30yrs and I have never figured this one out. Even when unleashing that brilliant kick at the OTs in '84, getting 5th in the OGs, 3rd in '87 WCs, he never showed any distress. His face was sphinx-like.
There are a few examples of him grimacing, but even in his comeback, duelling Steve Holman in the '92 OTs 1500
....nothing....complete calm while everybody else looks like they are having a root canal.
b/c the guy is a straight balle
You think that's air you're breathing?
Dermal respiration. See also: Abebe Bikila, Ron Clarke, Filbert Bayi, Miruts Yifter, Wilson Kipketer.
Thanks malmo, that was an awesome read
One of my favorite articles about one of my favorite runners.
"Jim was told to train 4 weeks in the pool; unable to run until May 27. That left just six weeks of running until the trials. The first week, he was so despondent, that he didn’t go to the pool at all. The next week he went every other day. The third week he went twice a day, trying to play catch-up, fighting a losing battle against the calendar. “I should have been in the pool from Day one,” he admits, “but I was discouraged and, looking back, depressed.”
When Jim was finally able to start running, he felt like all the fitness he had attained over the winter and early Spring had just evaporated. “I came back out and couldn’t break 37 seconds for 200 meters.” Worse still: after 3 or 4 days of running that same lower leg started bothering him again. “I remember limping back from a run literally close to tears and sitting on the stairs up to my front porch. I took off my shoes and looked at my left shoe and realized the air pocket had blown out at the side. It was a defective shoe, and I wondered how long had it been like that. That’s how I got hurt.” Jim was discouraged, but at least he had an answer. He got out some new shoes and set about what he knew would be an uphill battle against time to even get to Seoul, let alone medal.
Figuring the aerobic miles were still in the bank, Durkin had him do a series of hard 600 meters time trials to assess his charge’s anaerobic shape. Five weeks before the trial, Jim ran a pedestrian 1:42. It felt flat out! He went home exhausted, telling Cindy “it’s never gonna happen.” Five days later, he clocked a 1:31, and another five days later he coasted to a 1:25, feeling great, like his old self.
As the summer season began to unfold in Europe, Seb Coe had yet to show any form (and would, in a highly controversial decision, be left off the team for Seoul) and Steve Cram was beginning to be dogged by the calf injury that would eventually end his career. The door was seemingly left wide open for Jim if he could duplicate his form from the previous summer.
Jim hopped over to Europe to sharpen up and ready himself for the rough ‘n’ tumble of Olympic trials racing. A 3:50 Mile at Bislett and a 7:48 3000m in Gothenburg buoyed his confidence, and then, back in the States, a 1:47 clocking for a low-key 800 in Chicago let him know that, physically at least, he was firing on all cylinders again."
Fantastic stuff.
“In Europe, where fans recognize Spivey as one of the world’s best middle-distance runners, everybody knows that Spivey’s son is named after Sebastian Coe, Britain’s great miler,” wrote the New York Times’ Filip Bondy at the time. “Here in America, they think he’s named after Sebastian the crab, from ‘The Little Mermaid.’”
haha this made me laugh
A great article Malmo, enjoyed it a lot.
I still remember very fondly after a Texaco Mile, having lunch with Jim Spivey and "the" John Walker.
"How did Jim Spivey run with his mouth closed?"
Fast. He ran really fast.
A really good guy, too.
Last week I broke 1:30 for 600 m after not doing speedwork for 3 years. I'm almost 40 but based on what Spivey did I'm going to try to run a 3:50 mile this summer.
Josh McDougal also supposedly runs with his mouth closed. I say supposedly only because I've never seen it myself, not because I don't believe it.
http://tullyrunners.com/Articles/RaucciArticle.htm
http://tullyrunners.com/Articles/RaucciFollow1.htm
He breathed through his blowhole.
That was cool article. Thanks. Decent guy.
Spivey has got his own website with more stories and lots of stats. Looks like he does private and group coaching. Nothing on "How to run your ail off with your mouth closed" though. :)
Flies?
Jim had never run over sixty minutes before, in his life. Durkin wanted him to run ninety. “I didn’t like it,” Jim recalls. “The first time I tried to run 90 minutes, I got to 60 and couldn’t believe that I would have to keep on running for another 30 minutes.”
This was in 1986 Jim had already finished 5th in 84 OG 1500m. What a natural talent ... amazing.
search the LR message board for "low mileage success". Jim added a number of threads about his own training and racing experiences including a number of entries directly from this training logs. Great, great stuff
Did the low-mileage success of mid-80's guys like Spivey and Marsh contribute to the following 15-year downturn in overall distance running success in the U.S.?
Or a sign that running 90 min + isn't that important for a guy trying to run 1500m fast.
keen D wrote:
Jim had never run over sixty minutes before, in his life. Durkin wanted him to run ninety. “I didn’t like it,” Jim recalls. “The first time I tried to run 90 minutes, I got to 60 and couldn’t believe that I would have to keep on running for another 30 minutes.”
This was in 1986 Jim had already finished 5th in 84 OG 1500m. What a natural talent ... amazing.
strapiton wrote:
Did the low-mileage success of mid-80's guys like Spivey and Marsh contribute to the following 15-year downturn in overall distance running success in the U.S.?
No, the biggest factor in U.S. distance running decline was the increasing dominance of African runners.