Q. What does running mean to you today?
A. I now look at it as an opportunity to get outside and clear my mind while getting my cardio in.
Q. What is your guilty pleasure?
A. Chocolate cake.
Q. What was your best ever run?
A. Running for six miles along the seafront while on holiday in the south of France. It’s the longest I’ve ever run! It was so beautiful and relaxing, before I knew it I had been running for three miles and still had to get back.
Q. What is the most important lesson that running has taught you?
A. How to relax.
Q. Who, if anyone, is your running hero?
A. I don’t have one.
Q. What’s your biggest disappointment?
A. Becoming ill during the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, and thus not winning the 200m gold medal.
Q. What’s people’s greatest misconception about running?
A. That all running is the same. For instance, my answers to these questions are related to the running I do now that I have retired. But during my athletic career, I was a sprinter – and the two types of running require completely different skills, training, ability and mentality. Running can be relaxing and recreational; sprinting is neither of those, and I have not sprinted since I retired 14 years ago.
Q. What medal are you most proud of?
A. I am proud of each of them for different reasons because they each mark an individual significant achievement. I don’t like the idea of choosing one above the rest because it indicates that the others are less significant.
Q. Were you ever tempted run a race longer than 400m?
A. Absolutely not! I was a 100/200m sprinter until 18, then strictly a 200m sprinter until 21, with the exception of the 4x400m relay. It wasn’t until I started my professional career that I began running 400m, which was actually a stretch for me. My big advantage was speed, so I had to work really hard at speed endurance to become a good 400m sprinter.
Q. Music or the sound of silence?
A. The sound of silence. Or, better still, the sound of nature.
Q. What’s your favourite meal?
A. I don’t have one favourite; I have favourites, and they change every day. Today I’m craving pizza from one of my favourite pizza restaurants; tomorrow it could be steak.
Q. Tell us a surprising thing about you?
A. I was painfully shy as a kid.
Q. Describe yourself as a runner in one word?
A. Slow.
Michael Johnson was speaking at the Nolan Partners Sport Industry Breakfast Club. He provides world-class training advice through Michael Johnson Performance: michaeljohnsonperformance.com
