Did Coe Really Only Run 60 miles A Week

"Well, all I can say is: do a bit of research yourself and compare that to what a runner would have had to achieve similar results in recent Olympics...

Then come back and tell me I am mad..."

Well ... you're mad.

There's never been a better middle-distance double in major championship history - Euro, Commonwealth, World or otherwise.

There's never been a better career 1500/800 double in middle distance history.

There's never been a successful 1500m Olympic defence in the modern era.

I'd say it's a safe bet that his methods were a tad successful.

Martin

It's funny ... I've spoken to two low-mileage coaches about that very same issue, and have gotten two very different replies.

One said the plyo-strength training work was essential, the other said it would simply create a muscular runner capable of defending his girlfriend's honour in the pub, but would have little further benefit.

Coe's gym work was indeed substantial - and he was rumoured to be brutishly strong for his size.

Winter sessions - held outdoors - also focused on body strength and trunk flexibility.

Kenyan athletes are also said to spend a great deal of post-running time on torso / plyo work -- much of it focused around medicine balls and sit-ups.

(Andy Barber, a journalist/runner with a UK magazine spent a week with Kenyan athletes in Teddington, West London, and was amazed at the amount of time they spent on abdominal exercises)

Martin

Sorry, but you did not understand my post... I'll try to spell it more clearly for you:

Look at what it would take for a runner to reach both finals in recent Olympics, then achieve similar results as Seb did...

Then tell me I'm mad when I say you would be hard pushed to do such a thing on 60M a week...

Nobody's contesting Seb's greatness here, don't get all defensive... But let's not build a myth of it!

I don't know why you suspect a 1500-meter runner who held the world record at 800 meters and was known to have 46-second 400 speed would have to do a truckload of miles.

Interesting that you would mention the Kenyan runners. Each time I've seen the Ethopian runners training it seems they do quite a bit of plyo work, squats, bounds, trunk twists. Makes since to be unless an athlete would do too much and bulk up.

flamboyant

Well -- if most of today's middle distance runners lean towards longer distances in training (and all evidence says this is so) and they've STILL not been able to replicate Coe's success...even on 100+ miles per week ...

Perhaps it's more correct to say that an athlete that DOESN'T focus on mid-mileage/speed/plyos would be hard pressed to achieve the same results in a major championship.

Martin

And I would love to see David Krummenacker prove this theory correct.

Martin

Well Martin,

you're now trying to avoid the issue... What would it take nowdays to do what Coe did?

And has it occured to you that today's middle distance runners do high mileage for a good reason?

But better, try it yourself:

See what you can achieve on 60M a week and plyos/strength work.

Then do 2 blocks of 3/4 100M weeks, followed by another block at 60M a week focusing on speed work, and see which approach yields the results...

'Generation X' has no time for sifting through countless numbers of books to research misleading training figures.

'Generation X' uses technology to mine for the appropriate data to find the answers.

SO DON'T TELL US TO DO THE RESEARCH - ITS A WASTE OF VALUABLE TIME!

flamboyant wrote:

Then come back and tell me I am mad...

You're mad, mon!

Dear Flamboyant:

As has been stated, and as I am sure you will agree, Seb Coe's past career performances are indeed impressive.

In fact, I doubt you will find any athlete, before or since, who has achieved as much as he has during his - or her - career.

Thus my despair when you say things such as "has it occured to you that today's middle distance runners do high mileage for a good reason?".

What good reason is that, if it's demostratably true that a mid-mileage programme produced results that have yet to be approached, let alone improved upon, in more than 20 years.

If you can't grasp this simple, verifiable, documented, peer-reviewed, incontrovertible cold and hard fact, then I'm afraid there's very little you and I will be able to discuss on this topic in future.

That is my position.

Thanks for your interest and best wishes.

Martin

Malmo,

sorry to say... you can sound and a little silly at times. But pursuing this line of argument... that's worse; that's just clueless!!

flamboyant wrote:

Malmo,

sorry to say... you can sound and a little silly at times. But pursuing this line of argument... that's worse; that's just clueless!!

I do know my sport. The number of rounds these days has been reduced in almost every event compared to Coe's days. Learn your history, kid.

"What good reason is that, if it's demostratably true that a mid-mileage programme produced results that have yet to be approached, let alone improved upon, in more than 20 years."

Dear Martin,

Please accept my apologies... I had not realised that Seb Coe still held World Records.

You must be right then, since standards have obviously not gone up in the last 20 years...

aerobic blaster no.5 wrote:

'Generation X' has no time for sifting through countless numbers of books to research misleading training figures.

'Generation X' uses technology to mine for the appropriate data to find the answers.

SO DON'T TELL US TO DO THE RESEARCH - ITS A WASTE OF VALUABLE TIME!

I'm going to have to start checking passports.Please,Sir.

Did you Cry after your recent long run?

"I do know my sport. The number of rounds these days has been reduced in almost every event compared to Coe's days. Learn your history, kid."

Errrr, sorry to say but... nope!!!

As we have been discussing, I'm talking about Championship results, you boob.

But when a doped-up European 3:28 1500 meter runner can crack 1:43 for the 800, perhaps we can talk.

1:41.73 -- 3:29.77 -- 3:47.33 : Find me a better trio than that.

Martin

First, I would say that Peter Snell was as good (or better) in his era as Coe was in his. Coe had a longer career, but Coe also benefited from professionalism and many more international meetings.

I would wager that 25-30 miles per week may have been overlooked in the general training log because the Coes did not consider wamrups/cooldowns and easy jogs as training. If it's a "Training Log" to them, they may have only recorded "training."

Everytime I've spoken to Snell about it he reaffirms that he spoke with Seb and in tallying all the long yards, concluded that the "never more than 90km/wk" image of him was bunk.

Furthermore, I will not say that it is not impossible that an athlete will not run fast times off of a lower volume program. I will say that I find it unlikely, that it will require a great wealth of talent, that their quality performances will be limited and that they may never reach their potential.

But I still think Coe ran more than is generally contested.

trackhead wrote:

This is always funny topic. I think it comes up about once every 4-6 weeks.

I firmly believe Coe did more than is generally believed. Probably 3000mi/yr when in full training.

3000/52 = 57.69/Week average

call it 55-60