Has anyone tried any of Zatopeks training techniques?

I think it leads to burnout and maxes out early. But it's hard to compare times back then to today, so who knows. Maybe he was on to something, but the times of his era are easily done by sub-elite amateurs today.

Ghostofthatoneguy wrote:

Discus.

no, running

Has anyone tried any of Zatopeks training techniques?

Emil Zátopek's pb's are 8:08.8 3000m, 13:57.0 5000m, and 28:54.2 for 10km. the 10km time was a WR when he ran it in June 1954. it lasted 2 years until it was broken by Sándor Iharos of Hungary.

he was a charismatic guy who made lots of friends and for reasons I have never really understood crowds loved him so much that even the opposition crowd cheered his name during races. he had an idiosyncratic running action that no one in their right mind would want to emulate but for some reason conversations about running and training methods seem to regularly cycle back to him.

Ron Clarke of Australia ran faster times on much simpler training and it has long confused me why no one ever wants to emulate his methods.

there is one guy I know of who tried Zátopek's training methods, an Australian, and he made some good progress, but was unable to make the breakthrough to real world class. whether that's because he just didn't have what it takes or he didn't follow Zátopek's methods accurately enough is probably impossible to say.

Allan Lawrence was 5th in the Australian 3 miles Championship in 1952. supposedly inspired by Zátopek's performance in Helsinki where he won a unique treble of 5000m, 10,000m and marathon, Lawrence wrote to him and they corresponded for some time. Lawrence's 3 mile time improved to 14:38.2 for the 1953 Australian Championships and then 14:16.4 by the following year which qualified him for the Commonwealth Games in Vancouver where he ran 14:16.0 for 10th place. he was injured in 1955 but came back in 1956 to win the Australian 6 miles in 29:05.2 and 2 days later he was 2nd in the 3 miles in 13:45.0 which was his outdoor best.

at the Olympics in Melbourne he took bronze in the 10,000m in 28:53 but was eliminated in the 5000m after a disappointing 14:14 in his heat. that wasn't quite the end of his major championship career, he went to Rome in 1960 and again disappointed in the heats of the 5000m where he ran 14:10.0. he went to the United States for a couple of years, was 2nd to Bill Dellinger in the 1959 AAU indoor 3 miles in 13:38.6, won the Knights of Columbus 2 miles in 8:46.7, 3rd in the Los Angeles Coliseum Relays 2 miles behind Max Truex and John Miecznikowski, won the AAU indoor 3 miles in Feb 1960 in his indoor best time of 13:26.3. this time he beat both Truex and Miecznikowski but they both finished behind the Canadian Doug Kyle who ran 13:45.4 for 2nd place.

in the lead in to the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome he won the NCAA 5000m in 14:19.8, beating both Pat Clohessy (14:32.0) and Billy Mills (14:48.5), and he also won the AAU 10,000m in Bakersfield in 30:11.0 beating a class field of Douglas Kyle (Canada's representative in the Olympic 10,000m in 1960), Max Truex (6th in the Olympic 10,000m), the transplanted Scot Peter McArdle and Bob Soth (US Olympic 5000m competitior).

that was pretty much the end of Allan Lawrence. he won the 3 miles at the Texas Relays in October 1960, won some indoor races in the 1961 season, the Millrose Games 2 miles, the Mason-Dixon Games 2 miles in Louisville, KY but was 4th in the AAU 3 miles in New York.

his personal bests were:

3000m 8:10.8 Gothenburg, Sweden 22 Sep 1957

2 miles 8:46.0i Los Angeles, CA 13 Feb 1960

2 miles 8:48.2 Geelong, Australia 14 Nov 1956

3 miles 13:26.3i New York, NY 20 Feb 1960

3 miles 13:45.0 Melbourne, Australia 12 Mar 1956

5000m 13:54.2 Moscow, Russia 4 Aug 1957

6 miles 28:10.4 Auckland, New Zealand 21 Dec 1957

10,000m 28:53.6 Melbourne, Australia 23 Nov 1956

cheers.

It's like Bob Schul training. 13:38 in 1964 and two years later Clark is running 13:16. Train like Zatopek if you want to leave your best on the table.

I tried his running in the bathtub method. I put my dirty cloths in the bath. I ran for 2 hours. By the end I had done the training run but also cleaned my cloths at the same time.

Banana Bread wrote:

I tried his running in the bathtub method. I put my dirty cloths in the bath. I ran for 2 hours. By the end I had done the training run but also cleaned my cloths at the same time.

Why do you have so many cloths? Do you stitch them together to make clothes or something? Or do you clean a lot?