So i know there was another thread only about tony simmons. But it only states hsi weekly runs of 2 x 4 miles once with a group of joggers and once on himself at 6.30 or faster per mile but did he do track workouts? And how did he spend the weekends? Did he do a long run then?
Also did he do 1500 races?
bump up
Off at a tangent - if anyone could find a video of Tony Simmons in his prime, I'd appreciate it.
I was a fan of his. He had very economical form which was very different to most other middle-distance runners at the time.
I saw him run against Brendan Foster at Foster's home track in Gateshead.
Foster tripped and fell on the back straight. The crowd went deadly quiet except for one voice, mine, "Come on Tony!"
25 years on, when I started running, I decided to try and emulate his form. I'd love to see how similar it is.
I found one
A friend of mine knew Simmons and said the second run was 4-6 miles and was done "bloody fast." There was also an article in Athletics Weekly about Simmons that said he ran a 4 and a 4-6 each day. I've never seen mention of anything else he did.
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E: Hey Ghost, about Tony Simmons 10/11/2009 1:41PM - in reply to HRE Reply | Return to Index | Report Post
ok, its an old thread. but from an interview with Tony Simmons in Cliff Temples cross country and road running:
Mondays - 4 at lunchtime, 6 in the evening.
Tuesdays - 4 at lunchtime, 1000 or 2000m reps on road circuit in evening ("followed by a booze up in the club bar afterwards - without the bar I swear I wouldnt still be running")
Wednesday - 6
Thursday 4 at lunchtime, followed by more reps in the evening
Friday - easy 4
Saturday - usually a race, "if not I tend to do nothing that day"
Sunday - 10-20 miles easy on the country from Luton sports centre.
Claimed that after xmas leading up to major events he 'put more attack' into his training.
Read more:
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&id=1066072&thread=1051073#ixzz1N8Sn3Fj6Buy your shoes from LetsRun and save 20% everday
http://www.letsrun.com/saveI wonder how often it was a 10 on Sundays and how often it was 20 or 15 or whatever? And I wonder if this was leading up to his 2:12 marathon or was generally what he did? And I wonder what US running would be like if we had "booze ups" in the club bar after our sessions.
Thanks for putting this up.
Think I’m suffering from early stage dementia, because, having thrown out my old training diaries, I simply can’t remember the year it was that:
I was running in the old Finchley 20, four times a five mile lap, and I’d told some work colleagues watching the race to look out for the favourite, a certain Tony Simmons.
But at the end of the first lap, I was amazed to find Tony running very easily alongside me!
He gradually moved ahead and I was thinking, so much for tipping the winner.
When I finished, they told me that Simmons had won - running 23’s for the last two laps!
Think he ended up running 1.42ish.
Course record holder was the peerless Bill Adcocks in 1.39.01 - I’ll never forget that.
Was going to post that same extract but couldn't find the book. Tony also ran some sessions with Ovett I believe.
Surprised to learn you guys in the States don't have post run p1ss ups!
In Harry Wilson's book Running Dialogue, a training "mile" time trial was mentioned where Steve O ran 4.00.0 and Tony 4.02.
Harry mentions coaching Tony. He said he'd had a "rather slaphappy attitude towards running" before Harry took over his coaching.
In Harry Wilson's book, Runnning my way Wilson calls him Tony Summers AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH
He looked like he had a lot of stamina for a little dude. Those legs where indeed rolling.
Terrible tactics by the entire field of runners including Simmons, with the exception of the guy who won it, as he was the one who took off first.
It's ridiculous to have 15 guys bunched up at the bell, especially for a championship meet.
Considering if they all had equal talent, that left them only a 1/15th chance at that point, which the first guy reduced to less than 1/2 for them by his taking off first.
Had some of them gone with 5 laps out for example, their chances would have been raised up considerably. Especially Simmons who was not a last lap kicker ran a silly race. He should have had a longer run into the finish, and dropped most or all of the others before the last lap.
We had things like the Elliott Lounge in Boston which was essentially a bar that everyone went to after races or training sessions. And it certainly is not uncommon to head out for a few with your running friends. But as you probably know, we don't have nearly the system of clubs that much of the running world has so booze ups in the club bar are much more rare. I'd been to a couple in the UK as a guest. It's our loss.