Ok...I am not on the Bannister bandwagon. He is not one of my favorite runners or what not. But it is pretty inspirng that he went from a 4:52 (I might be mistaken) high school mile to a sub 4 in 5-6 years. Like I said I dont know much about the guy, but its inspiring the he could do such feats with very little running background.
Anyone with me?
He broke that impossible mental barrier that nobody could seem to break through at the time even though there were runners out there with a greater ability.
He is an overlooked genius. I say overlooked because his training methods were brilliant, but we dismiss them today, because it wasn't 100 miles a week, therefore "he must be a freak of nature". We need to carefully analyze what Bannister did, and learn from the great man.
2x(800-400-200-100) wrote:
He is an overlooked genius. I say overlooked because his training methods were brilliant, but we dismiss them today, because it wasn't 100 miles a week, therefore "he must be a freak of nature". We need to carefully analyze what Bannister did, and learn from the great man.
no, we dismiss them because he ran 3:59.4 and the world record is now 3:43.13. as much as i admire him for breaking the 4-minute barrier, his training methods would never produce a world record time today, so we should pay much more attention to what ElG does.
El G is retired, dumbass. And if you can't fit Bannister's historical accomplishment into your dismissive little mind, that's your problem.
El G has utmost respect for Bannister, as evidenced by the photo of them at the Oxford track a few years ago where El G has an awed expression on his face. El G has Bannister in the proper perspective. Too bad you don't.
I thought Bannister was retired, too...
OF course we should pay more attention to what El G did. After all, he ran 16 s faster, you retarded idiot!
If you're even a day over 15 years old, you'd understand that it's not always about who runs the fastest times; it's about who breaks the mental barriers for the faster times to follow.
Not that I expect you to understand that.
Bannister is the role model for those who must fit running into the context of a full and well-rounded life. Training like El G is fine if you can live in your own mountain retreat with daily massages and your own personal pacers, whereas Bannister got the most out of the limited resources, time and energy he had at his disposal. Hell, he didn't even have a coach until the last year or so!
dogfish fillet wrote:
...El G is fine if you can live in your own mountain retreat with daily massages and your own personal pacers, whereas Bannister got the most out of the limited resources, time and energy he had at his disposal. Hell, he didn't even have a coach until the last year or so!
Didn't Bannister have pacers? Your idealised view of the Bannister era is fine, but make no mistake the sub 4 may not have come so easily without Chataway and Brasher.
El G only used what was available to him (?). I guess had Bannister had the opportunities for sponsorship and big prize money he would have made the best of it to.
Grovism wrote:
Geez, you're like a bunch of girls at a sleepover, who just saw their assholes for the first time in the mirror.
But did EL G "Retire" or "quit"? That is the question.
Why did this turn into the El G Vs. Bannister thread? What Bannister did at the time was nothing short of amazing. As I mentioned before there were other runners at the time who were expected to break 4 minutes but Bannister was the one who broke that mental barrier. His record did not stand for long, but we recognize him for his ability to do something that was thought to be impossible just a few years before that.
3:59.4 on less than 30min daily is pretty good, possibly his training was near optimal considering his constrained time schedule
I was actually amazed that El G didn't know that Bannister ran his races on cinders. He was doubly impressed by his sub four when informed that the track was dirt. Kind of amazing that even someone of his age didn't realize that tartan hasn't been around forever. Obviously he isn't a true student of the sport.
It would be nice if someone made a good cinder track again and brought a first class mile field together to settle the argument as to how much slower that surface really is.
Think that happened already
The fact that Bannister did run 3:59.4 on such little training and had the mental confidence to do so is amazing. What is truly amazing is that he did so while a MEDICAL student at OXFORD
In addition to Bannister running sub 4 while a full time medical school student at Oxford, what is so remarkable about the achievement is that - around the time he broke 4 minutes - the 4 minute mile was one of two things that humans believed impossible to accomplish: summiting Mt. Everest and breaking 4. Even though Bannister ran his 3:59.4 in blustery conditions, I think we can all agree El G in his prime was superior to Bannister in his prime. But Bannister's accomplishment was more transcendant. It was about the progression of athleticism, yes, but for most of the world it was about the limitless potential for humans to achieve.
In 1954 Roger Bannister was in "training" at St mary's hospital in London I believe.
Seb Coe had a look at Bannister's training diary and said it was quite similar to what he did. Some very intense workouts.
Stampfl had a big influence on Bannister. Try finding a miler who doesn't still do 8 x 400m off 2min or very similar.
I read an article in Athletics Weekly in the UK a few years ago that said that one of the main reasons that Bannister's four minute mile was impressive, was that it happened in the context of the post-war era, when rationing and shortages meant that most people had a low quality diet.
However, it was proposed that in earlier, more prosperous times, professional athletes had already run sub-4 minute miles, but in before accurate systems of time measurement were introduced to athletics. For example, many sporting events were held simply to settle scores between rivals in straightforward races, or to settle bets without any recognised officials present.