espn was making a big deal that a rookie receiver will be training where Jerry Rice ran his hill repeats, and Jerry was on bragging about how tough it is and how most people couldn't handle it. It's about 2.5 miles and he says his best time is just under 16 minutes. It doesn't seem too impressive from a runner's perspective, but the NFL media loves making a big deal out of it
Miles Larue wrote:
espn was making a big deal that a rookie receiver will be training where Jerry Rice ran his hill repeats, and Jerry was on bragging about how tough it is and how most people couldn't handle it. It's about 2.5 miles and he says his best time is just under 16 minutes. It doesn't seem too impressive from a runner's perspective, but the NFL media loves making a big deal out of it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftmVLvQyZAs
Are you kidding? His sport requires speed and short bursts, so it is silly to think that distance runners that train specifically to run 15minute long races would not kill him on this.
It said ANY decent runner. I say no to that. It would take a good runner.
It is a very steady uphill though I'm not sure of the elevation gain. Somewhere on Youtube there is video of Rice running it. But I think Rice could have held his own with some very good middle distance runners on this run though not elite level runners.
Its very interesting to speculate how great of middle distance runner Rice could have been if he devoted himself to the sport. His conditioning as an NFL player was already superb. Obviously his speed was already greater than any middle distance runner could wish to be. He had great running form. If he were to shed the unneeded football muscle, spend a year or two further developing his endurance I can easily imagine him being an Olympic level 800-1500M runner.
Nope, Rice is the goat. Would smash Bekele.
ryan foreman wrote:
Its very interesting to speculate how great of middle distance runner Rice could have been if he devoted himself to the sport. His conditioning as an NFL player was already superb. Obviously his speed was already greater than any middle distance runner could wish to be. He had great running form. If he were to shed the unneeded football muscle, spend a year or two further developing his endurance I can easily imagine him being an Olympic level 800-1500M runner.
He was a sprinter who worked on conditioning more than his peers. In no way does that make him an elite middle distance runner no matter what training he did.
He seems to have two speeds on that hill, all out sprint and a shuffling jog. I wouldn't leave it to a kick with one of the best athletes ever. Break away early and don't look back. That's my unsolicited advice for anyone who wants to go back in time and race Jerry Rice up a random hill.
dean moriarty wrote:
He seems to have two speeds on that hill, all out sprint and a shuffling jog. I wouldn't leave it to a kick with one of the best athletes ever. Break away early and don't look back. That's my unsolicited advice for anyone who wants to go back in time and race Jerry Rice up a random hill.
Haha, very nice
Read my post. I didn't say he was an elite middle distance runner. I said that for runners outside of an elite middle distance runner he could have matched up pretty well with on that hill run. And I think that in another life, if he had put his focus on middle distance running, he very well could have been an elite runner. If not the best of the elite.
Surprise! wrote:
ryan foreman wrote:Its very interesting to speculate how great of middle distance runner Rice could have been if he devoted himself to the sport. His conditioning as an NFL player was already superb. Obviously his speed was already greater than any middle distance runner could wish to be. He had great running form. If he were to shed the unneeded football muscle, spend a year or two further developing his endurance I can easily imagine him being an Olympic level 800-1500M runner.
He was a sprinter who worked on conditioning more than his peers. In no way does that make him an elite middle distance runner no matter what training he did.
Where is the hill? Someone in the area can just go try it and find out.
That is exactly what I was thinking. I'm assuming it is public property. I'm pretty sure it is somewhere in or around the Bay Area.
Hillness wrote:
Where is the hill? Someone in the area can just go try it and find out.
Could almost guarantee that it is closer to 2 than 2.5 miles.
It's Edgewood Park Open Space btwn San Carlos and Redwood City.
(Courtesy of Google).
I stared at the map and realized I've run there before when visiting, just a jogging trail run. I wish I knew the exact loop. The biggest hill is actually in the northeast corner/main parking, which is about 400'/0.5 mile and 600' for 0.7. The rest is rolling. One of the articles suggested that the last 800m was straight uphill, so it's almost like he does some sort of loop and then saves the hill for last. Very curious now.
Maybe 7:30 for the hilly mile, 5:30 pace for the other 2?
I ran there once last summer. Having been in the Bay Area during much of the great Niners era I recall footage of him running this workout not in the open area by that parking lot (which comes out over the hill to the highway with Stanford's Dish trails in view on the other side), but on a trail that goes up through a forest, which would put it across the road past a horse barn and toward a more isolated open space area. The trail is broad and gets quite steep toward the end.
It'd be interesting to have a letsrunner go there and time how long it takes them so we could compare.
Obviously a somewhat elite runner is going to beat him up in the hill. I'm wondering just how impressive it is.
I ran for the Farm Team for 3 years, at the end of Jerry Rice's career. Pro players would work out at Stanford track.
He trained with several other players from the niners (JJ Stokes and Tai Streets) and some other players like Eddy George would be there too in the summer.
I saw them do 200's with a lot of rest while we were working out. I was surprised how pedestrian their workout seemed. My point is the standard for hard track workouts for pure football players is different than for track guys. We were doing 1ks, and we may have been going slightly faster than them in their 200s. But...You have to remember these guys are big and are carrying a lot of weight around the track.
Based on what I saw, most decent high school runners could do the run up the hill.
The short answer to your question is: yes, a good quality runner would be faster up "the hill" than Jerry Rice. He would be faster than 99% of NFL players though. There are many great NFL athletes, but few a) run 4-5 miles hard and b) run up hills. Jerry and some of his teammates were the exception, and they believe it gave them extra stamina for game day. But all things in context. We are talking about a 200 lb athlete that is optimized for sprinting, not a 130 lb top middle distance or cross country runner.
I have run "the hill" with a number of the 49ers (although not Jerry), and it's a lungbuster to run all out. It is not 2.5 miles, it is just under 2 miles. I can't say for sure, whether Jerry has an alternate route that he timed at 15 mins, but this is "the Hill" that the 49ers trained on back in the day, and 15 mins would be a pretty solid effort. A top cross country runner could probably do it in 11-12 mins. That is not to take anything away from Jerry. He is a football player, not a distance runner. Here is the route (http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/388764698). Map my run cheats it by about 10%, which is common for measuring trails.
there are many high school girls who would have punked him on that hill on his best day
Was Rice 200lbs? That seems a little heavy. Its not like he was that tall, but maybe he was. I would have guessed he was more in the 185-190lbs range. That said, my understanding was that he was extremely strong as a receiver.
EmeraldHillsRunner wrote:
The short answer to your question is: yes, a good quality runner would be faster up "the hill" than Jerry Rice. He would be faster than 99% of NFL players though. There are many great NFL athletes, but few a) run 4-5 miles hard and b) run up hills. Jerry and some of his teammates were the exception, and they believe it gave them extra stamina for game day. But all things in context. We are talking about a 200 lb athlete that is optimized for sprinting, not a 130 lb top middle distance or cross country runner.
Maybe Webb could have taken him as a Michigan freshman when he set the record on the Arb run.