I recall hearing how Pre was interested in purchasing his own bar in 1975, and how he wasn't totally motivated to train as hard as he used to.
I recall hearing how Pre was interested in purchasing his own bar in 1975, and how he wasn't totally motivated to train as hard as he used to.
I agree with you that Pre could have ultimately been a better 10k runner. His solo 27:43 was actually a few seconds faster than Shorter ran for the distance in his prime, and Frank raced the event far more frequently than Pre. If I recall, the world record back then was mid 27:30s, so for Pre to get within 10 seconds in his debut was very impressive.
Here is his weekly mileage from January-May 1975
89, 70, 81, 66.5, 79.5, 84.5, 119, 113.5, 113.5, 127, 130, 114.5 (approx), 107.5, 98, 84.5, 83, 86.5, 90, 79,
I think that what they mean by the % VO2 is that Pre's anaerobic threshold was at 92% of his VO2 max. He wasn't saying that Pre's VO2 was 92 ml/kg/min. What is impressive about that is that he could go so hard without going anaerobic compared to his max VO2.
I remember reading that Shorter could operate at about 85% of his Vo2max for the marathon. I would imagine that his anaerobic thresholdwas quite high too.
There's nothing remarkable about that. The typical anaerobic threshold is in the range of 85%-90% of VO2max. Furthermore, that is the ideal marathon pace.
I highly doubt that Pre ran at 92% of his threshold at anaerobic threshold (or the other term, lactate threshold). Had this been true, he would have run the 5k under 13 minutes and the 10k close to 27 flat. I have never seen a credible source express that Pre ran at 92% of his max VO2 at anaerobic threshold. I don't think Pre ever was tested for anaerobic threshold. He was, however, tested in Dallas among a group of America's best distance runners for VO2 max. He scored 84.2 mls/kg/min, a very high value. Frank Shorter was part of that same study, scoring only about 71.5, I think. Shorter later said he found no motivation to push himself on the treadmill with an uncomfortable mask on his face. He wasn't in prime shape and he did not push himself to his limit like Pre did. People often think Frank had a low max aerobic capacity, but we really have no idea how high it was since Frank hated tests in labs. He would rather prove his worth in races.
Al. Salazar, tested by Jack Daniels, in Oregon, did have a very low production of lactate and ran at a very high percentage of his max during long races; higher than most runners by far. He was also very economical (using a low amount of O2) at sub-max paces. I will email Jack and ask if he would provide insight. He was "The Man" who tested the Athletic West runners in the early 80s.