say, but I do think it\u2019s there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, I ran 48.3 in horrible conditions in lane two on a horribly tight track, so there\u2019s 100 per cent three tenths there.<\/p>

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\u201cMy first 200m is pretty pristine now, so it\u2019s just going to be: \u2018How can I hold my momentum for as long as possible?\u2019 and that will come over hurdles eight, nine and 10 \u2013 that\u2019s just bettering my stride pattern. I do 15s [strides] from hurdles eight to 10 and I think we\u2019re going to try to push those 14s out for the rest of the season. That\u2019ll take a tenth or two tenths off each hurdle, and then you put me in a world semi-final and the animal comes out, doesn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m more bothered about making the world final than running 47 [seconds]. If I don\u2019t make the final and I run a PB I\u2019ll still be happy, but the main goal is to make the world final because I think I\u2019m good enough to do that. The time is in the legs. If it doesn\u2019t happen this year it\u2019ll happen next year or the year after. All I\u2019m looking for is to get faster and stronger each year, to learn more about the event, and to be exposed to the greats of the event \u2013 and I\u2019m exactly where I need to be and want to be right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s such a painful event and it\u2019s painful training,\u201d says Chalmers, who typically trains three weeks on\/one week off.<\/p>\n

\u201cMatt\u2019s training is a mixture between old school and a modern training regime and that\u2019s what makes it so hard.<\/p>

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\u201cFor now it\u2019s just keeping the speed in place, and keeping the strength and power in place, and all the things that will flower into good times later in the season, because I respond well to hard work. I\u2019m not one of those athletes that runs well off no training, I need to work hard; those 450s, the runs to hurdle 10, the heavy gym \u2013 it\u2019s horrible at the time but I respond really well to it and it makes me as strong as an ox, quite frankly.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Alastair Chalmers (Mark Shearman)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Monday:<\/strong> gym \u2013 not extreme lifting but good loading including, for example, cleans, hip thrusts, upper body work and trunk\/hip\/core circuits
\nTuesday<\/strong>: speed day such as 4 x 120m or 4 x 150m
\n(12 minutes recovery)
\nWednesday<\/strong>: active recovery using an ice bath, Normatec (compression boots), walks, tennis etc.
\nThursday: anaerobic session such as 450m-350m-250m
\n(off 12 and 10 minutes). \u201cYou\u2019re covering all bases with this one,\u201d says Chalmers. \u201cIt will show where my strength is at, because if I can finish that session feeling good then I know I\u2019m in a really good place.\u201d
\nFriday<\/strong>: gym - heavy gym including power cleans, squats, lunges, core, pull-ups and step-ups (with bar on back stepping on to box)
\nSaturday<\/strong>: off\/rest day
\nSunday<\/strong>: hurdle-specific session. \u201cBecause I\u2019ve had a rest day on the Saturday I feel a bit fresher for the hurdles. The session would be, for example, runs from hurdles 2-10 (x3) off 15min, which is a nice recovery but not too generous. It\u2019s pretty much about maintaining my stride pattern throughout the race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Favourite session:<\/strong> \u201cThe session I\u2019m best at is 5 x 300m off five minutes. The five minutes is enough for me to recover so I can stay at a really good speed. We always do it in January\/February time so I look at it and I think: \u2018Oh no!\u2019 because you know you\u2019re going to be on the floor for about 45 minutes at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Least favourite session:<\/strong> \u201c500m-400m-300m-400m, because we do it during the winter when it\u2019s windy, rainy and horrible. It\u2019s the mindset that you\u2019re going down [in distance] then my coach will say: \u2018Right guys, you\u2019ve got 12 minutes and we\u2019re going back up to a 400m,\u2019 so you\u2019ve got all this lactic and fatigue and then you\u2019re not even doing a 200m, you\u2019re going back up to a 400m!\u201d<\/p>\n

This interview was done in the run-up to the 2025 UK Champs<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 400m hurdler's confidence is befitting of an athlete who ran a 48.30 PB from lane two in \u201chorrible conditions\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1040005989,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","inline_featured_image":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_championship":0,"wds_primary_country":0,"wds_primary_sports":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,10],"tags":[],"championship":[],"country":[],"sports":[35998],"class_list":["post-1040006875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-training","category-performance","sports-400m-hurdles"],"acf":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/athleticsweekly.com\/performance\/how-they-train-alastair-chalmers-1040006875\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"How they train: Alastair Chalmers","url":"http:\/\/athleticsweekly.com\/performance\/how-they-train-alastair-chalmers-1040006875\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/athleticsweekly.com\/performance\/how-they-train-alastair-chalmers-1040006875\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/athleticsweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Alastair-Chalmers-scaled-e1749550213130-200x300.jpg","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/athleticsweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Alastair-Chalmers-scaled-e1749550213130.jpg"},"articleSection":"How They Train","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Athletics Weekly"}],"creator":["Athletics Weekly"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Athletics Weekly","logo":"https:\/\/athleticsweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/AW-logo_with-website.png"},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2025-08-27T09:49:36Z","datePublished":"2025-08-27T09:49:36Z","dateModified":"2025-08-28T11:33:39Z"},"rendered":"