Has anybody ever seen this? dont know exactly how old it is..whatever though. what are your thoughts.
http://www.irishrunner.com/change.html
===Article===
"I don't know the modern athlete or the modern athletic scene," says Ron Delany, former Villanova miler and 1500m Gold Medallist at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. "The enormous training, the agents, the money and the endorsements, were certainly not available in my time.
Arthur Lydiard
photo by T. Patrick O'Dowd
"But I never feared any of my contemporaries. What I did fear was the next generation of athletes, the prototype of what you see today. I feared what Herb Elliot began and Arthur Lydiard popularised, namely the huge mileage and the exhausting training methods."
"I ran 35 maybe 40 miles a week at my peak. Jumbo was always telling us to take it easy, take a day off. Running the mile in those days for the most part meant going easy in the third lap. We might do two laps in 1:58, and then coast with a 63 second quarter.
"But then along comes Elliot, and he takes you through the first lap in 60 seconds. You were under 3 minutes at the bell, 2:58 to 2:59, and you were hurting. This is where the big change came in middle-distance running.
"Psychologically this was a new generation who raced the entire distance. That I feared, and I wasn't prepared to do the work to become that type of athlete. There was no motivation factor. Elliot was the next generation."
Fifty years on, the money is bigger, the challenge is greater, and so are the endorsements. The concept of what it takes to be a professional athlete, has been glossed over, and infrequently addressed. Bill Rogers used to say that he would never be beaten by an athlete holding down a full-time job, and he proved this time and again.
The vast majority of elite athletes in America are professional only in the sense that they make a living from the sport. They train twice daily, they compile impressive mileage and track sessions, but the reality is that they are only nominally professional.
By contrast, Paula Radcliffe, the multi-talented British athlete is the quintessential professional. Elite American athletes could learn a lot from her says Gerard Hartmann, her physical therapist. "She is the most professional athlete that I have ever come across," he says.
"Paula has taken her talent and decided that the best place to train is at altitude in the south of France. She's away from distractions, noises, friends and the media. She's got the hills, the mountain trails and the track. Many of the world's best runners train there - the Moroccans, the Polish team, Gabriela Szabo. She is in a performance friendly environment."
"That's what many athletes aren't doing nowadays," Hartmann adds. "They are trying to live a normal life with work, twice a day training, and socializing. This is especially so in America. Paula is giving herself the best chance to optimize her talent. There is a short window of opportunity, and it has its price - train, eat, recuperate, massage, early nights."
"In the 1970s Frank Shorter, Jack Bachelor, Kenny Moore, got together and trained in Gainesville, Florida, with the Florida track club. They trained with one goal - to be the best in the world. They set up a training environment that was performance based. The American runners now are not willing to give up and sacrifice. They run twice a day, but in between they're playing golf. They're not full-time athletes. They want to be great but they are not willing to commit themselves."
Radcliffe is married to Gary Lough, from Northern Ireland. The former 1500m British athlete is now her manager. "Everything has to revolve around training," Lough says. "People have to fit in around her working day. You don't ask an executive in the city to knock off at 3pm to do something irrelevant to his real job. Unless you do the training you don't get the performances."
Radcliffe concurs: "While I'm at home I seem to have much less time to train and the first thing that goes is sleep." The importance of rest cannot be over-emphasised. Radcliffe will sleep for two hours in the afternoon, and 9 to ten hours at night. Thirty minutes after going to sleep human growth hormones are released into the blood which prevents the build up of fatigue and scar tissue and enables the athlete to approach the day's second workout refreshed and motivated. She takes a day off approximately every 8 days.
Radcliffe is meticulous about her diet and with the aid of nutritionists has learned to maximize the carbohydrates in her body. In addition she has a comprehensive support team - weights expert, osteopath, physiotherapists and physiologist to complement the work of her coaches, manager and clubmates. Perhaps most important, Radcliffe has managed to maintain a fulfilled life. She is close to her family and will visit with them on a regular basis, and still retains her original coaches, Alex and Rosemary Stanton.
Hartmann names three American athletes who are totally committed to being full-time professionals - Bob Kennedy, Khalid Khannouchi, and increasingly Suzy Hamilton. It is no surprise that all three athletes schedule appointments with Hartmann on an ongoing basis. Khannouchi has just returned from a stay at Hartmann's clinic, where he received preventative and maintenance therapy.
Bob Kennedy at Millrose Games 2001
photo by Alison Wade
Kennedy, America's best middle-distance runner in recent years (12:58.21 AR 5000 1996), agrees that there is a lack of professionalism among the ranks of American athletes. This observation, he says, should not be viewed as a putdown of the athletes. "I think it has some merit to it. We get too caught up in our college system and we fail to move on to the international level." While acknowledging that the athlete has to one hundred percent committed to have a chance at the international level, the hardest part is leaving the athletic focus behind at the end of the day.
"I haven't stayed with the status quo," Kennedy explains. "I was a successful college runner and I could have stayed there (Kennedy won 20 Big 10 titles for Indiana). My college coach was a heck of a good one, but I think it behooves the athlete to go out and find what is there in an intelligent way. You need to find out what it takes to be the best in the world and at least give it a shot. That is one aspect of professionalism that is deficient - being responsible for your own career. A lot of young American athletes need to learn that they are in control of their career. Paula is a perfect example of that."
"We can't rely on our coaches, families and advisers," he adds. "We do need them for emotional support. I sought out the people whom I thought knew what they were doing and aligned myself with them. Consequently, I became a better athlete. This is not an option for many American athletes because of the financial difficulties. But there is an attitude that if I train twice a day I should be good. That takes three or four hours a day at most, and not enough attention is paid to the time between the workouts, for sleep, rest and nutrition."
Kennedy's Olympic year was jeopardized because of a car accident. He is now fully recovered and his immediate goal is to win a place on the US cross- country team for the upcoming World Championships in Ireland. Bill Rogers assessment may have stood the test of time, but Kennedy points out that modern athletics is a more professional sport than it was ten to 15 years ago. "Not to take anything away from those guys," Kennedy says, "they worked hard and got by on talent. Nowadays they would have to be more committed, the bar has been raised so high."
Where is the next Bob Kennedy? There is an abundance of raw talent in the country, but talent alone is never enough. When Ron Delany was being prepared by Jumbo Elliott for the 1956 Olympic 1500m, there was no other athlete able to complete the interval training that Elliott mapped out. "We did a lot of racing in those days, which wasn't a bad thing," Delany says. "It's more effective than the mileage and hard workouts that they do on the track today."
Delany worries that American coaching is now producing "a certain type of athlete who, trained to a certain degree, will run a 3:54, 3:56 (1500), just on strength. We've had a good few of this type of athlete in Ireland who are very good stayers, but lacking the quality speed or strength, will never win the big one. Everyone can stay if they do the requisite amount of training, but the racer will always win." Maybe the more pertinent question should be where is the next Jumbo Elliott.