Seb Coe - Junior Races
13 yrs 1970
1500m - 4.31
A focus on cross country.
Apparently, Seb came 2nd in the Yorkshire Schools 100m when he was 10 or 11, so he had very good natural speed. Many years later George Gandy would say Seb could have been a sprinter had he specialised in it.
14 yrs 1971
800m - 2.08, 1500m - 4.18
A focus on cross country and 1500m, one 800m race. 1500m performance is better than the 800m.
15 yrs 1972
800m - 1.59.9, 1500m - 4.05.9, 3000m - 8.49.9
A focus on cross country, 1500m and 3000m, one 800m race. 3000m is clearly the best event.
Seb Coe didn't run more than one 800m race in a season until he is 16.
16 yrs 1973
800m - 1.56.0, 400m - 51.8, 1500m - 3.55, 3000m - 8.34.6
Seb’s 400m and 3000m time suggest an 800m time of 1.53/54, but he only ran 1.56.
The 800m is Seb’s weakest event. Even his 400m is stronger.
Coe runs five 800m races this track season, plus one (heat and final) during the preseason in an indoor competition. He ran badly in that suggesting little to no 800m like training during the winter.
Seb Coe: “I started daily training at the age of 14. When I was 16 years old I was running twice a day.†Although this article suggests he started doubles when he was 19. Interesting that Seb refers "long term planning" in it.
17 yrs 1974
Injured
18 yrs 1975
800m - 1.53.8, 300m - 36.2, 400m relay - 50.5 (after an 800m est. 51.2 from the blocks), 1500m - 3.45.2, 3000m - 8.14.2
Seb’s race selection towards the end of the season is interesting. Here’s the scenario. The season still has two months to run. It’s late June and Seb runs a 36.2 300m, and a few days later runs an 8.14 3000m. With an 800m PB of 1.53.8 (ran earlier that month), most athlete’s coaches would be lining up an 800m race anticipating a massive PB and almost certainly cracking 1.50. Not Peter Coe. Seb runs three more races - all 1500m. Why not run an 800m? The 800m remains his weakest event... for now.
It’s worth comparing Seb’s 300m time (36.2) to his relay 400m (equivalent of a 51.2 out of the blocks). The 300m is the stronger performance. It’s a small sample of races to analyse and the wind may have been a factor, but it indicates that although Coe’s endurance is very good, his 300m may be better than his 400m. Interesting.
Watch video - Seb Coe warns about overworking young athletes.
Discussion of video: Seb successfully moved through junior ranks, following Peter's plan, culminating in Olympic Gold and WRs. Seb's lived it. He is THE expert in this area. His answer was not very clear/concise. There were generalities instead of specifics. What certain levels of physicality? What's not the only consideration? What are the other considerations? The end was a little clearer... be careful "about the level and amount of racing you would give them." Still a little vague.
19 yrs 1976
800m - 1.47.7, Mile - 3.58.3
At season’s start, Seb is 19 and has run only ten 800m races in his life (with only two individual 800m races in over two years), and that includes a heat and a training run. It's amazing to think that in three years time he breaks the world record for 800m by over a second. That’s what I call being patient and playing it right. By his own reckoning (30 to 40 per year), Seb would have run over a hundred cross country races. This season Seb runs five 800m (including a relay).
By season’s end his 800m performance is perhaps slightly superior to his mile. A six second improvement in the 800 from the year before. A breakthrough season for 800m? Yes, it was a breakthrough, but in reality not the astronomical improvement it appears. It is an improvement of around 2 seconds on what Seb was capable of running the year prior. I believe this improvement was due to natural maturation, a change in running training (more 800m specific work), all launched off a sound base of years of aerobic development in a hilly environment.
Important too is the weight / plyometric / circuit training program, but perhaps it is given greater significance than it deserves. Seb went to Loughborough in September 1975 where he met George Gandy. Seb was already capable of a sub 1.50 800m at that stage as a physically immature 18 year old. Initially, Gandy didn’t have a lot to do with Coe (The Perfect Distance by Pat Butcher). I don’t know which month he started a serious weight / circuit program.
Despite recording an exceptional 3000m the year before, Seb does not run a 3000m this season. Given a four second improvement over 1500m (based on mile time), it’s certain Coe would have been running sub 8 min 10 sec (likely close to 8 mins) for 3000m as a junior.
20 yrs 1977
800m - 1.44.95
This season his focus is almost solely on the 800m. Seb has run fourteen 800m races in eight years. In 1977, he runs sixteen (twelve competitions).
He has run only two 400m (one a relay) races in his life. He ran his first just before his 17th birthday. He runs a further two this season. Seb wasn’t slow as a junior. Now, at 20, and physically much more mature, he is beginning to show signs of the runner he will become.
In his autobiography, Seb states that his focus was the 1500m and he was “being labelled" as a 3000m runner and wanted a "change of emphasis". Hadn't Seb been doing the multi pace work all these years? Perhaps not. How much of a change did he need? I doubt Peter Coe would worry about, and be guided by, what Seb was “being labelled†as? He would do what made sense to him and not be reactive to external noise. I'd say Seb was always pretty quick as a youngster and just needed some specific 800m training to run an excellent 800m.
Perhaps the change of emphasis was the sessions with George Gandy, whom the Coe's had already known for nearly two years, and the sprinters. It would be interesting to know just how much Seb improved over 150 / 200m around this time.
Every race in 1977 is an 800m except for one mile race and two 400m races. This is despite his mile performance the year before being as good as his 800m.
21 yrs 1978
800m - 1.43.97
Again Seb focusses on the 800m. He ran eleven 800m races (eight competitions), a mile and three 400m races (one in a relay). In these developmental years, Seb often races from the front to the detriment of his final result. Even in an 800m European Championship Final, the instructions were to “run as hard as you can for as long as you can.†It seems that Olympic success was all that mattered.
Two weeks after his 800m PB of 1.43.97, Coe beats world class distance runners over a 4 mile road race.
Conclusion
"The Kenyan secret comes from years of training at the right intensity – and a few years with harder track work. Most Europeans and Americans tend to start in the other end. At very low (and slow !) mileage they do these hard track sessions that simply kill the little endurance they have from the beginning of. " Marius Bakken
Whether by design or not, Seb Coe’s junior years focussed on developing his endurance with many 1500m/3000m/Cross Country races. He raced rarely over 800m and even more rarely over 400m. He ran his first 400m just before his 17th birthday, and didn’t start racing 800m (more than once per year) until he was 16. Looking at Coe's times, it appears he did little 800m specific training in his early years. This is the take home message for juniors.
Seb Coe, like Peter Snell, ran the 800m seriously for the first time at age 19. Three years later (four for Snell), he would have the 800m World Record.
In Peter Coe’s book, “Training Distance Runners†there is very little about training for juniors . A chapter on how to train juniors would have been a welcome inclusion. However, it does mention an attempt not to unduly emphasise endurance or speed throughout the Junior years. This suggests that Seb's pure speed development was never ignored. As a boy, Coe was better performed as a sprinter and it was decided he needed to work on his endurance.
In 1974 (in the year Seb, 17, was injured), Frank Horwill received a letter from Peter Coe asking for full details of his Multi Pace training system (which includes 400m and 800m pace training). That’s not to say he hadn't been using that system already in some shape or form. Peter claims he first discussed this system with Frank in 1971 ( 3 years later he still had questions). Perhaps Peter Coe more widely used Horwill’s multi pace (including hard anaerobic) training system when Seb was 18 or 19. This would be consistent with his results and with the training guide in the table in Part 3.
Coe’s mileage as a Junior? When he was 18 he ran 3000m in 8.14 off a reported 28.5 miles average in winter. Running that well off an average 4 miles per day is difficult to fathom. Perhaps it is an average of 28.5 steady/hard miles run per week. with some easy running. At 19, Coe reportedly ran 35 miles per week in winter with runs of average 6 to 8 miles and a long run of 11-12 miles. That’s four days of running by my maths (close enough) Three rest days? Once again, perhaps it was 35 miles of steady/hard running only (for the 6-8 mile runs) and a solid longer run, with some easy recovery runs.
Peter Coe: “At 14, I really thought he was good. And at 16, I was certain, that if I was patient and played it right, that he’d be a world beater.â€
Funny word “patientâ€. It suggests delaying something. Delaying what?
Post Script - Coe as a senior. From Renato Canova: "I followed PERSONALLY in the Winter of 1986 Seb Coe (in Tirrenia, Italian Olympic Venue for middle distances) when he ran 30 km at 3'22" pace (1 hr 40') on the road, with the car of the Center, so IT'S NOT TRUE HE DIDN'T GO FOR LONG RUN. "