John Walker's Training

The 2 1/2 mile hill that HRE refers to was actually a road called West Coast Road that went to the top of the Waitakere ranges. Yes ! It was the same hill that appears in Arthur Lydiard's 22 mile Waiatarua Run.'

Interestingly, John could not do Hill Work in the Lydiard fashion (A controversial aspect of his programmes) but found he could do the uphill aspect very well.

To run down that hill would have been stressful on joints and John alo had problems with Compartment Syndrome.

So he ran the hill with Arch driving alongside him and then at the top John jumped in the car, returned to the bottom and repeated the workout.

Sadly, West Coast Road is so busy with Traffic that Running is now a dangerous activity. To do John's workout now on that road would be ny on impossible.

HRE, NWMaster, Walker, along with Ovett was also an idol of mine. I always admired how he ran the 800 rounds in major championships without a hope to win simply for the sharpening. I remember parts of all the stories you tell. Wasn't he on sub 5:00 pace or something when he dropped at 23 miles of the marathon? Jelley also 'spiked' Walker's training once each year by running approx. 40 X 400 with short rest(1:00 comes to mind)very fast. I remember that the session would start and lab technicians would draw blood from his lobe every so often checking lactate levels and the workout would continue until specific levels were reached. This was the initial workout to start his peaking phase. Reading about the enormous pressure he was under for Montreal is evident by his utter relief as he hits the line. Quite a racer.

This from Track Technique, June of '76... Kim can probably comment on how accurate this is.

John Walker

Non-competitive season:

M-10 miles easy, 56:00 on grass w/ flat & some hills

T-11 miles on hills, running the flats hard

W-18 miles at under 6:00 pace

T- 11 miles am, 7 miles hard PM

F-10 miles on grass

S-15 miles on flat road in 1:21:00 (@5:24/miles)

S-18-23 miles on a hard course maintaining a 6:00 pace

Volume:100-105 miles/week

Competitive season:

M- AM- 10 miles fast PM 2 miles at a reasonable pace (@8:40-8:47)

T- AM 8 miles in hills PM 6 x 200 in 26

W-AM 8 miles fast Pm-2 miles in 50-60 yard reps very hard; or 6 x 400 in 55-57

T- AM 8 miles PM 2x1 mile 4:03 average, 3 miles in 13:40; or 15 x 200 in 26; or 6x400 in 55-57

F-AM 8 miles PM 8 x 150 fast

S-Race, or time trial over 600 or 800m; or 15x400 averaging 61

S-18 mile run at a good pace (1:44:00-5:45+)

Special considerations:

Walker runs all of his miles at "fast" paces.

He avoids severe hill work because of recurrent knee problems.

He runs 2 seasons per year, one in New Zealand, and one in Europe.

Training cycle: Build-up - Stamina 6-8 weeks, speed 4-6 weeks, pacing 8-10 weeks, easing off-2-5 weeks, and then begin again.

Walker has long been one of my favorites to. He, Dixon and Quax, along with Steve Scott, were really the last of the "go anywhere, race anyone," world class middle distance guys. I was also racing on the track in Scandanavia when he ran the sub 3:50. I recall hoping our paths would cross but they never did. And the shoes were the best. Anyone from Brooks reading this?

HRE, JW ran the ten miler from what I read in 50-55 minutes & still had time to eat his lunch in the remaining minutes of his hour lunch plus get back into his work clothing! Walker had something most of us never had, damn tough SOB!

Thanks

This is real interesting. That guy was an animal!

The marathon story seems to have gotten better as the years

drift by !

As HRE said he ran that as part of his training. Pace was arond 5:30 - 5:40.

It was here in Rotorua where the record for the course is held by the one and only Jack Foster.

The record is 2;17 and that was when Jack was capable of 2:11. It is one tough Course.

So for JW to average 5:30's on that course for 20 miles or so as part of training shows his ability.

These days a 2:25 will go close to winning the race !

BTW : My claim to fame in all this is that I finished 7th behind John at what many call his "breakthrough" race (800m)in Tauranga in Jan 1972. Cold, wet night, soft Grass track.

JW ran 1:51.5. I ran 1:56.

This year in same meet,on the same track (In better conditions) Nick Willis ran 1:58 to win.

Makes us old guys feel good !!!!

You are right Tinman. He was 4th in the World Cross Country, followed closely by teamamte Euan Robertson (6th Oly Steeple 1976). New Zealand won the Teams race that year.

Sadly, Euan passed away 7 years ago (Heart attack after a run .. Turned out he had heart defect ... his mother had died of same thing in her early 30's .. All the running Euan did actually kept him alive another 17 years.

Kim,

Thanks again for sharing stuff we in America have no real clue about, firsthand, that is. It seems to me that your country was producing more topflight middle distance and distance runners per capita than any other in the world. I wonder how many elite runners we would have now, say sub 3:56, 13:35, 28:15, 2:11 now if we had the same proportions as NZ in the 70s. Any math wizzes out there?

WALKER: I needed people around me. I was basically lazy. I needed a kickstart to get going every night. And I would sometimes drive lots of miles to meet people just to get going. Once I got running, I often left the people I started out with. I used them to get going. When it came to the track, most of my track work was done on my own because the sessions that I did, no one else could do, because I was running close to four-minute miles in training. But there was always a group of athletes around me. Once I got on the track or got into the mileage, I became very focussed. Like Steve, six-minute-mile pace was very slow for me in training. Most of my training was done at 5:20-5:30 pace. I made sure I ran quality miles, so when I saw a hill, I attacked the hill - and made sure I was totally exhausted at the top and ran down and recovered and kept going. It's important to attack your training and be focussed on what you're trying to achieve. When I first started training seriously when I was 18, my coach said to me, "I believe you can run a sub-3:50 mile". He saw the potential in me that I couldn't see myself. So instead of coaching me as a four-minute miler, he coached me as a sub-3:50 miler and he made me believe that I was better than what I was at the time and he saw the light where I possibly couldn't. So all my training sessions were quite intense but unlike a lot of athletes, I never ran at speed at any stage. I think twice in my life did I ever run just 200s, 300s or 400s.

Regarding people around him. JW also needed a kick start in the mornings so that he would do his 40 to 50 min scheduled

jog.

An old close mate & workmate of mine Roy Stevenson (no relation)took it upon himself to call John every morning and go get him out of bed, and run with him.

I was out of NZ at the time but Roy did this 1974 - 75.

so he also did a morning-jog ever day?

Where is the difference to the Training of Peter Snell in the Base-Phase?100mpw at a fast pace + morning-jogs, isn't that exactly what Lydiard advocates?

In my opinion, there's not enough emphasis on recovery-jogs these days.

HRE,

i knew a guy how worked for nike when walker was wearing their shoes in the 80's. walker's training flat was a model designed by jeff johnson called "the internationalist". it was a pretty cool trainer with a waffle outsole. walker insisted that the midsole cushioning material be very firm. no "nike air" for him.

walker certainly was a great competitor.

i heard his health might be improving. does anyone know?

Kim, Thanks for setting me straight. I'm sure the years clouded the Foster story into Walker actually running 2:11 pace. I am definately appreciating your insight on this great runner. Keep it coming.

Nobody looked more powerful coming down the homestretch than John Walker! Tall, strong, hair flowing. He was my hero.

BTW, how is he doing with his Parkinsons?

Kim Stevenson wrote:You are right Tinman. He was 4th in the World Cross Country, followed closely by teamamte Euan Robertson (6th Oly Steeple 1976). New Zealand won the Teams race that year.

Sadly, Euan passed away 7 years ago (Heart attack after a run .. Turned out he had heart defect ... his mother had died of same thing in her early 30's .. All the running Euan did actually kept him alive another 17 years.

Kim, Robertson's early death was a very sad event, indeed. I ran against him at World Cup in '77.

Page 96 in 'Golds Aren't Easy', has a photo of a lunch hour run with Robertson, Alan Moir, Ross Beckingham, Dick Tayler, Graham Scarf, Harold Genge, and Keith Dowland. Keith's lived in Austin for a lot of years now, used to do some road racing in Texas. He ran several events that I directed, always, always, liked to have a few pints afterward. Was very reserved, quiet kind of guy though. Anyway, years later I get my copy of Dick's book, and there's the pic with Keith and I'm wondering if Kim or anyone has some stats on what he did in NZ.

That Kiwi group from the 70s has had its rough times health wise in later years between Robertson's death, Tayler's arthritis, and Walker's Parkinson's Disease. And I think that Dave Sirl, who was part of their 1975 World XC championship team had a major heart attack. I hope they all hold up well from here on. They certainly gave us enough to appreciate.

HRE:

Good sentiment.