Recently read somewhere Jon is the all time points leader in the RW Road Racer Standings. Seems like his career at the top lasted nearly fifteen or more years. Anyone spent time training with him that can add to what made his so successful over the years. Seem to recall he trained in New Zealand during the Colorado winters. Lydiard follower?
glycerinrunner wrote:
Recently read somewhere Jon is the all time points leader in the RW Road Racer Standings. Seems like his career at the top lasted nearly fifteen or more years. Anyone spent time training with him that can add to what made his so successful over the years. Seem to recall he trained in New Zealand during the Colorado winters. Lydiard follower?
What does "nearly fifteen or more" mean?
If I recall correctly, John Davies was his coach for many years, so that would have been very Lydiard-like.
Jon approached the sport as a pro athlete before others who just ran. He did everything in his power to stay healthy , always trained smart and raced well.
Davies came in mid career as I recall.
his web site
Sinclair suffered from chondromalacia for a number of years if IIRC and that hiccup in mid career probably allowed him to compete longer.
There seemed to be a gap in his running through the mid 80's.
He was never really at the top of his game. He chose races well enough to race against his fellow white folks for prize money.
garlicky tuna wrote:
He was never really at the top of his game. He chose races well enough to race against his fellow white folks for prize money.
You must be bitter malmo.
Here is the list of winners at Lilac Bloomsday from Sinclair's era. He was no Barrios or Ondieki, but the times stack up pretty well.
1993 Arturo Barrios Mexico 33 min 55 s
1992 Yobes Ondieki Kenya 33 min 55 s
1991 Steve Moneghetti Australia 34 min 52 s
1990 Germán Silva Mexico 34 min 42 s A
1989 John Halvorsen Norway 34 min 21 s
1988 Peter Koech Kenya 34 min 22 s
1987 Steve Binns United Kingdom 34 min 38 s
1986 Jon Sinclair United States Colorado 34 min 25 s
1985 Paul Davies-Hale United Kingdom 34 min 27 s
1984 Ibrahim Hussein Kenya 34 min 33 s
1983 Jon Sinclair United States Colorado 34 min 55
1982 Henry Rono Kenya 35 min 49 s
1981 Duncan McDonald United States California 35 min 34 s
1980 Mark Anderson United States Colorado 36 min 22 s
1979 Ric Rojas United States Colorado 37 min 07 s
1978 Bill Rodgers United States Massachusetts 37 min 07 s
1977 Frank Shorter United States Colorado 38 min 26 s
Longer wrote:
Davies came in mid career as I recall.
That's what I remember too.
glycerinrunner wrote:
Recently read somewhere Jon is the all time points leader in the RW Road Racer Standings. Seems like his career at the top lasted nearly fifteen or more years. Anyone spent time training with him that can add to what made his so successful over the years. Seem to recall he trained in New Zealand during the Colorado winters. Lydiard follower?
Coached by the late Jerry Quiller in college at CSU. Advised by former CSU women's coach Damian Koch for a few years, but not sure if it was a formal coach-athlete arrangement. Self coached for a while (probably ca. 1983 and for a few years), and others have mentioned Davies for the mid-career coaching.
Perhaps long forgotten but was a mentor to Steve Spence early in Spence's career (late college-early post college).
Sinclair was good at picking and choosing his races, he knew which ones he liked, and he would do the same races and pretty much the same training every year. Very consistent about that. Best range seemed to be 10K to half marathon.
I recall a Sports Illustrated story mentioning that he'd changed his training from something like 15-17 miles a day to 10-12 done in two faster runs. I decided to try that myself for a while.
garlicky tuna wrote:
He was never really at the top of his game. He chose races well enough to race against his fellow white folks for prize money.
you can do better wrote:
You must be bitter malmo.
Sorry to disappoint you.
malmo wrote:
garlicky tuna wrote:He was never really at the top of his game. He chose races well enough to race against his fellow white folks for prize money.
you can do better wrote:
You must be bitter malmo.
Sorry to disappoint you.
Okay, good and not disappointed. Just checking because we don't see your cheery countenance as frequently.
garlicky tuna wrote:
He was never really at the top of his game. He chose races well enough to race against his fellow white folks for prize money.
That's because he was a professional.
running with the stars wrote:
garlicky tuna wrote:He was never really at the top of his game. He chose races well enough to race against his fellow white folks for prize money.
That's because he was a professional.
I will concur with that. He ran to make a living and even was quoted about stopping once he couldn't earn 40 grand a year. That was the cut-off which happened probably abrubtly around 1992 when the Kenyans took over. He was very skilled at winning road races against 28:30 American 10k runners, as was Bill Rodgers for a while and Keith Brantly. Or Herb Lindsay for a year. He understood his game. Did very well. Really tough on hilly courses. And like Rodgers could race a lot and recover.
SMJO wrote:
Sinclair suffered from chondromalacia for a number of years if IIRC and that hiccup in mid career probably allowed him to compete longer.
There seemed to be a gap in his running through the mid 80's.
Chondromalacia is permanent, so if he succeeded later on it was in spite of the injury, not because of it.
you can do better wrote:
garlicky tuna wrote:
He was never really at the top of his game. He chose races well enough to race against his fellow white folks for prize money.
You must be bitter malmo.
Here is the list of winners at Lilac Bloomsday from Sinclair's era. He was no Barrios or Ondieki, but the times stack up pretty well.
1993 Arturo Barrios Mexico 33 min 55 s
1992 Yobes Ondieki Kenya 33 min 55 s
1991 Steve Moneghetti Australia 34 min 52 s
1990 Germán Silva Mexico 34 min 42 s A
1989 John Halvorsen Norway 34 min 21 s
1988 Peter Koech Kenya 34 min 22 s
1987 Steve Binns United Kingdom 34 min 38 s
1986 Jon Sinclair United States Colorado 34 min 25 s
1985 Paul Davies-Hale United Kingdom 34 min 27 s
1984 Ibrahim Hussein Kenya 34 min 33 s
1983 Jon Sinclair United States Colorado 34 min 55
1982 Henry Rono Kenya 35 min 49 s
1981 Duncan McDonald United States California 35 min 34 s
1980 Mark Anderson United States Colorado 36 min 22 s
1979 Ric Rojas United States Colorado 37 min 07 s
1978 Bill Rodgers United States Massachusetts 37 min 07 s
1977 Frank Shorter United States Colorado 38 min 26 s
Sinclair was faster than we seem to give him credit for. And Shorter was a hobby jogger. (I'm sure the course was short in the 80s, youngsters, calm down now.)
you can do better wrote:
garlicky tuna wrote:
He was never really at the top of his game. He chose races well enough to race against his fellow white folks for prize money.
You must be bitter malmo.
Here is the list of winners at Lilac Bloomsday from Sinclair's era. He was no Barrios or Ondieki, but the times stack up pretty well.
1993 Arturo Barrios Mexico 33 min 55 s
1992 Yobes Ondieki Kenya 33 min 55 s
1991 Steve Moneghetti Australia 34 min 52 s
1990 Germán Silva Mexico 34 min 42 s A
1989 John Halvorsen Norway 34 min 21 s
1988 Peter Koech Kenya 34 min 22 s
1987 Steve Binns United Kingdom 34 min 38 s
1986 Jon Sinclair United States Colorado 34 min 25 s
1985 Paul Davies-Hale United Kingdom 34 min 27 s
1984 Ibrahim Hussein Kenya 34 min 33 s
1983 Jon Sinclair United States Colorado 34 min 55
1982 Henry Rono Kenya 35 min 49 s
1981 Duncan McDonald United States California 35 min 34 s
1980 Mark Anderson United States Colorado 36 min 22 s
1979 Ric Rojas United States Colorado 37 min 07 s
1978 Bill Rodgers United States Massachusetts 37 min 07 s
1977 Frank Shorter United States Colorado 38 min 26 s
Not sure but I believe the last two winners - Barrios and Ondieki - were WR holders of the 10,000 meters. Was Ondieki also married to Lisa Martin?
Jon is very accessible and friendly. You can ask this question directly to him. He'll answer. He's a great guy.
From my perspective (I trained with him), he made running his life. He rested right, trained right (under Jack Daniels for many years), got massage weekly, and lived quietly. He sacrificed some things many American runners get involved in for better performances. He napped regularly. And lastly, and certainly not unimportant at all, he was an animal mentally. I mean an animal.
AskJon wrote:
Jon is very accessible and friendly. You can ask this question directly to him. He'll answer. He's a great guy.
From my perspective (I trained with him), he made running his life. He rested right, trained right (under Jack Daniels for many years), got massage weekly, and lived quietly. He sacrificed some things many American runners get involved in for better performances. He napped regularly. And lastly, and certainly not unimportant at all, he was an animal mentally. I mean an animal.
I ran against Jon in highschool (Aurora Central) and some in college when I competed for Indiana University while he was at CSU. Jon most definitely was a fierce animal when competing in a race and after…..one of the nicest and greatest people you’d ever meet! it was a joy to see a fellow Coloradian have such a successful running career!