DAN Robinson, pictured, has opted for the comfort and routine of home in Nailsworth to give him that extra edge in the European Championships marathon in Barcelona tomorrow.While the majority of the Great Britain team had been at a training camps in Portugal or at high altitude in the Pyrenees, Robinson was happy to stay at home with his wife Jess and two young boys, Jasper and Max, to fine-tune his preparations under the watchful eye of coach Chris Frapwell.
"I much prefer to stick with the routine I have at home and just keep doing what I normally do rather than go away. It suits me better," said Robinson. "I am very pleased with the way training has gone since the London Marathon (where he dropped out with a calf injury).
"I have done four solid 10k races and, in the last five weeks, some very good sessions. I'm ready for it now."
Tomorrow's race will be his seventh major championships. He made his debut at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens and has competed since in two World Championships, the 2006 Commonwealth Games, in which he won a bronze medal, the Europeans and the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
Robinson, 35, believes that likely hot conditions and a four-lap city centre course makes the waiting game, at which he is an expert, the key to a good result tomorrow.
"If, as predicted, it is very hot then I think the race will start slowly and then just wind up and up," he said.
"I have looked at the entry and there are a mass of guys who can run between 2hrs 10m-12mins. There probably isn't the quality at the front end that there has been in the past but that means it will be extremely competitive."
Robinson has always run his best races when starting conservatively and powering through at the finish. The one time he changed tactics, at the 2006 European Championships in Gothenburg, he struggled.
"I'll be looking to run a sensible first half tomorrow and then come through, because you have to run even pace in conditions like that. It would be nice to be competitive and run under 2hrs 15mins and finish in the top 10."
● Jo Pavey is targeting the Chicago marathon after suffering the bitter disappointment of pulling out of the European Championships.
The Bristol & West AC life member was due to run the women's 10,000m on Wednesday but was forced to withdraw with a niggling toe injury.
"I'm trying to keep the volume of my training high and if I stop doing track work in spikes and start settling it down, I'm hopeful of a quick recovery," said Pavey. "I hope it will settle down and allow me to do the marathon in the autumn."
ShareThis