Pearls of Wisdom From the Late Jack Foster on Training and Shoes

Not sure about the "Crates" of shoes but I know he was given

"Quite a few pairs". I maybe able to confirm just how much he did recieve as I am meeting with some of the 'old hands" who were close to Jack (Meeting is non jack related) next week.

Yes ! Jack ran well at Fukuoka.

Jack didn't wear size 9 by any chance?

Malmo, Jones also told me he ran up to 100mpw.I asked him how much was enough and he said 100!I've read his training befor the Chicago runs. He raced alot and was as low as 70 mpw at times. So basically 70-100 mpw, more 100's in winter, less in summer.

malmo wrote:

Tinman wrote:

Steve Jones ran several 2:10 or faster marathons using mileage in the 80s per week.

Actually, as Jones told me in person, he ran 100mpw in his marathon training.

Not sure of shoe size !.

If the family desires to get rid of any of them, if they ARE size 9's and if the stockpile was that massive, I will be more than happy to make a donation to any special charity that they desire in Mr. Foster's name.

Foster also had YEARS of an aerobic base as a recreational cyclist before he took up running. He ran through a lot of farm pastures and over the New Zealand hills.

Alan

Yup. He was hardcore.

Jack told me that the stockpile was probably not as big as people thought. He said he was still running in shoes from that stockpile but that was a much due to the small amounts of running he'd done in the years since turning 50 as to the size of the stockpile.

Today I was working my way through a box of Sports magazines donated to my PE Dept and found one with an Interview with Jack done in March 2000. I remember something being done back then but did not take much notice at the time and had since forgotten he had done it. (Sounds double dutch does'nt it!)

Anyway last paragraph

"Like many stars of the glory days in the 60's and 70's, he laments the state of his event.

"It's gone backwards, has'nt it?" he grumbles. "They're still winning races in the times we used to run back then but the world has moved forward about 8 minutes. Its woeful.

"Bloody kids these days get taken everywhere in cars"

You wonder if Foster could still come back and teach the youngsters a thing or two. But it's a wild notion and he quickly dismisses it.

"I could run but I don't see the point. It's too hard, I could never flow along like I used to."

He was 67 when that interview was done.

HRE : I will send you a copy of whole article.

I live about 1 hour from the Rotorua Redwoods, and head there regularly for a sunday long run.

Minimilistic shoes will only work for the very biomechanically effiecient runner OR the very lean, wiry and strong runner.

I don't know if Jack was the former, but he certainly was the latter in his prime.

The rest of us wannabes need the support.

Lydiard always liked to have a dollar each way. On one hand he said you dont have to do 100 miles a week when you run the terrain that Jack did.

On the other hand he said to be the best you have to run 100 miles a week on good gripping tarseal roads so as to keep your heart rate at your best steady state level.

A friend of mine who knew Jack, said that Jack usually did 2 bike rides a week when training for his marathons.

Cheers.

Hey Comadi, I'm here in Rotorua. I post under my name here but on nzrun.com as Physeder.

I have a keen bunch of young guys who Train in the forest on a regular basis. Give us a Bell if you want to join up.

Cheers : Kim

Jack was a "Runner's Runner". A "natural" in the best sense of the term....

Thanks. I'd love it.

So we can gather that the time your friend saw Jack out running shortly before he died wasn't the beginning of a comeback?

Comandi,

Kim will tell you that I am neither lean nor wiry, but I do run the same sorts of shoes that Jack did. Jack believed, and I agree with him, that you could develop that biomechanical efficiency by running in shoes that kept you in close contact with the ground. He was proud of having few injury problems and thought that his light shoes had taught him "proper foot placement."

Has nobody considered that when Jack ran over remarkably hilly terrain, he may not have covered a large distance, but the duration of the run may have been just as long as if he were running many more miles? I remember doing 20 milers in about 2:15, but I also remember running 2:10 over a ridiculously hilly course, which was only like 14 miles. So it is time on the feet, not distance, that matters. He may very well have been running the equivalent of 100+ miles per week, and he cross-trained.

Not sure it was a comeback. But he ran to a buddies place that was about 5k from his house. Then returned home. I asked Colin "How did Jack look ?". he said "As good as ever !" He was 72 yrs old.

One reason Jack did not run much is he was getting small "minor" injuries(calf strains) and they did not healup quick enough for him. So it was "Back to the Bike"

I beleive what he found just before he died was he could get out and have the odd run without problems so he did just that.

I talked about this on another thread about a year or so ago.

Jack ran 'quality' as he just did not have the luxury of time. (Family, full time work )

You can bet that on a 1 hr run with him there was no time to smell the daisies.

Another quote from article from John Robinson

"He did'nt do long mileage, But he ran over demanding terrain. he used to run around farms that were quite hilly...it was real quality stuff.

Whern jack left his house, it was all on. I know the days I ran with him, I knew I had been for a run".

I can back that up. I live right by the farms he ran over and I have run with him over them (Not many times !!).

and there was one word to describe how you felt afterwards "Shattered".

The Man was a Legend.

OK Team : I have a Jack Foster "original" here.

This next piece was in a local Athletic Club Journal just a month ago. Colin Smyth (A VERY close friend of Jack's) reproduced it from an old Journal from 1977.

I asked Colin if I could put it on here. He said "No problem".

So here goes ; This really brings out Jack's sense of humour.

I will put some explanations for parts at the end.

In 1976 Jack won the Honolulu Marathon in 2:17 so the Americans put him on a Treadmill to see what made the old fellow run so fast.

Treadmill Testing

Have you ever been tested on a Treadmill ?. An inhumane machine which does’nt take into account tiredness, oxygen debt and the little human frailties like wanting to stop etc !

Picture the scene –

A small room, white and clinical. A seemingly innocuous machine with a belt on it about 18inches wide and about 5ft long, driven by a small electric motor. The speed and gradient can be changed quite simply by moving a little lever.

Seven minutes for a mile .. easy. 5:30 miles, flat or a gentle hill .. OK. 4:20 miles up a hill like Pukepoto* …. No problem ..just move the lever.

Ignore the poor apology for a human, who happens to be pounding and wheezing himself into a state of collapse on it ….

There I was, standing like some Adonis or other Greek God, a bag of bones in my skin coloured tights, struggling to keep my running shorts over my Gluteus maximus and those lovely nurses looking too !!.

A metal band around my head: A big fat tube suspended from it gagging into my mouth to measure how much oxygen I used. Six electric leads taped to my chest and back registering my Heart beats (if any !!)

A quick try to see if all was OK, and we’re off. It’s a strange sensation. Just like normal running except you are’nt getting anywhere. I was quite happy to stay in the room, The Nurses REALLY were gorgeous.

So the first 5 minutes. No Sweat, literally; 6 min miles flat going, nothing to it. A measured 60 seconds rest and away again. About 5:30’s this time. Still relatively easy, just like a good training run. What have we being worrying about. Easy. A novelty, running indoors. Where is the moving scenery – like on the movies ? Fun !

Another measured minute break, then back into it. This is more like it. Five minute mile pace on a very slight incline. Sweating now and breathing hard !!!. It feels like a race and you’re sucked into the last mad five minutes. First minute, up a hill at under 5’s and right away you are ‘working’. The whole atmosphere is changed; business like. There is slight tiredness from the previous 3 sessions. Legs are already heavy.

Second minute. The hill steepens but the bloody belt goes on at the same relentless pace. The breathing starts to wheeze. Why don’t they slow it just a bit ?. everyone watching for a sign of weakening.

Third minute and up goes the gradient, the pace says at about 4:50 miles and I start to slowly drift down the belt away from the safety bar at the top. A finger, one single finger poked in the kidney region prods you back up to the front.

“Christ, My legs” you think, “I’ll never hang onto this”. You can hear your breath rasping through the tubes into the oxymeter which is measuring your oxygen uptake per minute. The test, to be completed in full – 4 X 5 minutes to be of any use and these people have gone to much trouble to do it. Saliva dribbles around the pipe which is gagging your mouth and onto the belt. Any semblance of “form” is gone as you try desperately to stay with it.

Fourth minute. Legs like the proverbial chewed string. Breath is almost sobbing. The gradient goes up a further notch.

“Inhumane diabolical bastards” you think. They can see I’m stuffed, yet they keep making it worse. Worse than any track race I’ve ever run. Drifting back again from that bar. The finger! Eyeballs popping, you thrash your way back to the front of the belt.

“Hang in there – one more minute” someone yells. Everyone starts yelling at once “Sprint” - “Hang on” Stick with it”. Christ, It’s OK for them, they haven’t got my legs; maybe they have; the ones I’ve got don’t feel like mine any more.

Lungs burning, Heart hammering in your ears. The electric leads flapping about, helmut bouncing around your ears, saliva splashing on the belt ……. Going backwards down the belt … can’t help it ……utterly knackered ….. urge back up one more time ……. Backwards again, that’s it. They throw the switch, the belt stops and the legs buckle. There is a canvas chair underneath you .. just as well ..for Christ’s sake, what a wasted run ..my first sub 3 minute mile.

So, that is how it feels to run to exhaustion ! Well It’s not so bad, seen now, a safe 5 months ago >>>>>

* Pukepoto is a rather tough Hill in this area that Jack ran on regularly. Today the "Foster/Smyth Sheild" race runs close to it. A typical Jack Cross Country course.

Stuffed >> A Kiwi/Aussie and sometimes English term for being tired.

Hope you enjoy !!!

Kim: I grew up just over the hill in Tokoroa.

John Davies and Lorraine Moller trained in the Pine forests and farms in the Area.

What a fabulous place to train.

Wish we had a slice of it here in Brisbane.