Walter George

Basically high knees drill x 100. While he was ahead of his time, that means he belonged in the 1920s. We know better now.

Jsquire,

Are you responding from defining what I asked or from knowing what he did. If the latter, could you give the reference.

Thanks.

From Lore of Running, 4th Ed., p. 365:

"By modern standards, George trained very lightly, claiming that he traned on 'beer and enjoyment.' For the first six years of his running career, his only training involved doing '100-up' exercises. This entailed little more than running on the spot flexing his knees alternately to hip level. The idea was to build up training until he was able to repeaat the exercise 100 times at maximum speed."

When Brit-types say "running on the spot" they mean what we call running in place, just in case that wasn't clear. Noakes' references are "The 100-Up Exercise" by Walter George, published in 1908, and "Five Kings of Distance" by Peter Lovesey, published in 1968. The second of these two books isn't too difficult to find using inter-library loan, but good luck getting your hands on the first.

'100 Up Exercise' is available as a reference title as the main San Francisco public library location.

100 up wrote:

Considering he went out in 58 for a 4:12 mile on sourly torn up makeshift tracks, he had a great conception of running.

For what it's worth, the 4:12 mile was run on a very well-prepared track at Lillie Bridge, London. It's a mistake to think that these guys were always running on cowpaths or the equivalent.

...with potholes filled with runners from prior races who couldn't get out.

old tymer wrote:

For what it's worth, the 4:12 mile was run on a very well-prepared track at Lillie Bridge, London. It's a mistake to think that these guys were always running on cowpaths or the equivalent.

Not from the runtrack directory description.

"The track was several hundred yards north of Stamford Bridge in the area between Seagrave Road and the railway line and north of Brompton Park Crescent. It was the brainchild of John Chambers, the driving force of the Amateur Athletics Club, and was opened on 18th March 1869 as a 3 laps to the mile track with square corners around a cricket ground. It was however reported to have been built in 1868. The club had previously been based at Beaufort House which was immediately west of here. In 1884 a 440 yard oval cinder cycle track was built inside the running track to accommodate the cyclists who had come croppers at was known as Hospital Corner. The running track was reported to be "perhaps as good and fair a track as has ever been made" but after 1877 when Stamford Bridge opened the track became neglected and the sub-layer of gravel was exposed in places and at other points the poorly distributed cinders gave way under the feet of the runners. When Walter George beat William Cummings here in a new mile world record of 4 minutes 12.75 seconds on August 23rd 1886, George suggested the race be held on the cycle track which had a top dressing of fine red brick-dust but Cummings preferred the running track and the race was held on this one as he had won the toss of a coin. It is thus not known whether the cycle track was used for athletics. Between the two grounds was a hospital. The track and associated grandstand was burnt down on 18th Sept 1887 by rioting spectators after a fixed sprint match between Harry Gent and Harry Hutchins did not take place because neither of the participants would agree to lose. The grounds were not used again and closed a year later in 1888 and were replaced by railway sidings although these are no longer there. Some sources give the location of Lillie Bridge as Fulham."

jsquire wrote:

until he was able to repeaat the exercise 100 times at maximum speed."

Ah so he did do these at maximum speed.

Jsquire, thank you very much.

I have Five Kings and Noakes' Lore and appreciate you pointing to the references. Walter George's book must be quite valuable, if it's still around.

In 1880 a well prepared track consisted of raking, rolling and watering the dirt cinder track. They were not the condition of tracks these days.

The race with Cummings had lap times of 58.3, 2:01.8, and 3:07.5 then Cummings sprinted to a 10 yard lead but collapsed 60 yards from the finish. George ran on to his 4:12.8, breaking the then WR by 12 seconds.

In 1885 he ran 4:10.2 on a track that was 6 yards too long.

There's a great picture of him taking a few strikes with Walter Newton in Noake's book. He must have been in his 70's or 80's at the time and still looked quite fit.

jsquire wrote:

because neither of the participants would agree to lose.

Funny. Thanks for the info.

Basic rule of historical thumb: primary sources beat secondary or tertiary sources any day. For example, from the NY Clipper, Sept. 11, 1886, we have the following report drawn from a London paper, which states in part:

"As the time drew near for the decision of the race everything seemed favorable for fast time. The air was light and dry, the atmosphere warm and very little breeze stirring. The centre bicycle oval track [i.e., 440y track] had been prepared for the race, and was in splendid order..."

I could dig up London reports, if these would be any more convincing.

No one can pretend that the best running tracks then were as good as those today, but it's a mistake to think that they were all very crude, pot-holed, etc. That simply isn't true.

Anybody have a better description of these or have experience doing them?

100 up wrote:

As I recall, he would run in place lifting his knees as high as possible and repeat this 100 times, at least once a day.

He did this because he worked behind the counter in a chemist's shop (= "drug store" for Americans) all day. I bet he would have loved to go out for a run, but this was the best he could do in the odd breaks when there were no customers in the shop.

Here's and article and video that recently published about the exercises.

August wrote:

Here's [an] article and video that [were] recently published about the exercises.

Ummmm...

It is in todays New York Times

I'm guessing Walter George just wasn't counting his morning run, or warmups and cooldowns from his form exercises, as he didn't consider them to be quality work. So he was probably doing 50-75 miles per week, plus extensive form drills. Really guys, 4:12 off 75/week plus drills is not that impressive.

Stock LRC Response wrote:

I'm guessing Walter George just wasn't counting his morning run, or warmups and cooldowns from his form exercises, as he didn't consider them to be quality work. So he was probably doing 50-75 miles per week, plus extensive form drills. Really guys, 4:12 off 75/week plus drills is not that impressive.

This was 1886 you know.

And as for 75 miles a week?

You are confusing modern day training with what those old timers got up to.

I remember thumbing through a book about him years ago and what stuck in my mind ever since was his Sunday training - a brisk 3 mile walk, followed by a good pub meal with a couple of beers.

Perhaps Google books has the answer:

https://www.google.com/search?num=20&hl=en&safe=off&rlz=1B3GGLL_en___IL394&q=W.%20G.%20George%20100-Up%20exercise&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=316567l316947l0l317172l2l2l0l0l0l0l0l0ll0l0&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbo=u&tbm=bks&source=og&sa=N&tab=wp