– It is very similar to the Norwegian method. The trainer has his twist, but the basis of the training is threshold-based. Especially during the winter months, says George Mills to news. He meets us at a park bench close to Lake St. Moritz, a stone’s throw from the facility which in the summer months houses the best runners in the world. Now it says that only two weeks of work before he will be in action in Paris, as one of three Britons in both the 1500 meters and 5000 meters. Every day he reminds himself of the competition that awaits. Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Narve Gilje Nordås are also trotting around the Swiss mountain home in search of the same thing: Olympic success. – It may seem that you are the first Brit to really challenge the Norwegians with their own method? – Like a Trojan horse? Yes, a bit like that, grins Mills, and continued: – I don’t know how all the others train, but the last two world champions have been British, so they are doing something right. That system didn’t work for me, while the system that was mostly based on endurance did. I think this is how I can assert myself on the biggest stage, says Mills. LOVES LIFE AT CAMP: George Mills copes with life on the move better than most. Photo: Fredrik Tombra / news Norgesvennen Mills The two world champions are Jake Wightman and Josh Kerr, who took the WC gold ahead of Jakob Ingebrigtsen in Eugene and Budapest. But unlike the other two, Mills is – for now – a Norwegian friend to be reckoned with: He trains with Jacob Boutera, is a frequent guest on the podcast “Breaking Marathon Limits” and has even learned a little Norwegian. – Threshold, says Mills with a British accent. – Do you know any other Norwegian words? – No. But it is perhaps the most important thing he has learned in his career so far. – I used to be completely exhausted all the time. After each session I lay flat on the track. It may not have been the coach’s message, but that’s how I interpreted it, and that’s how I wanted to train as well, explains Mills. CONTROLLED: Mills sprints 10×1000 meters with good control of the intensity. Photo: Fredrik Tombra / news – It was just a matter of running for your life every single step and see what happened. That changed two and a half years ago. – I was very naive. Now he trains with the On Europa group. They will be led by the German coach Thomas Dreissigacker. The man with the impossible surname is mostly only called by his first name or “coach”. – I was lucky to join Thomas when I was 22, and he has taught me a way of training that is very empowering for me, which I think will work for us in the long term. The system is very reminiscent of the “Norwegian model”, and the training carried out by Ingebrigtsen and Nordås. – I had never measured lactate (lactic acid values) before I stayed with Thomas, so I was very naive and would not have done it correctly anyway. Roughly simplified, it is about having a high training volume. The relaxed sessions proceed calmly. When the speed is turned up, one seeks to find as high a speed as the body can tolerate without producing lactic acid, i.e. the threshold speed. It is rare to train so hard that you squeeze the bucket after the sessions. – In Great Britain there is not so much threshold-based work, it is more specific. So it took some time to make that change, to see the benefits of it. But now I think we are in a good place, where the high volume, the threshold and things like that are really reflected in the results, says Mills. Norwegian praise: – Extreme dedication Jacob Boutera met the Briton for the first time in the USA. He believes there is one thing that makes the 25-year-old unique. – What stands out is clearly extreme dedication. I have known him for two years, and it has been a growing thing. He has become more and more concerned with being extremely professional in all areas. NORWEGIAN FRIEND: Jacob Boutera. Photo: Heiko Junge / NTB Boutera thinks that Ingebrigtsen and Nordås are probably the only competitors who cover a comparable amount of kilometers per week. Mills answers with a smile when he is asked what he likes most about his lifestyle: – I wake up, exercise, sleep, exercise, physio, stretch and go to bed. Breakfast, lunch and dinner between assignments. There is something I like about the boring, honest work. And then Boutera adds that it’s not just about the physical: – It’s also a bit of the mentality. When he performs well, he almost gives himself a pat on the back. It is about how far behind him was Jakob or the winner. England hero as father As the son of the former Leeds and England defender Danny Mills, sport has been a part of his life since he was a small boy. Football just wasn’t for him. When he realized the talent was not there, it was a run. – I wasn’t good enough. This is plan B! No, I’m kidding, grins Mills. – Football was my first love, so I was surrounded by watching my father play as a child. And then, probably around 15 or 16, I realized that I couldn’t play at a high level. Now it looks like he did the right thing in scrapping his football ambitions. FAMOUS FATHER: Danny Mills (left) has a rich career behind him as a football player. Here from a match for Manchester City against Portsmouth in 2005. Laurent Robert on the right. Photo: PAUL ELLIS / AP Looking for first victory He didn’t make it to the WC in Budapest last season, but showed his best side in the competitions soon after the WC: 4th place in 1500 meters behind WC gold winners Josh Kerr, Yared Nuguse and Abel Kipsang during the Diamond League in Zurich. 3rd place in one English mile behind Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Nuguse in the Diamond League final in Eugene. Now he has definitely broken through with 2nd place in Marrakech and EC silver in the 5,000 meters in Rome, and also double Olympic participation in Paris. When it comes to his ambitions in the Olympics, he will not set boundaries for himself. The dream is the same as everyone else’s – to go home with gold. PS! On Saturday, Mills will start at one English mile during the Diamond League race in London, where he will meet Nordås for a duel. You can watch the broadcast on news 1 from 15:00. Published 18.07.2024, at 19.07 Updated 18.07.2024, at 19.44
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