Sebastian Coe: 1984 Olympic 1500m

Yes, Ventolin, my dear retarded masturbating dwarf. You see, that happened in **1982**. Ovett was seriously injured in 1981, and was in very poor shape the next year, and never again at his best. You do know this, Ventolin, my little semen-guzzling piglet, don't you?

Ted Haggard wrote:Yes, Ventolin, my dear retarded masturbating dwarf. You see, that happened in **1982**. Ovett was seriously injured in 1981, and was in very poor shape the next year, and never again at his best. You do know this, Ventolin, my little semen-guzzling piglet, don't you?

f***ing retard

look up date of 3'30.77wr

ventolin^2 wrote:

Ted Haggard wrote:Yes, Ventolin, my dear retarded masturbating dwarf. You see, that happened in **1982**. Ovett was seriously injured in 1981, and was in very poor shape the next year, and never again at his best. You do know this, Ventolin, my little semen-guzzling piglet, don't you?

f***ing retard

look up date of 3'30.77wr

Is 1983 the same number as 1982, Ventolin? THINK HARD.

Ted Haggard wrote:

Is 1983 the same number as 1982, Ventolin? THINK HARD.

I do not know. My brain confused. MOMMY! MOMMY!

ukathleticscoach wrote:

Great post GoCoe.

I know it's going back a long time, but can you remember roughly) any of his times in training?

By the way, interesting article here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/sport/sportslife/6416398/Sebastian-Coe-and-Michael-Johnson-my-first-Olympics.html

Thanks for the link. That was a good read.

Of my short brush with greatness, the best that I saw were several workouts of 200m repeats. (He did other intense training runs off of our track) The 200m repeats that I saw were incredible, that man could flow around the track like no one that I'd ever seen. All of Coe's 200m reps were in the 25.xx range, and none of them showed strain. He was amazing to watch. Even better, most of the time he'd take off on the next rep well before I called time (I can't remember the rest period) I believe that he did his longer intervals on a golf course and seemed very pleased with his results. He was both a great gentleman and a track freak of nature. Awesome to experience.

ventolin^2 wrote:

Ted Haggard wrote:

Is 1983 the same number as 1982, Ventolin? THINK HARD.

I do not know. My brain confused. MOMMY! MOMMY!

I guess we have to travel down to Kenya to pick her up.

bingo jim wrote:

calside wrote:

Ventolin - what about Peter Elliott the forgotten man. When he ran his 1:42.97 early summer of 1990, he should have been in shape to demolish his 1500m PR yet only ran 3:32.69 in Sep 1990. He has said that he wished he could have found a fast 1500 after the 8. What time should Elliott have run?

Elliot had a very long season in 1990 - he won Commonwealth Games 1500m in early February.

A hugely talented runner, Elliot's the forgotten man because of his form. The hallmark of a hero is that they have to make it look effortless. Elliot had that sort of pained look and stumpy stride (even when jogging) that no-one aspired to.

Really liked the guy, though - very underrated.

you do realize that '82 was the year he was coming off the horrible accident when he fell in training during the winter. He never came close to hitting his top form that summer. In 1983 he ran 3:30.77 so taking a 3k race from '83 would be a better gauge of his mid/later career endurance but he didn't run any 3ks in '83 to my knowledge. However taking his 3k race in the summer of '82 as an indication of his true ability at the distance at that point in his career shows how lacking you are in basic reasoning skills and goes a long way toward diminishing your already suspect credibility.

GoCoe wrote:

Thanks for the link. That was a good read.

Of my short brush with greatness, the best that I saw were several workouts of 200m repeats. (He did other intense training runs off of our track)

would that have been around 3 workouts of 200 m repeats or more?

I would think a lot more than that.

Here's an extract from David Miller's book "Coming Back", quoting Coe.

"I went off to Chicago....After I'd been there a week, working hard in high temperatures, I had the first indication that things were going well, with a series of 20 x 200, the first ten with 25 sec recovery, the second ten with 35-40 secs recovery. The times were mainly around 26 secs, but the last one was 22.5, against a personal best ever of 21.7. I'd not been able to produce such quality at the end of a series since 1981."

This might not be the same reps that GoCoe witnessed, but seems quite likely they would have been similar.

Yes, SJO. I have the same book and read the same words.

But the question still stands - how many 200 m sessions did GoCoe wintess? I would be very interested to know.

A few thoughts to be added -

When looking at different championships, make sure to compare what days the heats, semis and finals were run. Los Angeles was Thursday-Friday-Saturday. I floated through the heat in 3:40.58 w/a 55.07 last 400m; Then making sure to be in the top 4 for the semi's the next day, 3:36.53, 54.16 last 400m (just missing my PR by a few tenths); and then 3:36.07 PR in the final with a very tired 56.26 last 400m (2:54.0 @ 1200m). When Ovett dropped out with 350m to go (he was in 4th), my race was over. I looked up, and instead of focusing on the back in front of me (Ovett), there was a gap. My legs were soooo tired. I even wrote in my long book the next day, August 12th: "Closing ceremonies... tired." And still tired the following Friday when I finished 5th in Berlin (3:54.07 mile). Compare this sequence of Championship races to Barcleona, when we ran Monday (1115am), Thursday (PM) and Saturday Final. With a lot more rest, everyone was fully recovered for the final, even though we went out in 2:07.

Cram's calf - I asked Steve in Rieti about his thoughts to wearing Spike orthotics, to help correct his foot plant and help his oft injured calf muscle. His response was that "this is the way I have always trained." You can compare multiple pictures of Steve running, with his one foot toed out, creating torque on his calf muscle. I wore spike orthotics since 1984 in races, and Seb Coe was the first (1983). Marcus O'Sullivan flew to Chicago to see Dr. John Durkin, and he too wore the orthotics.

Abdi Bile - I am surprised that no one mentions his 1987 World's Final. I ran 25.2 for 200m from 500m to go to 300m to go, and lost ground to Abdi who ran 24.9. I also saw him run on TV an 800m in Helsinki, where he negative split 53-49.9 or something like that, but was under 50 for his last 400m.

1996 Olympic 1500m final - Morcelli won. One must not forget that the 7th place finisher in Barcelona, came back to win in '96 - yet, El G fell with 400m to go and looked to be in top form going into the Games and running in the Semi's.

On the day, you can argue about what training was missed in the winter, injuries in spring, lack of races, etc. For myself and I would believe other Olympic finalists - we knew what we needed to get race fit in a short period of time: Regardless the negatives. I trusted my coach, Mike Durkin (1976, 1980 USA Olympian 1500m) to have me ready on the day - regardless what training I had missed. And looking back, he always had me ready, even when I failed (1988 Olympic Trials). One has to have faith, sit in the chair when the workout is given, and put in the training that is required.

Jim Spivey

To Jim Spivey: Thank you as always for your great insights! And thank you for coaching.

Jim--did Coe, in your opinion, blood dope?

Ran in the LA 1500m final wrote:

Abdi Bile - I am surprised that no one mentions his 1987 World's Final. I ran 25.2 for 200m from 500m to go to 300m to go, and lost ground to Abdi who ran 24.9. I also saw him run on TV an 800m in Helsinki, where he negative split 53-49.9 or something like that, but was under 50 for his last 400m.

Jim Spivey

First I'd like to say it's a real privilege to read such an insight from a great miler, like yourself. Thanks!

I don't mean to doubt what you put above about Bile, but he only ran under 1:44 once and that was a 1:43.6 in Zurich, coming 3rd! I can't find any 800m race in Helsinki in at least under 1:46. Can you remember the year and if it might have been somewhere else?

Also, I think I read somewhere that you have a son named Sebastian. after Coe. Is that true?

Ran in the LA 1500m final wrote:

Abdi Bile - I am surprised that no one mentions his 1987 World's Final. I ran 25.2 for 200m from 500m to go to 300m to go, and lost ground to Abdi who ran 24.9. I also saw him run on TV an 800m in Helsinki, where he negative split 53-49.9 or something like that, but was under 50 for his last 400m.

Jim Spivey

Bile was awesome in the 87 final. However, in the 800 in Helsinki he was not under 50 seconds. He ran a super 51.2, but where you get 49.9 I don't know. I wasn't a top flight runner, but I did rabbit some circuit races (more than a couple) back in the day and I KNOW Abdi didn't run sub 50. He was nowhere near the 800 man Coe, Cruz or Kipketer were and they'd have had a hard time pulling that off at their best if at all. And at their best they'd have beaten Abdi at his best.

Abdi sure got away with throwing elbows and trying to run people out of their lane. I guess officials felt sorry for him, lol.

I always wondered how Earl Jones and later Noah Ngeny would have done had they not had auto accidents that basically derailed their progress. Jones was a nice kid, he practically worshipped Coe although few are aware of that.

Would be great to hear some of Jim's training

Nobody in history, not El Gerrouj or Morceli or Coe, would have beat Abdi Bile that day in Rome in the 1987 World Champs final. I just watched that race today. From 700 to 1100 Cram ran a 53.8 after going out in 63. Bile was back in dead last unconcerned then moved up.

Cram was all-out on the backstretch but Bile still looked like he was cruising. He never went to his arms until 150 to go when he passes Cram and ends up winning buy 1.5 seconds. Jim Spivey got the bronze.

Cram was past his best by then - he only ran 3.35 that year.

Bile beat Coe by only one metre (& an elbow - although probably would have got it anyay) when Coe was 32 so I don't think he would have beaten him at his best. I don't think he would have had ElG at his best- especially later in his career when his tactics improved. Having said that he would have done him in a slower race

Bile was a brilliant athlete, but didn't seem to last at long at the top as some of the others. As these different athletes didn't race each other at their exact best, who would win is just an opinion and the way Bile would close up on the leader after trailing was awesome