Mihaly Igloi

To realy become fully familiar with Coach Igloi's training you need to read this whole thread. I learn more each time I read it.

I did not train with Igloi long enough, nor was I strong enough, to reap the full benefit of it. While I was with Igloi he was training Norm Higgins who was first American in Boston (5th) in 1966 and who also won the US Championship a month later that same year.

When coach was in Greece, he was training many distance runners, including marathoners also.The best of them ran 2:12 and the next better was Mihalis Kousis , who competed at three olympic marathons-Montreal,Moscow and L.A.In 1979, at Mediterrenian Games, Kousis won the marathon race, in 2:06 but the time was not ratified because the course found 900m. less.Even so this time was amazing! Kousis also was 10th in European Championship at Prague 1978 running 2:14.He was holder many national records-13:35 for 5Km, 28:44 for 10Km and 4min for the mile.

Thanks ancient runner. I am certainly glad you are on this thread to fill us in on Coaches years in Greece. You help fill in the picture.

We need someone from his Hungarian period. That would be very interesting also.

Happy Holiday.

Orville

Hi! If you do a search on 'Real Low Mileage Performers' you will find a post by Jim Spivey, who trained in the same method but obviously did tremendously well in the 1,500 and mile. My contention in this thread was that different people respond well to different types of training because our muscle compositions are different. That is the belief held by those at

www.slowtwitch.com

anyway.

Let us know what you think.

I spoke with Norm Higgins who coached me in the 70’s and 80’s to get his input on the Igloi system. As Orville Atkins said Higgins had some decent results in the marathon. Higgins made two interesting points

1. Igloi’s way was European based. So it was difficult for a lot of American’s to positively react to it. Patience was a key to the training. Long term goals and not looking for daily gratification of the hard work were also keys. Before training with Igloi Higgins had been in the army in West Germany and was coached by the 1960 West German Olympic coach. So when he went to California, he had a background that suited the Igloo method.

2. Igloi conducted practice like he was directing an orchestra with many different types of athletes all doing different task at the same time. But somehow everything blended well

My training was based on this system. I had a lot of patience and did not question. When I traveled on several international teams, I could see where my work ethic and training was much tougher than my American competitors. I did not always beat them, but did have a lot of breakthroughs both domestically (12 National Titles- several American Records) and internationally (world record in the 5000m, 2mile outdoor and indoor and 3000m indoor). I believe I did not possess the physiological talent but through Igloi based training under Higgins, I made big improvements over a four-year period and continued to sustain high level results for several years,

Progression in four years

1974 (age 18) 400m 63.0 800 2.17.4 1500 4.28 1mile 4.55 2mile 11.00

1975 (age 19) 400m 61.5 800 2.06.5 1500 4.11 3000m 9.22

1976 (age 20) 400m 60.5 800m 2.03.8 1500 4.02.6 (AR) 3000 9.00

1977 (age 21) 400m 59.8 800m 2.02.9 1500 4.02.6 3000 (AR) 8.46.6

I sense that Igloi understood uniqueness of individuals he coached and he knew how to implent training that worked for that person. But it was difficult for many of his American athletes to have the patience to let that happen because this system was totally foreign to them. Those that did found great individual success over time.

Wow, JMSquare, you really look better at the longer distances than the middle ones, looking at your times. Your 3,000 metre time was much better a performance than for distances below that. What were your 5K and 10K bests?

Hi JMSquare

Did you know Steve Prefontain when you ran back then before he passed on? He passed on in 1973 I think, or was it 74, when you were 17-18.

I lived in Eugene Oregon for 3 years from 1990-1993 and have fond memories running there.

To all those who trained under Igloi: Because its been mentioned that igloi gave all of his athletes individual training programs, does this mean that none of his athletes ran together at practice. During my time running (not long only two years and a couple months) its always been the case that I had better workouts while running with my teamates. Was this the case for all of you guys under Igloi or did you just learn to run very well by yourself?

Thanks for your responses and this is one of the best threads on lets run. it should get archived at the front of the forum as wel...

I often ran alone but there were times that he put me with others. He would test runners by putting them with someone a little better or by asking the stronger runner to run a certain workout and the runner being tested was to run with him. Bob Schul's book "In the Long Run" does a good job of explaining this. Bob was told to run with Laszlo Tabori during his first few work outs with the Los Angeles Track Club and Tabori just did his workout with Schul hanging on. Coach was finding out what Schul could do and what shape he was in. All training was individualized.

thanks for the info. this is the fastest response I've ever gotten here on lets run. By any chance would you have finished the compilation of your training that you did under Fred Foot and Mihaly igloi?

I have a first draft of the majority of my running career but am not nearly finished because I am computer illiterate and am doing other things right now. It is in the mail waiting to be sent section of a computer system that I no longer subscribe to. The East York years with Fred Foot is in three sections and is 18 pages long. The Los Angeles Track Club section (Igloi) is in 2 sections and runs 13 pages. I have also recorded races and training from before and after these coaches. It all needs to be proofed, spell checked and edited. It does give a sample of the type of workouts both coaches gave me but, since I was not world class I do not see why there would be much interest. It also contains races I ran and stories, a good number of which I have told on this board.

I think that it would be of interest to many people because it gives a small snapshot into what type of program thes coaches ran. I'm not sure if Fred Foot gave individual workouts as well but surely there were some aspects of both Foot's, and Igloi's training that were present in the programs that they gave to all of their runners both elite and non elite. I think that your records of training under them would help shed some light on these things. Well at least thats why I'm interested in them.

Additionally for all the coaches who currently use and Igloi style program with their athletes what kind of results do you guys have. What type of results did coaches like Lazlo Tabori, Joe Douglas, coach Marden, Norm Higgins, Bob Schul, and Merle Mcgee (besides Johnny Gray) have with this type of training?

top story on Coach Marden's great 1978 team...

sorry, this should work

Shalane Flanagan - AR 8:33 - not a perfect Igloi system, but a modified

How is Shalane's training Igloi related? I was just wondering? Who is her coach?

how was her training related is more appropriate, it won't make it on the web

I use modified Igloi, or in my case, modified Tabori with my high school kids. It's the best thing for quick success I have ever found for youngsters. Lazlo took me fom a 5;50 to a 4:58 mile in 18 months when I was a teen aged girl. You have to really be careful with kids though, because of potential for injury. I think Lazlo had modified from Igloi somewhat because on days between interval workouts he would just tell me to go run for an hour. He had a lot more of the sense of hard day /easy day back in the 70's. I will typically have my kids do one tabori session a week and 1 lactate threshold session, with easy runs and a long run filling in the rest, but I enjoy the Hungarian days the best, with the challenge of conducting a three ring circus on the track and all the adventure that that brings. And it warms the heart to see the looks of relief on their little faces when they get to the last "shakeups'.