? what are the basic philosophies of his training?
? what are the basic philosophies of his training?
lie about your mileage
link to some of the greats and a snap shot of their training.
Seb Coe was a genetically talented freak. The guy weighed 120 pounds but could still run 21.5 for 200m, no wonder he was a fantastic 800/1500m guy. He didn't just have fast-twitch muscle fibers, he had super-twitch muscle fibers.
I don't think he succeeded because of his training, he was good because of his incredible natural speed coupled with his extremely low bady fat. Peter Coe was a good coach, but even a monkey could blow himself up with a lit stick of dynomite. My grandmother could have coached him to a four minute mile. Seb was that good.
Train Coe like El Guerrouj did- 4-5 tempos a week, hills, 100 mile weeks etc etc-and he either breaks down or runs 1:39/3:24
Buy "Better Training for Distance Runners." It is well worth it.
I'm not sure that this really true - if he was a freak then why didn't he run faster as a junior athlete? 3.45 and 8.14 (1500/3000m) are all that fast for someone who eventually ran 1.41.7/3.29.7 (800/1500m). Heck I know guys from my town who ran faster in HS than that.
I think he had talent that took structured development (no stones unturned was the attitude that Peter Coe professed) to optimize. He explored his endurance (early years) and his speed (later years when his body had matured) balanced by well developed strength - both in weights/circuits and hills/plyometrics training. His Endurance, by running 3000m as a junior and british XC, along with the Speed (Lactate Tolerance sessions) and Speed-endurance (20-30x200m) were all developed with the eye on becoming the best in the world - not just to win the local conference championship, or even NCAA title.
The problem in the US is too much focus - since there is an inordinate amount of talent available - on the minor things like Conference and NCAA instead of looking at the bigger picture. While some coaches and athletes do manage to get beyond the confines of their little "pond", not enough "Americans" can project to this level. Those in the NCAA system (men's) that can say this have mostly other experiences to draw from - Lagat (Kenya), Willis (NZ) even Sullivan/Brannen (International opportunities as Canadians). Webb proves that not having enough International experience in racing when younger has hampered his development - too much about fast racing in HS, not enough about "championship" racing. Heck even Drossin ran World Jnr XC enough to expose her to the levels required to succeed later on. US athleetes need to focus in HS less on the state championship, or even footlocker, and clamour to be on National teams (World XC, World Jnr, Pan Am Jr, etc.) - like Hasay is doing. This is what will take the talented to the next level, without having to learn how to race internationally when they get older. Heck even Rowbury showed that she wasn't really ready at the Olympics, in part due to that lack of experience. Flanagan shouldn't be the exception, she should be the norm!!
From what i have seen the Moroccan system is very much based on Better Training for Distance Runners' philosophies.
When El G was the world indoor 1500 and mile record holder he said he did not even run more then 60mpw in base phase. Im sure he increased this as he progressed to a 1500/5k guy.
Much of what i have read about El G came from Bakken's site.
http://www.mariusbakken.com/index.php?parent=11&groupid=21
Anyone have any other good resources on info?
The system used by moroccan national team is based on that book.
hard running, hard workouts at mixed paces all year, hard gym sessions, lots of hills, 60-100+mpw.
coe was a product of hard training, carefully constructed, tailored to him and applied from a young age. They do this in morocco in their national system and the result is they have produced athletes of coe's calibre.
A lot of the training being done in the US is in the dark ages compared to that stuff, which nobody in africa or europe sees as a strange or crazy, because it works the best. Its no longer classified as a system, its just what most people over here do as training norm.
Multi lateral training and development.
a balanced view wrote:
Buy "Better Training for Distance Runners." It is well worth it.
This is what I was going to say.
As for explaining why Seb suddenly went from good to multiple world record holder, the answer is EPO. This post may get deleted for me saying that, but it's the truth, and it is most likely the explanation for Ovett and Cram's greatness as well. If you think otherwise, you might ask yourself how Coe got an infection of the blood, why GB had such great runners in one short time period, why they seemded to improve quite suddenly, why their times have only been equaled years later by the greatest African runners of the world, why their times haven't been equaled by any non-africans, and why there was a reference to EPO in the first edition of Coe's book.
Coe was an incredibly talented guy who also had great training, but it was a little something else that made him a 1:41 guy.
Shut up you clown. EPO was available until 1988 long after Coe, Ovett and Cram had done their best races.
If that was the case and couple that with the single minded focus of athlete-coach, How the Hell did Scott compete with those guys being such a knuckle head as he was in his training and racing? He mentions turning away from Athletics West when there was pressure to blood dope.