What made Frank Slorter so good?

Frank Snorter got to the top by slogging past sloppy swamps during sweaty summers in the South.

He ran 140 per week, year round.

big miles wrote:

He ran 140 per week, year round.

Averaged 17 miles a day for like a decade.

He ran about 2/3 of a mile every hour, every day.

Obviously he had a good bit of natural ability but so did the people he beat. What I always admired about him, and what I think were the keys to his success were intelligence, focus, and a genuine love for the sport. I also think he got a boost that most of his competitors didn't get by training with Jack Bacheler regularly for a couple years or more.

Great form--so light on his feet.

His greatest achievement: he broke the 10,000 AR twice in four days, and seven days later won the Olympic marathon.

Shorter had an ideal body type, and trained ... a lot. Focused ... a lot. For years. He raced... a lot. He ran track races and road races, indoors, cross country, and marathons.

Did I mention he trained he trained a lot? ... and kept his eyes on the ball?

Up to when he won the Olympic marathon, he said he ran 20 miles per day, every day - it was his "security blanket." He was worried about his fitness unless he hit that mark.

He was so good because he didn't have the distractions and BS that people have today. There were no heart rate monitors, energy gels, energy bars, dry fit, waffle soled shoes, Strava, Garmin, moisture wicking materials, Gore-Tex, etc. The list goes on and on. He just ran how he felt and put in the work.

Not quite a 140 MPW average wrote:

big miles wrote:

He ran 140 per week, year round.

Averaged 17 miles a day for like a decade.

He ran 62,000 miles in the 1970s decade. Which comes out to 17 per day, which includes time off to recover after a marathon or to recover from injuries.

1. Good natural talent.

2. His average training week from 1970 to 1976 was 120 miles per week. Not a single U.S. elite marathoner today could match that except for Galen.

3. There was NO professional running in that era. Frank was going to law school. The year prior to the 1972 Olympics he was living in a trailer park! And he was ranked #1 in the world at marathon. Today the U.S. has professional male marathoners making over $100,000 per year and their times would not even be in the top 200 for that year. It's great that people are making good money at running but the draw back is that money can make you soft.

Frank was tough.

He was pretty decent but never broke the american slump of running sub 2:10. I think if he would have worked on his cadence/glute activation and did more mileage he probably could have ran 2:09:50 on his best day.

The apocalypse must be upon us, two days in a row I agree with a malmo post!

Read Shorter's book My Marathon.

HOOWIE wrote:

He was pretty decent but never broke the american slump of running sub 2:10. I think if he would have worked on his cadence/glute activation and did more mileage he probably could have ran 2:09:50 on his best day.

He ran to win, not for time.

This video does a good job of answering the question.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5inEsYlCBHw

I talked to Frank Shorter at the Augustana cross country meet in illinois. I asked him what bit of advice helped him the most. He said that the only thing that got him through the 180k miles he ran in his life (an obvious exaggeration) was that he took his easy days easy and his hard days hard.

He ran to win, not for time. wrote:

HOOWIE wrote:

He was pretty decent but never broke the american slump of running sub 2:10. I think if he would have worked on his cadence/glute activation and did more mileage he probably could have ran 2:09:50 on his best day.

He ran to win, not for time.

Yeah, well in 2019 running to win means you need a fast time.

Very similar training, toughness, pb and consistency of Reid Coolsaet.

Old School Frank wrote:

He was so good because he didn't have the distractions and BS that people have today. There were no heart rate monitors, energy gels, energy bars, dry fit, waffle soled shoes, Strava, Garmin, moisture wicking materials, Gore-Tex, etc. The list goes on and on. He just ran how he felt and put in the work.

Shorter in 1974: "You get writers who think that there's some kind of magic formula, and they want to be the first to tell the world how to do it. What's the secret? Yogurt? Vitamins? Maybe. I don't know. But I'll tell you one thing. You don't run 26 miles at five minutes on good looks and a secret recipe. "