Last week, our CE, Adrian Gore, spoke to one of the greatest middle-distance runners of all time, Seb Coe who is also the current President of World Athletic...
It is the way he he ran it - we have all seen the video (decades ago). It took a while for it to come out, and I'm sure others tried to emulate that workout on the track (to no avail), but made sense once the video was available. I have a local road of a similar gradient, and it is doable (not for me of course) if one is a good downhill runner, but could be a lot of stress on the knees.
He actually first says 6xhalf mile, 6x880y, which would have made sense at the time.
He also supports my contention that self-belief inspired by the success of those around us is a crucial ingredient in the success of athletes, something that accounts for a lot of the enormous improvement in hs, college, and pro distance running in Europe and the U.S.A. in recent years, saying that while he ran in primary school events already, it was seeing two Olympic track and field medalists from his city visiting his school with their medals that prompted him to go join a track club. Here we go with one of these 6-8x880y sessions at 21:00, most of them well under 2:00 each session. The road varies in terrain, some up, some down, but it's not the same half mile stretch as they are continuing along the Rivelin road (however that's spelled) and there is significant traffic and Peter Coe is measuring by the car but sometimes they are a bit long, as in one of these intervals here.
It is the way he he ran it - we have all seen the video (decades ago). It took a while for it to come out, and I'm sure others tried to emulate that workout on the track (to no avail), but made sense once the video was available. I have a local road of a similar gradient, and it is doable (not for me of course) if one is a good downhill runner, but could be a lot of stress on the knees.
If you’re referring to the Seb Coe vhs tape, you saw only a little blurb of RVR. The session is a 3 mile stretch broken down into 6x800 done running in front of a car. Of course, there are sections of downhill, but also flat and uphill. Any serious club runner from Leeds to Nottingham in the 80’s knew the stretch well. One would have to be a mad man to do this section now, as traffic has increased there far beyond what it was 30 years ago. It’s a dangerous drive in a car now, let alone a man out for a hard run.
He actually first says 6xhalf mile, 6x880y, which would have made sense at the time.
He also supports my contention that self-belief inspired by the success of those around us is a crucial ingredient in the success of athletes, something that accounts for a lot of the enormous improvement in hs, college, and pro distance running in Europe and the U.S.A. in recent years, saying that while he ran in primary school events already, it was seeing two Olympic track and field medalists from his city visiting his school with their medals that prompted him to go join a track club. Here we go with one of these 6-8x880y sessions at 21:00, most of them well under 2:00 each session. The road varies in terrain, some up, some down, but it's not the same half mile stretch as they are continuing along the Rivelin road (however that's spelled) and there is significant traffic and Peter Coe is measuring by the car but sometimes they are a bit long, as in one of these intervals here.
Well stated. Athletics was extremely popular in the UK during the 80’s. Thousands would turn up for club events. Pros would turn up to athletic meetings in their club vest, or make an effort to support their club by running in road relay championships. Imagine Kerr, Wightman, Mills, and Gourley all turning up to run a road relay leg at an event on a Saturday morning. That’s how it was.
Another nugget from the interview is that Coe mentions that before Oslo in 1979 where he ran his first mile world record in 3:48.95, he was running 200s in workouts in 21 and a bit, so he knew he was feeling really good.