Real Lyfe Nobodee wrote:
Many times these fartleks had fast paced easy portions. So if they did a 2 on, 2 off fartlek, they were alternating 4:40 and 5:20 pace, making it an average of 5:00 pace.
Also, races are a great stimulus. I like how he did a 15k a few weeks out.
Steve Jones = The Real Deal
The 15K race was the weekend before his World Record marathon, with 18 miles the next day at 8-9,000 ft. altitude.
“I never wore a watch in races and I didn't know what the record was,” Jones says. “The splits didn't mean much. Early on it felt easy. After 19 miles I was out on my own. I remember Chris Brasher, the race director from London, was there, and at about 23 miles he shouted at me, 'Two more 5:00 miles and you'll get the record!' I thought he meant the course record. So I just kept my head down and carried on. The crowd was going crazy and people were jumping up and down but I wasn't sure what was going on. After the finish it was like being in a dream. Yes, that day in Chicago did change my life forever.”
“He took the marathon into a new era. The way he ran that day showed a total disregard for the marathon as an endurance event,” says De Castella. That's exactly what everyone has been saying about Kenyans and Ethiopians since about 2004.
Jones explains it in his usual unpretentious terms.
“I was a fit athlete,” he says. “I was very fit at that time as a 10,000-meter runner. That's all you need to be.”
His training, long unmeasured repeat efforts on road or grass, plus high-quality long runs that we now call “tempo” was remarkably like Renato Canova's “extending specific endurance” principle (which was already being done by Steve Jones 33 years ago)... that's so HOT and CUTTING EDGE... AT LETSRUN.COM
WORK was the only Jones principle.
“I don't think I had a great deal of talent. I started at the bottom and worked my way up,” he says.
Steve Jones considered running full time after winning the Chicago Marathon in 1984 but decided against it and carried on working in the RAF starting at 8am and finishing at 4.15, even missing lunch to fit in a training session between 11.45-12.30. Most Wednesdays he would turn out for the RAF to race over the country or in low key track races while on Saturday racing for his club Newport Harriers.
In 1976 he finished 7th in the Welsh Championships but was not selected for the World Cross Country Championships and had to watch Carlos Lopes win and he then vowed that Wales would have to pick him from now on… he only lost one Welsh title in the following eight years also placing third just behind Carlos Lopes at the World Cross Country Championships.
The formula was one of lots of steady running and long interval speed work…but steady to Steve Jones is pretty fast! He was said “There is no easy running in the week, no plodding or jogging”. He also had a remarkable recovery rate, once he spent six weeks in plaster and then took only 6 weeks to run a 46:20 10mile road race! Also in 1983, a foot injury sustained just before the Chicago marathon (forcing him to pull out) put him on the sidelines for 2 months… within 3 months he claimed his 3rd place at the World Cross Country Championships.
What shows Jonesy's character is that even after his second Chicago win, he kept his $60 a day RAF mechanic's job, running to work in the morning, adding in a 45-minute lunch run and then running home, often in the dark.
When asked what his mile splits were at Chicago, Jones simply shrugged. He raced like he trained, running efforts as hard as he could.
Those who trained with Jonesy during his heyday know that he would often run his workouts hard enough that he would have to step off the Potts Field track... and VOMIT (= an emesis episode) into a trash can during the short recovery between each interval.
Typical Winter Training Week
Mon - Am - 10miles @ 5min milling
Pm - 12miles @ 5min milling
Tues - Am - 4x5mins Hard
Pm - 10miles
Wed - Am – Race
Thur - Am - 10x2min Hills
Pm - 10miles
Fri - Am - 8miles
Pm - 10miles
Sat - Am - Race or 16x1min
Sun - Am - 20miles @ 6:00 mile pace (or 5:20 pace)
Steve Jones always ran hard and was always going for world records, In 1986 he won a bronze medal in the 10,000m at the Commonwealth Games. In the European Championships shortly after, he once again competed in the marathon.
Leading from the start and breaking away from the pack, Jones ran a brilliant race up to the 20 mile mark. At that point he was leading by over two minutes and on schedule for another world record. However, he then “hit the wall” and suffered terribly in the final six miles.
He slowed to a virtual shuffle, but refused to quit as he watched other competitors catch and pass him.
Two years later, in the 1988 New York City Marathon...Mr. Jones won with a time of 2:08:20.
Steve Jones still holds the men’s British marathon record.
That work gave him an extraordinary four years of successes that included the two victories at Chicago, one at London (1985), one at New York (1988), second to Toshihiko Seko at Boston (1987), third at the world cross country championships (1984), and some phenomenally courageous track races (see this YouTube clip, for example).
"The one race that stands out in my mind is New York, after Reebok dropped his contract," Ardrey said. "He ran with a plain white singlet, and won, to show something to all the people who had written him off."
Reebok immediately resigned Jones, who has been a popular spokesman for the company ever since.
The YouTube video is titled "One of the most courageous things you will ever see on the track." In that Van Dam race, Jones -- an Olympic 10,000 meter runner before his marathon and half marathon world records -- made an early breakaway and ran alone far in the lead. At the start of the bell lap, however, he is reeled in by Gidemis Shahanga, a top Ethiopian runner.
I won't spoil the final 400 meters for you, but a note at the end of the clip reads; "You can teach a person to run, but you can't teach courage."
“Family, friend, and INTEGRITY are words that sum up Jones."
http://bobhodge.us/running-logs/steve-jones/https://www.runnersworld.com/newswire/30-years-ago-steve-jones-transformed-the-marathonhttp://www.dailycamera.com/get-out/ci_24158452/runner-steve-jones-marathon-boulder-sports-hall-fame