"I never ran more than 25miles a week."

If X = distance and Y = pace then most here are obsessed with X to the exclusion of Y. Mindlessly plodding mile after mile towards an endless progression of pedantic miles as you vainly yet, disturbingly, point towards your log that tallies only miles, not pace, marking a relentless obsession, an emotional attachment with desultory pathetic plodding obscurity.

You never have and never will get what they got oh so long ago.

RIP Chris, you understood Y.

No. Lagat was doing much less when he was younger, as is Lalang. The simple and obvious fact is that mileage is a piss poor way of measuring training.

addendum: people are different. there are some low mileage guys out there, while others fail poorly with this.

longjack wrote:

chataway on the other hand running a 13:50 5k - on what kind of track with what kind of pacing? we are talking a time much better today with drafting and synthetic surface - maybe even sub 13:40.no doubt they experienced pain beyond belief in top competitions. insane absolutely insane.

Chataway was an inspiring athlete but it just blows my mind to think that just 12 years later Ron Clarke ran almost 40 secs faster than Chataway over 5k and for 10k he ran 27-39 which is 2 x 13:49x 5ks back-to-back. These times were also on cinder tracks and Ron Clarke also worked full time as an accountant and businessman. Can you imagine if someone today ran 12:00 for 5K, and 25:18 for 10k ???

Clark was doing doubles (at least!) and 100 mpw +

ukathleticscoach wrote:

Clark was doing doubles (at least!) and 100 mpw +

But more miles is bad. Zomg so scary.

to beef up my previous posting.

Pain.

to run fast without a proper aerobic base requires decent speed and maxing out. this is a combination that brings maximum pain in running. most mortals can't push themselves enough to really know what it's like.

some dirt and grass tracks were pretty fast. some were terrible. i don't give banister more than 2 seconds on synthetic. however, bannister did quote doing 252 3/4 mile on a muddy track, which is other worldly.

it is a no brainer not to think that a guy like bannister on modern training, even 50 miles a week could not go 350.

remember too that guys like walker were capable of 346.

later on with the fields full of EPO guys you get towed along to the great times.

regarding clarke, i doubt his accounting job was little more than an excuse to keep his amateur standing. which was a joke anyway as they got paid, air tickets, this and that.

to figure out how fast clark's records really were you have to have someone with a brain to report on the conditions and figure out the handicap.

you have to realize that if clark had perfect rabbiting and a synthetic track, you are talking a one second per lap benefit, or more.

which is not to say you can compare moorcroft with clarke.

again moorcroft with the rabbit pacing goes 12:50.

SMJO wrote:

Bannister didn't have the raw speed to run 3:45.

The real SMJ Ovett wouldn't say such stupid things as you constantly come out with. Do you think that Farah doesn't have the raw speed to run 3.28 for 1500?

sdfjosifjo wrote:

SMJO wrote:

Bannister didn't have the raw speed to run 3:45.

The real SMJ Ovett wouldn't say such stupid things as you constantly come out with. Do you think that Farah doesn't have the raw speed to run 3.28 for 1500?

Hey! I agreed with you on the VO2 max thread. lol

Why would I think Farah doesn't have the raw speed? He actually ran 3:28 to prove it.

Bannister had nowhere near the speed of Farah. His best 400 was likely no faster than 52.

Farah could shade 50.

coach d wrote:

You have to factor in that Bannister ran that time on the Iffly Road Track. The record there is held by Craig Mottram at 3:56. The year after Mottram set that record, he ran 3:48 in Oslo as I recall.

It was converted to a synthetic track in 1976 and upgraded in 1989. However, it was supposed to be in terrible condition in 2004 when Mottram ran his record.

An up to date and fast track was installed in 2007. I think they are trying to plan a 60th anniversary meet this year, so the record should fall again.