Old-fashioned LSD does it for Christie

Athletics/ European Cross Country Championships:Read up on any of the great distance runners and the one thing they shared was the high-mileage approach to training. Running 100-mile weeks became the minimum standard; anyone doing less better not show up for races.

In recent years that approach has gone somewhat out of fashion, many runners adopting more compact, intensive regimes, or perhaps just getting soft.

And yet some runners still swear by big mileage, and Mark Christie reckons it's one of the main reasons he's the best cross-country runner in Ireland.

At 21 the Mullingar man is a long way off his peak, yet after a disappointing track season Christie felt changes were necessary if he was to step up. So with his coach David Burke he decided to increase the LSD (as in long, slow distance).

Logging 100 miles a week is easier said than done. It helps that Christie is in his first year of a degree course in finance at Dublin City University; most of his week is filled with running or studying. He does a five- or six-mile run in the morning, five days a week, and his main run - averaging 10 miles - in the evening. He finishes his week with the Sunday long run, up to 18 miles.

"I sat down with my coach back in September," he explains. "I had a very poor track season, by my own standards, running 3:42 (for 1,500 metres), which wasn't too bad, but I'd hoped to run 3:38. So I needed to make some changes, and that meant getting stronger. When you're not running well you start questioning yourself. But this winter has been very good to me and got me back on track.

"I've actually moved up quite easily, from doing around 70 miles a week before, to doing over 90 or 100 miles. But I'm not killing myself either. I enjoy the long runs in places like the Phoenix Park.

"The other difference is I don't take a rest day every week, but maybe every two weeks, or whenever I feel I need one."

It hasn't taken long for the hard work to pay off. Last Sunday week, at the National Intercounties cross-country in Dungarvan, Christie looked a class apart in winning his first senior title. He took the lead around a mile from the finish and with his newfound strength was never in danger.

"Things had gone well beforehand. I'd started the season very well at a race in the Phoenix Park, and got a lot of encouragement from that . . . So I was going to Dungarvan with one thing on my mind, and that was to win. I'd finished sixth last year and was gutted. So all that week I was telling myself I was going to win."

That victory created one small problem: Christie was now top choice for the Irish senior team at next Sunday's European Cross Country, in San Giorgio su Legnano, Italy, but this year's event also includes, for the first time, an under-23 race. After some consideration Christie decided to target the underage race.

"The big thing is I have a shot at a medal in the under-23 race. But also because the senior team is probably not as strong as it could be, with a few key people pulling out, like Alistair Cragg and Gareth Turnbull, so there wasn't much benefit trying to contribute to that.

"And I'll definitely put myself up there on Sunday. No one is really sure exactly what the standard will be like, because it's the first year. But at the same time no one in there will be unbeatable, and that's definitely my frame of mind going in there. Go for a medal at least."

When Christie based himself at DCU instead of pursuing the US scholarship route, some felt he was limiting his potential, but so far he has no regrets.

"It's my fourth year now at DCU, and I don't feel I've missed out on much by not going to America," he says. "Maybe the one thing would be the competition. Over here the standard is either very, very high or quite mediocre. It's probably more consistently high over there.

"But I've got a good degree from DCU and that's good security for when I'm finished here. And I still think I've a good chance of making the Beijing Olympics . . . Maybe the odds are against me but I'll definitely be working towards that goal."

However, no matter how many miles he logs, Christie has little ambition for the world cross-country championships.

"You just think about the world cross-country, which is in Kenya this year, and people know exactly what's going to happen," he says. "It's a 12-kilometre race against all the best Africans, not just Kenyans and Ethiopians, but those running for, say, Qatar and Bahrain.

"So you're talking about the top Europeans doing very well to make the top 20 or 30. I wouldn't rule it out. I know someone like Craig Mottram (Australia) speaks positively of it. But I do think there's more and more focus being put on the Europeans."