As I was looking up informaton to make some of the previous posts, I came across the workout I ran with Seb Coe and his club in 1988. I have to admit, I was very apprehensive and nervous, taking the London Underground down to Wood Green. We would be doing the workout near the track, a field near Haringey.
I was in good shape, as two weeks prior I had won the Chicago Shamrock Shuffle in 23:50 in the cold with light snow flurries, running 14:46 through 3 miles, and then 9:04 for the last just under 2 miles. And 2 weeks prior to that won the USATF 3000m in New York City Madison Square Garden in 7:52.9 (4:17 at the mile), an indoor PR. But still, what would I do if Seb put in a surge? Do you go with him, or is that racing? How about if I get tired, do I stop the workout for a warm-down? Most distance runners, if you start the workout, you finish the workout. I am sure I showed up white as a ghost, as the 25 or so runners were stretching getting ready for the warm-up run of 25-30 minutes. Heck - that was some of my easy day recovery runs!
Here is the entire workout: On the grass
5 minutes - up and down a small hill
4 minutes hi knee and 4 minutes kicking your rear end
then easy running
4 laps of about 300 meters, relaxed pace with a short recovery between
then,run in a big circle, following the runner in front of you. Each time Peter Coe blew the whistle, you dropped and did 4 push-ups. Great stuff looking around, and seeing everyone on the same page. We also did this with part on the side of the hill. So at times, when the whistle blew, you were facing up or down. We jogged a bit.
2x600 (1:40 time) and took 300 jog between each
2x500 (1:20 timed) and took 200 jog
2x400 (1:05 timed) and took 150 jog
2x300 (:48 timed) and tood 150 jog
jogged a bit
Indian Relay, 8 laps on the field. Ran Indian file, and when the whistle blew, you moved to the front. This was for 5 minutes, and I wrote "surge" to the front.
then, 4-man relay, for a total of 8 laps. I had three others on my team, and was in competition with 6 or 7 other teams. I can remember working hard to move my team up, and slapping hands with my partner.
Then, they broke us up into 2-man teams, and Peter paired me with Seb. I am sure I was scared. The workout was getting long, and I had my watch going from the beginning. I looked down, and we were well past an hour of runnning by now.
Off we all went, I was in the lead group. Do you sprint ahead? That would look stupid! I thought. I ran with the lead 5 runners, and slapped Seb's hand. As he came around, there were 4 runners who were sprinting away, "running away from a world record holder." Seb was just running his pace. He slapped my hand, and I looked up and it was like college days. I took off and caught the clowns on the back side of the loop. "OK, if you can be aggressive, I will too!" I pulled away from the group, and was going to slap Seb's hand in the lead by about 3-4 seconds. As I got closer to handing off, Peter yelled to the runners that were waiting for their parter -"Go!" What the heck! I came in, and everyone else had left except Seb. I gave Peter a very grumpy look, and said, "What was all that about!" He said, "I want him to work, and if you gave him the lead, he could just coast."
What! I thought, a world record holder coast! Never may it be! Seb caught the group, and off I went again, content this time to come in with them.
1.5 miles warm-down, and 11.5 miles for the workout.
Took the train back to Southgate where I was living and training for 2 1/2 weeks. Took a long nap.
Next day, March 27, I ran 27 mins in the morning and 33 in the afternoon. Visited the Tower of London, and wrote: "Hamstrings very sore." Only ran 3 miles the next day. What a wimp.
js