I sure as hell have never heard of the guy.
I sure as hell have never heard of the guy.
...become a student of your sport, instead of one of the negative detractors that frequent this board.
den bosch wrote:
I sure as hell have never heard of the guy.
I am old enough to remember the bloke and his performances well.He was a great hearted front runner and had many good races against UK and other European athletes.
What about the guy that went sub 3:35, or the one that broke 3:30 - have you heard of those ones?
How far is the 1500?
Typical American wrote:
How far is the 1500?
About 1.5km.
long sox wrote:
What about the guy that went sub 3:35, or the one that broke 3:30 - have you heard of those ones?
You mean Jim Ryun and Steve Cram? Yes, I have in fact heard of those athletes.
Oh, those were the days of Zatopek, Jungwirth, then Josef Odlozil and Jozef Plachy.
Just to give you some information about his training that eventually lead to his WR:
Born in 1930, he ran to school every day and as a small boy, he loved walking and running in nature.
He started "real training" in 1947 when he added some short sprints to his walking and easy running. He ran his first race in that year - 3000m in 10:22.
1948- no changes in training, but started to race a lot. 3000m in 10:09,100m in 12.4,400m in 59.5,800m in 2:12
1949- started to run 60m-150m intervals at maximum velocity, nothing else! The idea was that he had to develop his speed first and then he might start to train endurance. He improved his times to- 54.4s in the 400m, 1:58 in the 800m and 4:02 in the 1500m
Generally, between the years 1948-1951 he trained about 4 times a week and only "quality", fast intervals at special 1500m pace or faster. In that time, he ran only about 60km per month!! with this mileage (kilometerage) he improved to 50:00 in the 400m, 1:51 in the 800m, 2:25 in the 1000m, 3:48 in the 1500m and 8:47 in the 3000m which is absolutely incredible with this volume.
In 1952, he ran 3:47 which got him into the world top ten and he qualified for the OG in Helsinki. Because Stanislav's father was an anti-communist activist, the communist party didnt want to let him go. Fortunately, Emil Zatopek said that either both of them would go or none. The communists didnt believe that Zatopek would really throw away his olympic spot but when Zatopek really didnt depart with other athletes and stayed home, they subsequently sent them both. He did not make finals in these games but later that year broke WR in the 1000m in 2:21.
The long story continues, to say it quickly, until 1956 he never ran more than 160km per month (40km, about 25 miles per week) but still could improve to 3:43. The change came in 1956 when he radically increased kilometerage to about 400km per month (but it still consisted of fast intervals) and in 1957 broke the WR by running 3:38. Few days before his record he ran 3x400, 6x600, 3x400 with jogs between intervals. Dont know the times of the quarters, but the 600's were run in 1:22-1:25!
The training was obviously too much for his body, injuries came and he was forced to finish his career just before the Rome Olympics in 1960.
He was very humble, had very low self-confidence and was extremely fair in races. For example, he would never use some dirty tactics to block other runners - when somebody was trying to pass him he would clear his lane and let him go. He died of cancer in 1986.
Thank you for this. I just learned a great deal about an important runner in history that I never heard of before now. Guess I should brush up on my history a bit.
countryman of Standa Jungwirth wrote:
Oh, those were the days of Zatopek, Jungwirth, then Josef Odlozil and Jozef Plachy.
Just to give you some information about his training that eventually lead to his WR:
Born in 1930, he ran to school every day and as a small boy, he loved walking and running in nature.
He started "real training" in 1947 when he added some short sprints to his walking and easy running. He ran his first race in that year - 3000m in 10:22.
1948- no changes in training, but started to race a lot. 3000m in 10:09,100m in 12.4,400m in 59.5,800m in 2:12
1949- started to run 60m-150m intervals at maximum velocity, nothing else! The idea was that he had to develop his speed first and then he might start to train endurance. He improved his times to- 54.4s in the 400m, 1:58 in the 800m and 4:02 in the 1500m
Generally, between the years 1948-1951 he trained about 4 times a week and only "quality", fast intervals at special 1500m pace or faster. In that time, he ran only about 60km per month!! with this mileage (kilometerage) he improved to 50:00 in the 400m, 1:51 in the 800m, 2:25 in the 1000m, 3:48 in the 1500m and 8:47 in the 3000m which is absolutely incredible with this volume.
In 1952, he ran 3:47 which got him into the world top ten and he qualified for the OG in Helsinki. Because Stanislav's father was an anti-communist activist, the communist party didnt want to let him go. Fortunately, Emil Zatopek said that either both of them would go or none. The communists didnt believe that Zatopek would really throw away his olympic spot but when Zatopek really didnt depart with other athletes and stayed home, they subsequently sent them both. He did not make finals in these games but later that year broke WR in the 1000m in 2:21.
The long story continues, to say it quickly, until 1956 he never ran more than 160km per month (40km, about 25 miles per week) but still could improve to 3:43. The change came in 1956 when he radically increased kilometerage to about 400km per month (but it still consisted of fast intervals) and in 1957 broke the WR by running 3:38. Few days before his record he ran 3x400, 6x600, 3x400 with jogs between intervals. Dont know the times of the quarters, but the 600's were run in 1:22-1:25!
The training was obviously too much for his body, injuries came and he was forced to finish his career just before the Rome Olympics in 1960.
He was very humble, had very low self-confidence and was extremely fair in races. For example, he would never use some dirty tactics to block other runners - when somebody was trying to pass him he would clear his lane and let him go. He died of cancer in 1986.
This is an epic bio which should be on the front page! Thanks so much "Countryman".
countryman of Standa Jungwirth wrote:
1949- started to run 60m-150m intervals at maximum velocity, nothing else! The idea was that he had to develop his speed first and then he might start to train endurance.
Thank you very much for sharing this training of Stanislav (Standa) Jungwirth. I read of his training in How They Train, middle distances, by Fred Wilt. Anything more you'd like to share of him and his training is much appreciated!
Here is some info from Wilt's book (might not be accurate as Wilt took considerable leeway to "translate" people's training to his views).
"In order to improve .. the ability to sustain a fast pace over a relatively long distance, the highest conceivable quantity of repetitions at different speeds were performed .. trained twice daily .. sections of 100m to 800m and tempo control runs up to 200m were run dailty, with a light jog between intervals .. throughout this training period the total distance covered progressed from 12 and 15 km to 30 km (?).
Examples of workouts:
4x 150m, 7x 500m, 1:12-1:09, last in 1:05.4
5x 200m, 4x 400m 58
4x 400m, 6x 600m, last in 1:22
Wow, I was obviously trying to be a douche when I started the thread, but this is some really interesting info.
thanks to all for this info about a great runner I'd never heard of. First under 3:40 is something. Old faces in the crowd about it:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1133370/index.htm
Cool item with Zatopek standing up to "the man" - even more respect for one of the all time greats.