I think it would be most interesting to read about the training philosophy and retrospective views of the commitment of those that paved the way for the women of today. Doris Brown, Jan, Francie, Julie, Nina, Patti, etc could all teach us a thing or two about life as an athlete and what it takes to be successful.
Jan, in reference to what you contributed, learned, sacrificed.... is there anything of this nature in print out there?
See this link for a documentary DVD by Charlotte Lettis Richardson that explores this era and the problems women runners faced in the early 70s. Charlotte was contemporary with the runners you mention.
Tom
Doris Brown Heritage won five consecutive world cross country titles.
I believe her teammate Vicki Foltz was second to her twice.
Amby Burfoot wrote:
The training session was on a 300m grass loop at Conn College. I think Norm eventually got thrown off campus after he wore a 6 inch deep trough in their grass.
That's hysterical.
Would you believe the same thing happened at the Univ of Southern Calif?
At the start of the school year, Vern Wolfe asked what machine had made the track in the grass at their practice track. When told it had not been a machine, but Norman Higgins, he replied that no man could do that.
The next day, he came out and observed. Norman ran his 100m repeats in the same track, up and back, day after day. He had 2 tracks at the field we used for our morning training.
The LATC was declared persona non gratis.
When Gary Muhrcke won the first NYCM, wasn't he on fireman disability? Did he catch flack, or was it something totally unrelated to running?
Lorenzo the Magnificent wrote:
When Gary Muhrcke won the first NYCM, wasn't he on fireman disability? Did he catch flack, or was it something totally unrelated to running?
I think Muhrcke caught grief after winning Empire State Building Run Up vs NYC Marathon.
MF
Running up the stairs in your shorts, singlet, and shoes, is a lot easier on your back than carrying and unconscious victim down the stairs.
Tom
Me. Maybe you wouldn't consider a 32:50/10k runner in college improving to 29:40 post collegiately successful, but I would. Yes, under Norm's guidance. I especially like the story about the 11.6 mile race with Norm. Most likely I was watching...but I believe I was also able to achieve that glossed over zone Amby describes...few people had a chance if I was geared into that zone...
i know norm
How is Normy?
last saw him at john j kelleys funeral
he seemed to be doing fine
i just saw this thread, read it, and thought it was funny because i know most of the people being talked about
i'm from waterford, ct and run frequently at conn college
Why is this "hot right now"? When the last post was in 2011.
I copied the text for you, see the bottom part: auto-generated. Bots these days aren't what they used to be.
Super Hot on LetsRun: Norm Higgins NYC Marathon 1971
auto-generated
Yanqui wrote:
I thought people liked to hear the history and truth about the sport. Silly me. What I allude to is a well-known story, even the subject of a lengthy Marc Bloom article in "The New York Times"
I see Marc Bloom occasionally at the Princeton University X-C Course...he is still going at it at 70.
When I was coming back from injury a couple years ago--I Rabbitted him to a 4 X 1-Mile workout indoors. He was running 6:40 per at age 68!
So the Igloi system pretty much died out in the '70s. Seems like it was never codified in written form, depended mostly on the "coaches eye", like training horses.
The Igloi system is used in every competitive swimming organization I've ever seen.
A Pied wrote:
Orville was in the '66 or '67 AAU marathon championship that was run in New England on a RIDICULOUSLY hot and humid day in mid or late summer? [the weather may have been approaching the conditions of the Athens Olympic marathon]
I read an article from an old magazine/pamphlet about that championship race perhaps 2 years ago.
Orville was also 5th at Boston in 1962. He and Norman Higgins were both teammates with the LATC.
Loads of Norman Higgins stories from that period.
There was no "Igloi system", per se.
There was Igloi and his runners. The training was different for each of us.
Those who probably stayed closest to what Igloi did were Lazlo Tabori, Joe Douglas and Merle Magee. The rest of us took bits and pieces. Similar in many respects, but not the same. But, after 2-3 years with Igloi, you had a masters degree in interval training.
My remembrance to a great coach who did so much for me:
Norm Higgins training applied Igloi’s interval structures , but also included methodology that was observed in Mainz West Germany while he was in the Army stationed at Wiesbaden, and later when he traveled to Mainz with his athletes to train at Johannes Gutenberg University in the 70’s.
The double threshold runs that are so popular now, we’re structured in the training. Mobility, balance and strength development from specific medicine ball workouts that originated in West Germany were integrated as well.