Mark English talks running-doctor balance and what’s required to run faster still

Mark English is looking back on time and thinking forward to another place when he mentions his 3:59. Like any athlete the faster he runs and the more medals he wins the harder it gets to improve, and there are some things he already has in mind.

It’s just three days since English wrote his own small piece of Irish athletics history in Munich, the first Irishman to win a second medal on the European Championship stage — eight years after also winning 800 metres bronze in Zurich — and with that joining the elite women’s club of Sonia O’Sullivan (five), Derval O’Rourke and also now Ciara Mageean (two each).

At age 29 he’s plenty reason to believe his best is yet to come, the next big target being the 2023 World Championships in Budapest. It happened to be during the Munich parade when World Athletics announced the Budapest qualifying standards, the 800m being 1:44.70. Last summer English lowered the Irish record to 1:44.71.

The ranking/quota qualification will also apply, and evidently World Athletics wants to split the balance 50/50, still it’s a reminder of how events are constantly moving on. English may well need to break his Irish record to be sure of getting there.

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So to his 3:59 — and that’s not his mile best, rather his 1,500m best. Not that English has any intention of moving up a distance, it’s just the distance end of his training may need more attention. The World title in Oregon last month was won in 1:43.71 by Kenya’s Emmanuel Korir, and sub-1:44 may ultimately be what’s required to win a medal on the global stage.

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“It’s so hard to say, that territory is so fine,” he says of sub-1:44. “I don’t want to say I can see myself breaking it, maybe I will, maybe I won’t, but ultimately there are things for me to work on going into next year, things I can get better at, that’s the important thing.

“One of those areas is around my Vo2 Max, I’ve said before I want to do more tempo runs to be able to handle the rounds a bit better, all of those aerobic components will definitely help me.

“If you look at that final in Munich, the top two have 1,500m pb’s which are in the 3:30s (Mariano Garcia’s 3:39.06, Jake Wightman’s 3:29.23), and my pb is 3:59. So these are areas I can definitely work on, and if I can improve on them I think that will translate to improvement over 800m.

“But the World Championships are a completely different level, and I think I realised that this year. You can’t get away with anything at World Championship level, and I know going into next year I’ll need to be 100 per cent just to have a shout of making the final.”

Back at home in Donegal this week in advance of a club homecoming at Finn Valley on Wednesday night, English has other things in mind, including when to return as Doctor Mark English. He’s one year into a two-year medical scheme due for completion by 2025, having worked over that past year in Mayo, Galway and Roscommon hospitals, before taking leave over the summer.

“I think it definitely helped towards my speed,” he says of returning to full-time training. “You do need a lot of rest to be able to produce your best speed, and I was able to get done all the training I needed, there were no excuses.

“It was tough being up in Mayo, up until around January time. I was training out on the Claremorris track, doing all the work on my own, then up to Feidhlim Kelly (his coach at the Dublin Track Club) at the weekends.

“Then I was in Galway, again training on my own at the Daingean track, and up to Dublin for the week. I was in Roscommon for a period as well, that was a bit better, I could get up and down to Dublin in just over an hour and a half.

“It wasn’t the most ideal, but I managed it. It’s not so much the work, it’s the night shifts that are very tiring, and just not conducive to being able to perform at a high level in athletics. Galway University Hospital were very accommodating in allowing me to finish up early, give me the permission to end my year early and get ready for these championships, and Oregon as well. It’s exciting for next year but it’s also going to be extremely tough, and I’m 100 per cent aware of that.”

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English also has two European Indoor 800m medals — silver from Prague in 2015 and bronze from Glasgow in 2019 — although full-time training doesn’t always guarantee better results. He’ll weigh up his options before deciding what balance comes best.

“It’s still a bit premature, the original plan was to go back in October, but I’ll have to wait and see.

“I can get back to it when the time is right, it’s just a matter of ironing out a few issues at the minute. It’s hard to know, I’ve probably performed the best out of all my years this year, when I was working. I just need to see what suits me best going forward.”