by mphcrawley
On the 16th of January 1982, a fellow Durham City Harrier and very good friend of mine ran the Orange Bowl Marathon in Miami in 2 hours 14 minutes and 45 seconds. In 2012, that would have been good enough for fourth in the British rankings. Thirty years ago, on a Tuesday night in March, he waited with a nervous group of runners by the track in Gateshead stadium. There were twelve places available on the team for the national road relays, and, despite the fact that he was, at the time, one of Britain’s better marathon runners, he wasn’t convinced that was going to cut it for a place on the Gateshead Harriers team. The selectors had, at that time, an astonishing array of talent to pick from. Brendan Foster had medals on the world stage as well as world records to his name, Charlie Spedding would go on to win bronze in the 1984 Olympic marathon, and Dennis Coates had finished 5th in the Olympic steeplechase. And there were many others not far behind. For the record, my mate did get a place in the team – he ran the glory leg and Gateshead won by two and a half minutes.
In other words, he was a very good runner, and represented Great Britain on more than one occasion. But he was a lesser light amongst a group of distance runners in the north east who knew how to prepare to run fast over long distances.
Roll forward to the present day and the ever-declining standard of distance running in the UK, especially on the men’s side, has been discussed at great length. The answers to the problem, though, are often sought away from home, in the thin air of Iten, Kenya or in the Nike laboratories of Portland Oregon. I spent three months of last year in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, hoping that high altitude and superior coffee would be the answer (and writing a blog about my experiences here http://mikerunsawayfromhome.wordpress.com/), without it really occurring to me that the answers may have been better sought at the end of my mum’s street, where my distance running mate happens to live.
He has been coaching me on and off for the last seven years, and has shown admirable patience with my lack of that very same virtue. I’ve lost interest as a result of injuries on a number of occasions, spent my university summers in India, South America and China rather than on athletics tracks, and generally done a good job of displaying the lack of commitment which epitomises the shift in today’s running culture.
The world of running has changed a lot since its British heyday in the 70’s and 80’s. “It may be hard for anyone born after 1960 to believe,” Kenny Moore wrote, “but runners in those days were regarded as eccentric at best, subversive and dangerous at worst.” Now it seems, in Edinburgh at least, that everyone is a runner. In the running shop I work in, all kinds of people come in with variations of the same story. “For some reason, I’ve signed up to run a marathon, so I need some shoes,” they say, or “the guys in the office have talked me into running in their relay team.” For some, joining the fold as a “runner” has become a good way into office social life. Runners are respected, not mistrusted. Participation has come a long way since Kenny Moore’s time.
The ever-increasing popularity of running should lead to an improvement in standards, with the widening base of the pyramid pushing up its peak. In fact, it seems to have had the opposite effect. When I’m asked by people in the shop how much running I do, I tell them I run eighty to ninety miles per week. The usual response to this is a look of pity and something along the lines of “oh, so you’re a serious runner then.” The assumption seems to be that whilst running is seen as enjoyable, at least to an extent, anyone who does an excessive amount is seen to be killing that enjoyment.
I have nothing against mass participation running. I agree with Haile Gebreselassie, when he says he reckons that the world would be a saner place if everyone ran every day. But the expansion of the market for running-related products, energy foods, pilates and yoga for runners seems to have distracted people from the fact that running training is a simple process. So simple, in fact, that it would appear impossible to fill a monthly magazine with new ideas on how to do it better. Nevertheless, these magazines proliferate, with cover articles like “Train less, run faster!” and “how chocolate cake can make you a better runner!” (no, these aren’t made up). A simple activity has been complicated to suit the needs of sports brands who need to find ways to make money out of a sport which really only demands a half decent pair of trainers.
The argument that sports scientists tend to make when you point out that the likes of Brendan Foster and Charlie Spedding achieved all that they did without nutritionists and scientific testing is that they would have been even faster if they’d done these new things too. Huge amounts of scientific data are compiled on the benefits of training at altitude and on new forms of strength and flexibility training. But those trying to apply scientific methods conveniently fail to recognise the simple objective fact that British distance runners were faster thirty years ago than they are now. A lot faster. And that is the only test that really matters.
The most important aspects of a distance runner’s training are patience and consistency. These things are not glamorous. They don’t fit in particularly well in today’s society. There are no quick fixes and no immediate gratification. But there is satisfaction in something done to the best of your ability and with conviction. There is solace in repeating a simple activity until it becomes smooth, efficient and, of course, faster.
For the next few months, I’ll be referring to my coach’s training diaries for 1981 and 1982, and writing about the experience of doing the simple things right and trying to replicate the kind of training that was done in his day. The diaries represent two years of accumulated sweat and effort on his part distilled into numbers – 9,037 miles to be precise. They are pretty short on description, with the prize for most commonly used adjective going fairly overwhelmingly to “tired”, and contain only occasional elaboration (“tired – knackered actually”). They chronicle the day-in-day-out toil of trying to run 26.2 miles at as fast a pace as possible and the conviction that anything worth doing is worth doing right.
And so I’m off, to publicly try to challenge the theory that my generation are doing it all wrong. I can’t deny that it’s easier for me, after all. I’m a student; my coach had a marriage, a mortgage, children and a full time job to worry about. His final words of wisdom as I walked down his driveway: “Mike, lose those diaries, and I’ll kill you.”
An excellent initiative. Really looking forward to reading how it all goes.
Just remember that your coaches logs dont tell you everything. They dont tell you which days he eased off at 8miles and which days he didnt! The key to looking at his training is to imagine the whole thing as the tide coming in.
It rushes forward hard then draws back then rushes forwards again. That rush forward may be one day, two days or even three days of hard training (but rarely four or five) then one two or three days pulling back (which is training but just going through the motions – almost like being there but not being involved). When the motivation comes back again – back on goes the pressure for another cycle.
I have rarely found two athletes with the same rythym – and noone ever matched mine day for day.
What you do not want to do is try to make your body fit the sessions. That is a path to failure – make the sessions work for your body. If you can stay with the pack you do, if you feel like leading, you do, but if you need to run at the back with the girls because you are too tired to be a hero – that is wise, and you are the one who will progress, not the injured ones in front of you. Good luck
Agree with Glen on this. It’s all about “listening to your body” and not being rigid on any weekly schedule.
Today’s British top 20 runners runners are not doing anything particularly different or wrong it’s just about emphasis and balance to optimise day by day training to progressively improve performance. Training hard is not the same as training good!
One big difference, though, is that in the 70’s and 80’s our top athletes generally did a lot of their weekly mileage and track sessions with other good athletes from their clubs or an amalgam of local clubs and this helped drive the competitive edge as well as the general quality of the sessions and runs.
Unfortunately, we don’t seem to have anybody in UKA’s paid coaching set up who really understands how to bring out the true potential in most athletes.
By the way my team mate, Dennis Coates, in the Montreal Olympics s/c wasn’t 5th he was 9th. (but his 1st place and unexpected new GB record in the heat was a brilliant run)
Hey Michael. I read your blog post on the Guardian website (and left a comment there). I don’t want to interfere with what you are doing in your own study but genuinely thought you might be interested in my book that came out last summer, “British Marathon Running Legends of the 1980s.” Take a look at my website http://www.gabriellecollison.com. I am happy to donate you a copy if you get in contact.
There is a lot to be said for keeping it simple and just training hard. I started running in the late 70’s, ran my fastest in the early 90’s. I try to explain to people how the fields were so much deeper back in those days. I broke 15:30 many times but there were always a few guys ahead of me! Nowadays if be winning tons of races, with the same times. Of course, having a lit of fast guts dragged everyone faster. U would like to have had the fancy equipment available nowadays back then. Look at say 200th place in the big races; Ottawa, Boston etc in the early 80’s vs. now. Much faster back then. Guys at the front are a bit faster now but fields aren’t as deep.
Quite a lot of girls can run faster than men, so you might want to moderate your ideas, Glen Grant.
No I will not change my ideas This Blog is not talking about Mr and Mrs average today but serious male athletes and what they should do. In those cases you need to find the fastest girls in the country before they run aggressively with men. I know, I have had 40+ years dealing with this. No women trained with me when I was training in my serious sessions on the track or road and those that did train with me at all were usually in or around the world top ten. I often ran my second steady session of the day with Glynis Penny. But look at her marathon result!
Even Kelly Holmes did not train on the track with me until I was in my late 30s and then I ran controlled!
I never ran with Paula but she is an exception that proves my rule..
If you doubt my words go to a track where serious runners train and look at the groups. Just remember that mens 1500m training pace is womens 800m pace. That difference is stark!
Glen
I think with today’s top uk runners the girls are at the front of the pack, not the back 😉
Hi Michael
Read about it today in the Guardian, really intriguing story….. would you be interested in discussing the possibility of turning this ‘adventure’ into a film? It potentially has all the makings of a good cinematic narrative. My name is Eric and I’m an Edinburgh based film maker, currently doing a lot of filming for the University. If you want to discuss it and what may be involved, then please get in touch.
Very wise words. From – presumably – 3.38 1500m man Glen Grant.
‘Run at the back with the girls.’ I was really enjoying your comment until then.
My comment stands. Girls tend to be lot more sensible about their pacing and less ego based about mixing it hard when they should not. Glen
Well saved 🙂 But I agree…we girls are more sensible 🙂
listen to your body, take your pulse everymorning as soon as you wake up, build a profile of it and use it, and sorry to say but results will only appear in about 2 years
R
That’s a fascinating insight! Two years to see results. Wow. That fact won’t be featured in any running mags, but only in depth books explaining how to build your base.
Just out of interest, does it mention in his journals how long his running shoes lasted in the 80s? After how many miles did he feel the need to replace them?
Oscar
the First year of training is just training your body to cope with the work load, although you may get a few teasing results ,mostly you will be thinking ” i am doing all this training and all i am getting is sore ,tired legs and few results”
my trainging shoes were normally shot after 8-10 weeks, but that was doing quite a high milage
R
Unfortunately I think it probably takes more than two years! It took Charlie Spedding twelve and he was pretty talented. Luckily I’m not starting from scratch – I’ve had a more or less injury free 18 months to build up to running 30.22 for 10km – but I do think patience is going to be important.
Mph
2 years was to start seeing the benefits and as you say it goes on and on and on
Very interested to read your information.
Its puzzles me why back in 80’s times were a lot faster.
Andrfew, we trained harder and longer. When I was in my mid 30s and living and racing in Germany I was doing two 2 hour runs a week. For three of those years I lived in Bielefeld and the runs were on the teutoburger which is 300m high and on my main weekly run had 7 full climbs bottom to top in the 2 hours. I ran this session as hard as I could.
Makes sense Glen
currently running 34mins 10km – 16.20 5km
Mon 45mins steady run @ 6.20 pace
Tues speed 5 x 5 miles in 5.05 pace or 10x 3mins
Wed easy 6 miles or rest
Thursday 15 x 1 mins hills or 12x 400m (67;s)
Friday rest or 30mins on bike
Saturday 4 mile tempo – 5.40 pace or 5Km park run or race
Sunday 1h 45 mins @ 7min pace
plus core work and weights during the week.
feel I could run sub 33mins
Appreciate any advice here.
Hi Michael, Will you be posting excerpts from the training diary? (on a daily/weekly basis?) Thanks, Jens
I’ll be trying to, yes. Not sure whether my coach wants me to reproduce exactly what he did but my training will be up 🙂
Bluntly Andrew, on that amount of running you should be running close to 30 or under. But you are doing nothing fast at all (67 is not fast) so there are whole areas of chemistry that are important for your development that are missing. Speed also stimulates the cells to work better overall.
You need to be doing work at half marathon pace, 10K, 5K, 3K, 1500 and even some 800/600m pace work.
Faster work you can do in short reps with short recoveries to keep them aerobic like 20-30x200m in 30/32 or finishing sessions with 3x200m to get used to running high speed I used to do 20x150m with 50 jog and another of 20x200m on a hill with 200 jog back down. I ran these as fast as I could physically manage.
And you also need to do Vo2maximum work weekly – which is working the body totally to its limit. Races are best for this but you can also do3x1000m as hard as you can with 3 mins rest (2 later) I did 5x300m at maximum speed with as little rest as I could manage. This was usually about 7 mins but sometimes the last one was closer to 15. You can also do this by just doing a normal session but having reduced rest on the last 3 reps and racing them. You can race short races indoors in the winter like 800m
But I would say if you want run 33 then get used to running that fast and faster often. It wont come by chance.
Thanks for the advice here.
You are right I’m not doing much speed work at race pace that often and feel let down running 34mins.
I tend to run the 400m with 1.56 guys for 800m who are 1 / 2 seconds in front of me doing 67’s.
There are a lot of athletes who are similar to me and that’s why race times my not be fast like in the 80’s
Would like to keep in touch with my progress and your advice.
What’s the best email address for you?
grantglen@hotmail.com glengrant007 skype you are welcome
Andrew
your steady running is to slow, but that doesn’t mean go out and blast every run, my rule of thumb is that if anyone sees you out running they avoid running with you as your not running at a friendly pace
R
Richard – that is a great way of putting it.
“Dont run with him – he’s manic!”
hope your well Glen.
one of the problems i think is that when i went down to Birchfield as a skinny 15yo, there were seniors there who i just latched onto and learnt how to train,
i have a small group now who are just realising how hard they have to work to get success
R
I also tend you use a heart rate monitor
Easy runs 130-140
Steady run 155-160
Tempo runs 170-174
Race pace 182
Glen
i will leave that one to you 😉
As a passionate but slow marathon runner (PB 3h59min) as well as an avid blog reader I’ll be following this blog with interest – and after I posted a link on my Facebook my (Swedish) dad called me and wanted to discuss how Swedish runners also were quicker in the 80’s haha!
During the 80s a club mate of my stormed round a local 10 mile road race in 48 minutes 48 seconds……and finished third. People trained harder and ran faster and club events ( track, cross country, road relays) were far better attended than they are now although overall fewer people ran. The base of the pyramid has increased in the last 30 years but the peak is lower, not sure why, everyone used to think increased participation inevitably raised standards but that hasn’t happened.
So good luck with your back to the future training, I’ll be following with interest! You will definitely end up faster (and tired, knackered actually) .
I have been either running, coaching or reading top end coaching material since 1982. I have a science background and have worked in human performance labs for 25 years. I have much of the biological side covered in this area. About 10 plus years ago after decades of similar pondering I came to the conclusion that the answer is in a mix of sociological phenomenon. In the uk as a boy if you want to become someone in sport you strive for soccer. The 80s is the last decade where soccer players were paid poorly. The training is not any worse in fact its just the best uk specimens go to soccer. I guarantee that about 20 players in the premiership could break world records at various distances. Also biologically and environmentally nothing has changed. seb coes 800m record is a fast snap of the fingers slower than today. He ran 50 miles per week. If altitue was the answer the best would come from South America. Yes it might help but if your best competitor is playing soccer you wont medal or break records no matter how hard o long you train.
Danny
Danny
you are exactly the reason our athletes do not perform at the level they used to, your negative attitude is amazing, if your theory were true how do you explain the dramatic rise in our cyclists performances
R
As a non-specialist & slow runner I might not have any great insight here, but I wonder if other sociological factors should be considered? A. Life is easier now than it was 30+ years ago, & certainly easier than it is in a Kenyan village – do we just not have the same mental toughness born of discomfort that was the case for runners of an earlier era? B. We are all getting bigger, and heavier frames are not so good for distance running.
Any mileage in those ideas?
Definitely some truth in that, although there’s not much I can do about not having grown up in a Kenyan village!
Genuinely think also kids have become lazier and eat more junk food while playing on their IT stuff. Hopefully Mo winning double Gold will change kids attitudes!
Matthew
i do think there so much more availiable to distract but i believe there are still people out there who want to achieve as per my comment with the cyclists, what it is going to take is role models who people respect
Danny, there is little to support your suggestion that Prem players could break running records:
1. Their training conditions them for short bursts. There used to be a 100m competition annually at Wembley before one of the Cup finals: clubs sent their speedsters but no-one ever threatened a national record, though some of the times were of the quality of good club runners.
2. If there’s a footballer who has done anything near a decent club runner’s time for 10k/21k/42k, he’s hiding:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/oct/24/player-fastest-distance-race
3. Case history. In the late 80s, my local club (PNE) brought in a local distance runner to help sharpen up the squad’s endurance. This spare-time athlete proved to be considerably fitter than all the professional sportsmen.
4. The average Prem player has substantially increased in height and weight in the last 20 years. That ain’t going to help any of them if they try anything above 400m. The 1.75m/58kg guys will always trounce them over longer distances.
The idea that football attracts all the “talent” is Interesting. As it is likely that those who are from a background where the key components to make it to the top are provided too them: dedication and determination are more likely to be exposed to a spark to excite the imagination and dream of glory from football than athletics. As football has vastly higher media profile. Then it is down to practice, purposeful practice, day after day, week after week, year after year until you become good, to be at world level this is typically 10,000hrs. If you have dedicated all that time to football it figures that your are going to be a better footballer than runner. If however that spark had been for athletics you would of been a world level athlete. This is outlined rather well in Matthew Syeds book Bounce – the myth of talent and the power of practice. Lets just hope that London 2012 was the spark for many.
Sending your book off today. 🙂
I found several important factors from my interviews with the guys and gals from this era but maybe the two most important things (other than just training bloody hard) were: a) the running/marathon boom of the 1980s created a lot of interest generally in running, especially marathons. In fact, there was a charisma about running a marathon. A big base to the pyramid meant a higher peak and some people like Sarah Rowell and Steve Brace came into the sport through this way. b) peer group influence and the pockets of clubs around the UK with many groups all training together. Several of my interviewees mentioned that because all the other guys in the club were doing marathons, they decided to do one too and thought… well if they can run 2.13 or whatever, why can’t I? So they did! 🙂
Great concept and fun read – lookjng forward to more reads and some fast running! Good luck from NJ, USA!
Thanks Chris! Running With the Buffaloes one of my favourite books on running by the way, I’ve lent it to loads of people in Edinburgh!
mph
source a book called ” no bugles no drums” peter snell, published by hodder stughton
Great blog. I’ve done a bit of track running in the past and have tried to take it back up, but found it difficult as when I turn up to an athletics club training session the only people doing the kind of training that i expect are some gnarly older veterans, and most people my own age are only interested in jogging. So I’ve moved on to sports with a better social scene.
Hi Michael,
Would you be intrested in doing a TV feature on this? Email me rogita5@hotmail.com
John Jeffrey
I ran a little while in the Forces in the 80’s and 90’s with Goater, Crabb, Whitehouse and Steve Jones. I was an average runner with a range of 1.52, 800mts and just under 30 min for 10k, times that would now be winning club races! Today there are few differences in the way people think about sport and wide competition for recreational pursuits. Running generally starts as a hobby and as athletes get better results they research better training techniques and decide what amount of time they can commit to there sport. Even running 30 miles a week is a lot of commitment (most youngsters do not now get past this stage). Then there is school PE where they are told too much running will ruin your knees (maybe a point) but there is quite a lot you can do to help yourself avoid the problem. Run on grass or forest tracks, take fish oils and other supplements, x training using a bike for “rest sessions”. Get the right shoes and replace them before they fall apart! Work using a heart rate monitor to monitor race pace and cruse running. But the fact is, far less young people want to compete at the highest level. The vast majority “just want to run to keep fit and earn a beer”. I think it is because the commitment required is massive, success is not assured and anyway is it’s unlikely to bring financial rewards. Lottery funding has actually made things worse, because it is very obvious that even the best are not supported very well (unless you might win an Olympic medal!). Furthermore, our governing body will not select you for big races to help you progress (look at our possible representatives in the Euro indoors 2013, yet there are several good prospects!). The fact is youngsters are savvier and are less likely to want to bash their heads on a brick wall. Oh…. then there is the fact that coaches do not want to get sued by parents of young runners, who they have “pushed to hard” and damaged for life!
So to large extent our National Associations struggle to get the right talent, coaches get no rewards for a massive commitment of time, the nation is generally “soft” and the financial rewards do not reflect the effort required to become an Olympic Gold contender.
Having said all that there is always the odd one or two, for whom running is in the heart and with a little luck and even if they do have to go to America for training. We need more Mo’s
John
As a keen runner, I gave up when I was 18 as I found running not giving me the same buzz any longer. I completed a degree in Sport and Exercise Science in 2010 and haven’t really looked at running ever since.
I stopped in 2006 but returned in 2009 to run a 10k just to prove to myself I could still do it. In-fact I did, 6 weeks of training…the most I ran was 8k in training and I equalled by PB. My training was varied with one long run a week and normally doing training sessions that included sets of either 400m, 800m or 1k.
Yes the standard of British Running has significantly dropped on the absolute scale. However I think the factors that runners are up against are not only the modern society of fitness but also sociological, many people in modern society do not have the time or commitment to be out pounding the streets any longer when they can be playing another sport which has other perceived benefits.
Running for me = Pre-Genetic Disposition x Environment (Training, Psychology) – It is all about getting the right athletes to the starting line…. there are all too many that are distracted by other sports.
Fascinating stuff. I agree with the comment that those born before 1960 would find it impossible to understand the attitudes to runners back in the dim distant past. When I was training in the sixties/seventies the main things we discussed were avoiding the mounds of dog excrement on the street, the cars swerving to nearly hit you ‘for a laugh’, the dogs set upon you (also, presumably for a laugh) and the various jibes by pedestrians.
Times have certainly changed. Nowadays your are not a ‘loony runner’ but have chosen a lifestyle option.
Which brings me to my pet hate which is to be told I’m a jogger or, worse still, not to ‘overdo it at my age’.(I’m 60 next year) My 10k time is still comfortably sub 40 which in my mind is running and not jogging.
Nobody seems able to run just for the sake of it but has to get lots of advice, take the ‘right’ supplements, use the ‘right’ kit and get their music mix correct (as if listening to U2 makes any difference to your times).
There’s no master plan to being a great distance runner, no quick fix and probably no fame or glory. You are absolutely right, if you want to compete at a good level you have to train obsessively and train with better runners. (I know, I was regularly hammered by Dave Bedford). Forget the music, kit, supplements and mounds of advice. Just run hard and often….and love it.
Good luck with the blog and, of course, the running.
Impressive doing sub 40mins at 60!!
It seems in the 1960’s,70s 80s and 90’s athletes seems to train harder and longer.
Got onto running back in 2006 and hooked on the sport.
.
Would love to improve on low 34mins for 10km and low 16mins for 5km
55miles per week man
Andy
Lots of hills worked for me, if you’re lucky enough to have some nearby. Run up, recovery jog back, repeat x 10 against the clock. After a few months of that twice a week, the flat is a breeze. Nowadays it’s all sand for me: hard work, but kinder to the joints. I’m pushing 63, and sub-40 might be a struggle now.
Did people spend as long in the office in the 80s as we do now? Did they eat as much junk food? Did they grow up using a playstation? (A lot of the better runners in my experience have jobs that enable them to leave the office in time to go for a run. But these jobs are increasingly hard to come by.) Just my personal theory.