{"id":1040007255,"date":"2025-09-04T02:00:45","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T01:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/athleticsweekly.com\/?p=1040007255"},"modified":"2025-09-04T11:07:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T10:07:21","slug":"how-they-train-phil-norman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/athleticsweekly.com\/performance\/how-they-train-phil-norman-1040007255\/","title":{"rendered":"How they train: Phil Norman"},"content":{"rendered":"

British steeplechaser looks at the work that led to him winning the national title in Birmingham<\/p>\n

Phil Norman successfully defended his British 3000m steeplechase title with victory at the UK Athletics Championships in August.<\/p>\n

The result itself was not particularly exceptional \u2013 he ran 8:40.47 to take the win ahead of Zak Seddon in second (8:40.69) \u2013 but after the disappointment of his non-selection for the 2024 Olympic Games and a return to full-time work, it was an immensely satisfying performance that brought to life the possibility of a return to the Alexander Stadium for the European Championships in 2026.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old could have certainly been forgiven for sitting it out.<\/p>

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His last outing in the 3000m steeplechase was an 8:18.65 lifetime best and championship record in Manchester in June 2024. It was the fastest performance by a British steeplechaser in 30 years (sixth all-time, at the time) but was agonisingly short of the UKA qualifying standard for Paris (8:18.50). It was track and field at its best and worst.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhysically I am in the shape and form of my life\u2026 but mentally and emotionally I have nothing left to give,\u201d he admitted at the time. He told AW it would be his last ever championships, possibly his last ever steeplechase.<\/p>\n

But Norman loves this brutal, beautiful sport, and nine weeks prior to the 2025 edition of the UK Athletics Championships he reached out to his Slovenia-based coach Toma\u017e Pliber\u0161ek with a clear goal: he wanted to defend his title.<\/p>\n

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Phil Norman (Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAt the time I was just coaching myself,\u201d says the North Devon athlete. \u201cAt the end of last season, and after everything, I wasn\u2019t sure what I wanted to do going forward and I didn\u2019t think it was fair on him [coach Pliber\u0161ek] just to string him along. I told him I was going to carry on running, but I didn\u2019t want to put him out or have him put a plan together if I wasn\u2019t sure what I was going to do.<\/p>

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\u201cWhen I called him I was in pretty good shape aerobically, I just felt like I needed to do some specific work. I said: \u2018If you can get me doing the right things to race in nine weeks\u2019 time then I\u2019d like to do the Champs and try to defend my title\u2019. He said: \u2018I\u2019m always in your corner. If that\u2019s what you want do, let\u2019s do it\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year wasn\u2019t about chasing times or making teams, however. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to put myself through that again,\u201d says Norman. It was all about taking the pressure off and enjoying it. He had taken paid leave from mid-February 2024 to focus on the Olympic Games; this time around he was working throughout.<\/p>\n

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Phil Norman (Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He ran his first steeplechase race of the season in early July, clocking 5:33.74 for the 2000m steeplechase at the National Athletics League meeting in Derby. He had opened with an almost identical time the previous year and gone on to run a series of very quick 3000m steeplechase times, including a trio of impressive back-to-back performances in June that ranked in his top four all-time: 8:20.93, 8:19.58 and 8:18.65. In contrast, his 2025 British title win came in his first full-distance chase of the year.<\/p>\n

This season \u2013 the prospect of which had seemed so unlikely amidst the disillusionment of Paris non-selection \u2013 has been a success, not just from a performance perspective (Norman believes he\u2019s in as good shape as he\u2019s ever been), but psychologically too. The Olympic Games is in the past; he is now looking to the future and a return to international competition.<\/p>

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\u201cBar the Olympics, competing at a home champs is one of the things I\u2019ve most wanted to do in my career, so it would be nice to do that in Birmingham [at the 2026 European Championships],\u201d he says. \u201cI believe I can still perform just as well next year, so why wouldn\u2019t I?\u201d<\/p>\n

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Phil Norman (Mark Shearman)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Training week in run-up to the UK Champs<\/strong><\/p>\n

Norman, who trains alone, fits his training around his job as a pole tester for Openreach. He works full-time hours across four days (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday) and starts at 7:30am each day.<\/p>\n

In spite of a return to work (compared to full-time training over this period in 2024) his training hasn\u2019t changed drastically: \u201cI might not have done quite as much basic mileage going into the spring just because I didn\u2019t have the time to recover and fit it all in,\u201d he says; \u201cbut in terms of the actual sessions I\u2019m doing, I\u2019d say it\u2019s much the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monday:<\/strong> (am) 5-6 miles easy run before work (7:00-7:30min mile pace); (pm) 4 miles easy run followed by hurdles drills\/strides and core workout (from home)
\nTuesday<\/strong>: rest
\nWednesday<\/strong>: (am) track session focused on speed such as 15 x 400m off 75 seconds (in flats), averaging just inside 61 seconds, plus 2.5-mile warm-up and 2.5-mile cooldown. \u201cI\u2019ll sometimes practice the water jump with four or five run throughs before a session when I get closer to races,\u201d he says.
\nThursday<\/strong>: (pm) 9-10 miles easy run (around 7:00min mile pace) plus core
\nFriday<\/strong>: (pm) 8 miles with hill strides (for example, 15-second hill strides)
\nSaturday<\/strong>: (am) longer track session such as 5x1000m (2:30 recovery) average 2:42 pace \u2013 8min recovery \u2013 400m fast (around 52\/53sec) \u2013 6min recovery \u2013 200m fast (24\/25sec)
\nSunday<\/strong>: 12-13 miles easy around 7:00min miles or just inside \u2013 no quicker than 6:30 pace<\/p>\n

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Phil Norman beats Zak Seddon (Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Favourite session:<\/strong> \u201cAnything with the hurdles \u2013 even though I\u2019ve got to set them up myself! I enjoy going over the hurdles and I\u2019ve always naturally just taken to them. A lot of the time my splits aren\u2019t much slower over the hurdles than the flat reps. It might be that mentally it breaks the reps up a little bit when I\u2019m training on my own, but I enjoy any session where I\u2019ve got the hurdles out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Least favourite session:<\/strong> \u201cOver the winter it\u2019s probably long tempos. I\u2019ll do an eight-mile tempo, for example, and it\u2019s just a bit of a grind, really. It\u2019s not that exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

British steeplechaser looks at the work that led to him winning the national title in Birmingham Phil Norman successfully defended […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1040006749,"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":[35994],"class_list":["post-1040007255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-training","category-performance","sports-3000m-steeplechase"],"acf":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/athleticsweekly.com\/performance\/how-they-train-phil-norman-1040007255\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"How they train: Phil Norman","url":"http:\/\/athleticsweekly.com\/performance\/how-they-train-phil-norman-1040007255\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/athleticsweekly.com\/performance\/how-they-train-phil-norman-1040007255\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/athleticsweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2228324694-1200x800-5b2df79-200x300.jpg","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/athleticsweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2228324694-1200x800-5b2df79.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":"2025-09-04T01:00:45Z","datePublished":"2025-09-04T01:00:45Z","dateModified":"2025-09-04T10:07:21Z"},"rendered":"