HORWILL TRAINING BOOKS?

Frank Horwill, Obsession for Running",

Colin Davies Printers / British Milers' Club, 1994

and the Website:

http://www.serpentine.org.uk/pages/advice_frank.html

Where can one buy that book? Couldn't find it on Amazon? Any help?

Had a look & you are going to struggle

Another book he was co-author of:

http://cgi.ebay.com/COMPLETE-MIDDLE-DISTANCE-RUNNER-by-DENIS-ETC-WATTS_W0QQitemZ190298852813QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Books_NonFictionBooks_NonFictionBooks_SM?hash=item190298852813

I'm sure you can find it cheaper (I think I have this one somewhere)

To save buying the book i'll give you a summary of his methods.

-Low mileage about 50 miles per week.

-Tempo runs at a ridiculous pace.

-Sessions with not enough recovery.

-Hop everywhere instead of walking (well not quite, but he has got a thing about hopping)

-Have exactly the same training articles printed in athletics weekly every week for the past 20 years.

And the contents of this "book" will be used for ...? Lining a bird cage? Starting a fire? Plugging a mouse hole in a wall? Housebreaking an incontinent elephant? Surely no one with any aspirations of being a runner would consider reading it.Then again, the Flat Earth Society still has members, so maybe there's some kind of deranged enchantment associated with stubbornly clinging to the looniest and most untenable ideas.

ukathleticscoach wrote:

Had a look & you are going to struggle.

I assume that means you'll struggle with finding/ordering it. But that's nothing compared with how much you'll struggle if you follow it. If these asinine "thoughts" about "running" were an organism, the creature would be a failed species destined for the ash heap of extinction. It's kind of like the swine flu. We should be eradicating it, not helping it spread to as many innocent hosts as possible. Do every serious runner a favor and don't feed it. Just let it die.

Well Seb Coe used his 5 pace training system and that didn't work out too bad. In 1980, in a lecture after the Olympics, Peter Coe said “We have used Frank Horwill’s multi-tier system. It’s all embracing.” Coe was later to say, “The 5km pace sessions in the winter are golden”.

Tim Hutchings finished 4th in the Olympic Games 1984 and Silver in the World CC 1984 and 1989 (behind John Ngugi). There are is only one athlete in the UK at the moment beating his 13.11 best set 25 years ago!

More recently he coached Huw Lobb to a marathon pb of 2:14.33 and winning £25K in a man v horse marathon. The 1st winner on 2 legs in 15 years

Where are those athletes who who like to do tempo runs at a fast pace from? East Africa! I trained with some Ethiopian athletes and they seemed to like short recoveries too!

i'm reading ritz's coach's book

he polishes a lot of turds in it

makes statement unconvincingly with no evidence...err like me.

for excample that you have to do race specfic work to have a great race

i think you might do a lot of long runs,t runs and intervals, none at 10k pace and run a great 10k

if you write a book you have to act like you know

a lot of running is art

we just don't know

how fast and long are the tempos Horwill advocate relative to

race pace??

Ten miles at half marathon pace. Which effectively means 10 miles less than a second per mile slower than 10 mile race pace.

His training schedules are often ridiculously hard, with no reference to periodization.

wellnow wrote:

Ten miles at half marathon pace. Which effectively means 10 miles less than a second per mile slower than 10 mile race pace.

His training schedules are often ridiculously hard, with no reference to periodization.

I have a copy of "Obsession for Running" and his plan is not made for most normal human beings. I have a hard time believing that anyone, including Hutchings and Coe, really followed what Horwill outlines. They may have followed the theory somewhat but not at the intensity consistently prescribed.

ok I agree with you on his tempo run.

Trust me though when those Kenyans do a tempo run thay are hitting race pace over the past few miles. They would start off steady though.

But as for the other sessions you are forgetting he is targeting elite runners

On periodization he does have his but a different interpretation. With lower mileage and more a less regimented approach

Progression is key to the Horwill approach:

http://www.serpentine.org.uk/pages/advice_frank47.html

Another link for those interested

http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/technique/145_Frank_J_Horwill.pdf

Countless articles in Athletics Weekly if you can pick up back issues. Saw him down at Battersea track last week.

I have the book ,i have read it an re read it ,a classic.

Anyone out there who think the sessions are to hard then take give up running and join a ladies gym class.

International running is hard ,imposibly hard.

But that is why those who can do .

And the rest of spend our time posting crap on here .

Zatopec was mad, Cerruty mad, lydiard was critisised ,Paula Radcliffe does to much .When will you lot on here ,you want to be but are not good enough athlets realize that it takes more than talk to reach top class.

Some of you want to develop some balls before you start showing yourself up on here .

If you think Horwill is to hard then you are in the wrong sport.

i have a theory wrote:

I have the book ,i have read it an re read it ,a classic.

Anyone out there who think the sessions are to hard then take give up running and join a ladies gym class.

International running is hard ,imposibly hard.

But that is why those who can do .

And the rest of spend our time posting crap on here .

Zatopec was mad, Cerruty mad, lydiard was critisised ,Paula Radcliffe does to much .When will you lot on here ,you want to be but are not good enough athlets realize that it takes more than talk to reach top class.

Some of you want to develop some balls before you start showing yourself up on here .

If you think Horwill is to hard then you are in the wrong sport.

a lot of the training IS unnecessarily hard-for one of his plans he advocated morning runs at close to tempo pace every single day in addition to other "real" workouts.

i have a theory wrote:

I have the book ,i have read it an re read it ,a classic.

Anyone out there who think the sessions are to hard then take give up running and join a ladies gym class.

International running is hard ,imposibly hard.

But that is why those who can do .

And the rest of spend our time posting crap on here .

Zatopec was mad, Cerruty mad, lydiard was critisised ,Paula Radcliffe does to much .When will you lot on here ,you want to be but are not good enough athlets realize that it takes more than talk to reach top class.

Some of you want to develop some balls before you start showing yourself up on here .

If you think Horwill is to hard then you are in the wrong sport.

Thanks tough guy.

"for one of his plans he advocated morning runs at close to tempo pace every single day in addition to other "real" workouts."

Where ?

I know more or less everything he has written .

Where is this session quoted ?

He is sort of a headcase and getting more so as he gets older and older. Nobody who he coaches really follows what he prescribes, but some of his track workouts are good.

"for one of his plans he advocated morning runs at close to tempo pace every single day in addition to other "real" workouts

cant find it ?

Thought not.

Horwill gets mader as he gets older and his athletes times still take some beating .

Strange isnt it

In his article Horwill mentions training for improving MaxVO2:

3 X 1500m @ 3000m race pace with 3min rest

4 X 2miles @ 10km race pace with 90sec rest

6 X 1000m @ 5km race pace with 1min rest

And his HM session: run 13 miles at HM race pace!

These sessions have to be at least as hard as running the race itself, if not more difficult.

The guy was nuts