Arkansas Runners- McDonnell Era

I was most concerned about the hair gel and the ladies when I was at Arkansas. Scoring points was for people like Hood and Bruton. I was there to look cool. My rule was you were more of a razorback than someone else who transferred even if you spent 5 years at Ark and never scored at Nationals

SWAINnREINA wrote:

Man, that 2 week sample seemed pretty soft compared to the 80's. I think the fans want to know about the hard era.....there was no long runs on the golf course. it was a road race where the finishing point was 4 miles away from campus. there was no way a razorback could cut it short, unless you turned left on 72, bit that was a no no.

the bigest surprise was the second sunday, where there was 4mi in the am and another easy 4mi in the pm...

can any old schooler let the readers know what John would say about 4 and 4?

4 in the morning and 4 at night?

That's either a case of the sniffles, or pissing in the wind. I wouldn't rule out an exploded quad, but you never know.

Week one: mileage 85 ( and I count everything, even that slow stuff with snowman and snake)

Mon: 4 am 6 pm

Tues: 4am 8pm with Borge + weights (20 lb bench only)

Wed: 4am pm workout: 6x600m with 2 min rest ( 200 jog) 1:32,34,32,32,32,29.5 ( 200m flat track )

Thur: 4am 10 pm

Fri: 4am 9pm

Sat: 5 laps Razorback Golf Course Steady State (1.5mile loop) 7:23, 14:50, 22:20, 30:17, 37:47

Sun: The old 14 miler: 1:32

Week 2: mileage: 80

Mon: 4am 10 pm ( 3 laps of Razor back )

Tues: 4am pm workout: 2x800m 3 min rest: 1:58.0, 2:00.0, 2x600m 90 sec rest for the rest: 1:29.4, 1:29.4, 400m 58.2, 200m 26.8

Wed: 4am with Borge 9 pm

Thur: 4am 4pm

Fri: 4am pm race: 1000m 2:19.64 ( flat 200m track in the Nam)

Sat: 10 easy with Adkins

Sun: The Old, true 14 miler: 1:28

Week 3: mileage 81

Mon: 4am with Borge pm: workout, all with 3 min rest jog: 1200m 3:12, 800m 1:59.2, 1200m 3:12, 400m 57.5, 300m 42.5

Tues: 5am 10pm ( 156 loop with Coop!)

Wed: 4am pm workout: 6x300m, 6x200m all with 75 sec rest; average times, 43.5, and 27.5

Thur: 4am 8pm

Fri: 4am 4pm strides

Sat: 2am pm Race: 3:55.91 mile ( 200m flat track in the Nam... lost by over 3 seconds!)

Sun: The old 14 miler: 1:35 ( perhaps a beer was drunk from a hidden mail box at 7 miles)

More to come later if you want, I have most of the winter and spring from this year in the 80's...

You needn't identify yourself, but what year was that 2 week stint plucked from? 12/8/12/8 and you're done? C'mon, man! How about 5 x a mile on the old golf course after a hard ass Sunday run?!

Franknbeans wrote:

You needn't identify yourself, but what year was that 2 week stint plucked from? 12/8/12/8 and you're done? C'mon, man! How about 5 x a mile on the old golf course after a hard ass Sunday run?!

How about some real training, not just 2 weeks when you ran fast so we can see your PRs.

This is clearly indoor track season. Evidenced by the repeated mention of the "200m flat track" and when else do college runners run the 1000m and the Mile?

Yes, if you can post more weeks, it is interesting. Also, can you point me towards the complete tales of SMOKIN' JOE?

newsflash! We did workouts just as tough, had just as much fun and ran almost as fast. We just didn't have the depth that the Hogs had, being a smaller school. Get over yourselves, guys.

BEEN THERE BEAT ALOT OF THEM wrote:

newsflash! We did workouts just as tough, had just as much fun and ran almost as fast. We just didn't have the depth that the Hogs had, being a smaller school. Get over yourselves, guys.

You know, I don't get the sense that ANY of the Arkansas guys that have been nice enough to post or comment on this thread were full of themselves. And I am a pretty judgmental person.

People asked over and over if they would post their training and several have done so. It doesn't look like anybody exaggerated or stretched the real thing either. It looks like the people who blew it up a little (like the people who estimated that there were 12 sub-4s on campus at the same time) weren't even Hogs?

The training (I have to say) is unremarkable. 80 mpw and consistent 14 milers on Sunday, lots of people do that in HS. What is amazing is the speed of the workouts, and how many runners there were knocking out those reps. I was in high school and college in the 80's and we didn't have the internet back then ... we had Track and Field News. And let me tell you, any sharp-eyed track observer knew what Consiglio, Swain, Donovan, Cooper, Byrd, Falcon, Taylor, Zinn, and the rest were up to all through XC, indoor and outdoor, because they were always at the top.

Back then the top college runners were nearer to the best in the world because this was before the EPO generation and the age of the Africans. If you could get to 3:35-level like Consiglio and Hacker you were only 3-seconds from being at the top of the world.

I don't think that they think they had more fun or were better than everybody else (except that they were better) but there is just a different ambiance and experience when you have a bunch of good and really good runners together and you have that tradition and are highly successful vs a smaller group of bitter and jealous 4:15 HS milers ... I experienced it in a smaller way in high school.

The workouts look pretty similar to what I've seen out of Matt Centrowitz at American University. This makes sense since Matt really admires Coach Mac and even went down there to learn from him at one point early in his coaching career.

The differences that I see are:

M/W workouts instead of Tu/Th

Morning runs every day instead of just Tu/Th

Workouts on the golf course instead of all on the track (probably a product of environment, AU doesn't have much grass from what I can tell)

The talent level at Arkansas was at least 20x greater than what AU had.

The last comment was not made to belittle what Coach Mac was able to accomplish, he recruited very well and turned many an early stud into a collegiate beast. Matt's top runners were mostly good albeit not all-world coming out of HS.

Great stuff former Hogs, keep it coming!

For those that ran for the razorbacks, would the workouts/insenity stay the same throughout indoor and outdoor track?

Is it right to assume that for a typical week, or so, for the indoor/outdoor track season that you would run an 8-10 miler at sub 6 pace, a 12-18 mile long run that progressed to mid 5:30's pace, a "speed" workout of something along the lines of 8-16x400m at mile pace, or just a bit faster with 60-90 seconds rest. And finally, some mile repeats about 3-4x1mile?

My only question is, when in track season, were your mile repeats at 5k pace?

I would love to see these schedules in the context of the season. It truly is amazing guys. Thanks!

A couple of things to consider when reading these threads, at least from my perspective.

1. The intensity, and the expectation that you would perform are not covered very much here.

2. Coach McDonnell's motivation is not mentioned much. John made me feel like I could run through a brick wall. He made me believe I could do things that I knew I really couldn't do.

3. The pure characters on the team. True mix of high energy misfits.

4. The guys you never heard of and the guys who won't post here. They are just as funny, and have much more to offer than me, but they choose to be more private.

5. Stories. We touched on some, but the stories are literally endless, and if I didn't witness some of them, I wouldn't believe them. Can you imagine Teddy Mitchell, Me, and Richard Cooper all working at Arby's in 1994?

John liked guys with heart and balls. You could be a world beater, but if you gave up, forget it.

I have the utmost respect for Coach Mac, he has something that I don't think I can really describe. You have to be there, witnessing his energy.

For me this was long ago, but I can still remember workouts, splits, and races, just like they were yesterday.

My favorite workout - Hood, Schiefer, Bruton, Henry, Donovon, Contreras.

4x800m 1:58 with 2:00 rest. Only 3 hit all 4 splits.

Paul Donovan (Irish Razorback) was once asked in an interview how post-college running was.

He said he preferred living/training in Fayetteville cause he could do all his training on soft surfaces and that saved his legs. Is this true....about Fayetteville?

I don't know if this is accurate or not but I read that McDonnell wasn't a big proponent of peaking and believed that his capable runners should be a couple of sharpening workouts from running a 4:00 mile at any time of the year. I always agreed with this.

As opposed to the people on this board who always jump over someone who runs a fast time indoors or those who warn kids they have to take a big break from running after every season.

Was this accurate regarding his philosophy?

Let me guess? You were one of the 3 who completed the session. I am sure there is truth to some of this legend that is being posted, but a lot of exageration. I see a lot of uphill both ways in the snow.

I bet if Borsa/Fry, Holeman/Troutman, Davis/Keino commented on their training and night life the Arkansas stories would be average. I would like to hear what the real guns would have to say, such as Falcone and Reina. It seems that real succesful people seem to be more realistic.

-Keep it real

I remember running 5x1mile uphill at Razorback golf course in the late 90's, averaged 4:22 with 4min to cover the 800m rest in between. I got dropped on the last one because I didn't break 4:20. We kicked ass at NCAA's that year....go figure!

In reply to the previous post:

i think that there is some envy going on here. from my time at arkansas, this seems to be a fair recollection of events. there was a fair share of running along with party.

if you are going to verify with falcon, he is the king of the big fish story, literally. i believe he once told a story how he hooked a fish in boat, being drug out to sea. there is no ocean in arkansas.

also, i transfered to arizona where davis and keino (they only over lapped by a year) and there wasn't any partying or hard training. friday and sunday were OYO-on your own, with wednsday being a 45 min jog in the desert. tuesday and thursday were intervals, nothting to write about 20 years later.

now if you want to talk about who carried a largerst gun on the side of the hip in the ncaa, Arizona wins that event with grosso and his glock!

paul t.

before we start hearing about the literacy of the hogs, i appologize for the errors in my last post- while typing on an i phone....and all lower case.

Someone mentioned early on about a "mystique" about Arkansas which is true. You didn't know much about most of them. I remember when they won their first NCAA XC in 1984. They weren't one of the common names that seem to always be up there, the ones with the long tradition in track and college distance running, names like Oregon, UTEP, Wisconsin, Penn State, Colorado, Villanova. McDonell built it from the start and then maintained the greatest dynasty for 20 years until he retired.

They got Falcon and Zinn which were big name American recruits (basically almost in-state guys being from Missouri) but most of the team were foreign guys you didn't know anything about. What I recall about their track team then the big names were Mike Connelly and Roddie Haley and a high jumper. But by the time they started winning Indoors it just kept on going for years.

By 1986 they were dominating middle distances in the NCAA. I read about them going 1-8 or 1-9 at the Indoor SWC mile. And I was in the stands when Gary Taylor ran 3:35 on the second leg of the 4x1500 at Penn Relays. (Later I think it was rounded up to 3:36.0)

As far as the party stories, they were probably similar ever where. It was a different time. These days I don't think the college elite guys go out drinking after every meet and on the regular basis that some pretty big names that I know in the 1980's. Probably for the most part much better for them as athletes.