I only know a little bit.. He trained consistently for years on the same routes for years. What else was unique to his training?
I only know a little bit.. He trained consistently for years on the same routes for years. What else was unique to his training?
For 15 years he did hill repeats every Tuesday lol
Long runs Sunday and Wednesday.
Quality work Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
Steady runs Monday and Friday.
Twice a day , up around 210 to 220 kms per week.
The quality runs were typically short intense type stuff. 8 x 400 m in low 60s with brisk 200 m floats was his regular Thursday session. He often would run 15 mins tempo before a hard session such as a 20 minute intense hill circuit, sprinting a mix of hills and running solidly downhill.
His long run, steady run pace was not super quick usually 3.45ish per km but from my experiences his Sunday run was finished at a good clip. I recall him rolling some of those home at 3.15 km or faster over the last 10 kms.
More importantly he didn't set limits, and knew when to train hard and when to run easy. I had the pleasure of doing the Sunday run through Stromolo? on a couple of occasions and was shocked that I could, at times, keep up with the pack.
His book on training (prob out of print) is one of the best I have ever read. His training was extremely consistent and it showed in his reults.
Ray, I was just a crappy. 2.40 guy and I used to run along with the Sunday pack at Ferny Creek and could stick with Deek and other fast guys for 3/4 of the run. Typically the last part of the run became pretty solid for those who were feeling good.
His run at Rotterdam in 83 highlighted how good he was. Pretty sure he ran his last km in low 2.40s.
This is really the best representation of it for Americans (distances in miles). I have seen this information many, many times and it is always like this. The thing that really got me about this is EVERY day his less big run was 6 miles.
6 miles in the AM, five days per week. 6 miles in the PM, both weekend days.
http://www.juanjosemartinez.com.mx/files/Deek_training_log.pdf
He ran and won a lot of stuff for someone who ran a great marathon twice a year and someone who stayed in Austrlaia for most of the time. Euro Cross races, World Cross CC, marathons, road races, track 10ks in Australia and Europe. He won every marathon that was worth winning I think, between 1981 and 1986, except the Chicago marathon and New York and the Olympics.
His wiki page sheds some light on results over 15 years:
Here is another example of the same thing:
http://www.runnerstribe.com/coverage/250965-Len-Johnson/blog/38938-Training-of-Robert-de-Castella
I believe the Saturday session was a short 4-mile loop of steep hills that he ran at ~4:50 pace, with a tempo run before it that was slower.
I was just always amazed back in the day that the only thing he seemed to be running faster than marathon pace was the 8 X 400m workout and he alternated a hill repeats workout with a spring the straights workout.
The best of that time in the 5k/10k were the Portuguese (who did 3k, 2k, 1500, 1k reps and all manner of 200-400-800m reps) and this guy was doing about 6-7 miles a week at hard pace, among 135 miles "slow" for the week.
newname wrote:
The best of that time in the 5k/10k were the Portuguese (who did 3k, 2k, 1500, 1k reps and all manner of 200-400-800m reps) .
Do you have a reliable source on the type of training the Portuguese we doing at the time of DeCastella?
a couple of existing threads on this issue
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=3294102&page=0
the above being one.....
want to know wrote:
newname wrote:The best of that time in the 5k/10k were the Portuguese (who did 3k, 2k, 1500, 1k reps and all manner of 200-400-800m reps) .
Do you have a reliable source on the type of training the Portuguese we doing at the time of DeCastella?
Yes, but it is in print at my house. The top ones at the time were Carlos Lopes, Mamede, Antonio Leitao, and the Castro twins. Aslo Rosa Mota was coached by Mario Moniz Pereira.
Actually I should say that I don't know for sure about Leitao or the Castros, but the other three were coached by Mario Moniz Pereira. I don't know why they would not have taken him as their coach, as he was very successful, and at that time there were not many Italian Cardiologists willing to abandon medicine to coach some distance runners who made $150k a year.
Actually I just looked Mario Moniz Pereira up and he did coach the Castros, not sure on Leitao. It doesn't mention him but I am pretty sure that he was in the group too. He was a 13:07 runner and won the Bronze in 1984 at 5k.
Mamede was actually second-fastest 5k runner of all-time (after Rono) in 1981 and second-fastest 10k runner all-time with the European Record in 1982. Then he was WR-holder for 10k in 1984. He ranked number one in the world for 5k and 10k
Lopes was 2nd-fastest all-time for 10k at 27:17 in 1984, and 3rd fastest all-time in 1983 with 27:23. He also won Oly silver and Gold medals and had a WR in the marathon.
Both of them were keen XC runners as Mamede ran the WCCC 11 times, peaking wtih a bronze in 1981.
Lopes, of course, was one of the all-time greats with THREE wins in the WCCC and two second places.
Anyway, I did not mean to imply that they ran intervals every day alá Zatopek, but that they did hard intervals often at WR-pace for 10k or 5k. Because of course, they were setting or close to setting WRs in those events.
3k reps were done at 8:15 (27:30 pace), 2k reps were done at 5:15-20 (13:08-13:20 pace). It was even officially called "The Portuguese Method." They also were known for doing hard runs frequently, often two of them a day, at 3:00-3:10 per kilo. Usually 10k and 15k or two 15ks in one day.
Until Lopes took up the marathon, they did 20-25km runs once per week at 3:20 / km (5:22 pace). After he took up marathons he lengthened that out to 1:30 and sometimes more, don't remember the pace.
I have never been able to find much about it outlining the "Portuguese Method", but I have not tried in years. Maybe something is fleshed out online now. I think the training being a mystery was kind of like El G's training or Aouita's training back in the day.
They were a small nation with not that many great runners compared to the rest of Europe and they wanted to keep their hard-earned knowledge. Mario's wiki page says he is still alive, although I don't know if that is accurate. He would be 94 years old today!
newname wrote:
...
I have never been able to find much about it outlining the "Portuguese Method", but I have not tried in years. Maybe something is fleshed out online now. I think the training being a mystery was kind of like El G's training or Aouita's training back in the day.
They were a small nation with not that many great runners compared to the rest of Europe and they wanted to keep their hard-earned knowledge. Mario's wiki page says he is still alive, although I don't know if that is accurate. He would be 94 years old today!
Antonio Cabral has posted quite a bit on Portuguese training. Here's a detailed discussion of the training of Mamede and Lopes.
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=2375989&page=3