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Tracey Morris
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I suspect he will be added if he can prove his fitness.
Getting back to the training quantity question, Bruce Tulloh sums it up nicely with a story he tells about British athletes going to Kenya. They asked how much training they would be doing and were told 2 sessions a day. So they got up and did an hour run with the Kenyan's at the camp before breakfast, went back to bed, got up for the midday session and thought that would be it....until they were told that the next session was at 4 o'clock, when they questioned the third session they were told, 'we don't count the hour run in the morning, it's not fast enough'.
In rality, the ability to be a world class marathon runner does in part depend on being able to absorb the training over two or three years. I don't know of any elite marathon runner who doesn't average around 100 miles a week, mostly around 120 miles a week. The most effiecient ones can take it and become elite runners, those that can't drop out of marathon running...it is the nature of elite sport. There has been much dumming down of training to try to find a level that will enable athletes not to get injured and for the 16 week period between etting your LM acceptance and the race, but I believe it has resulted in lowering standards at the highest level. We can't afford to be soft about it, at that level it is not a past time, it is like premiership soccer, very tough, commercial and rich pickings for those who make it.
My training from 1981 (3rd in AAA Marathon) to 1983 London Marathon looked something like this:
Sun: am 22 miles. pm 5 miles
Mon: am 5 miles. pm Hill session
Tue: am 5 miles. pm 20 x 400m at 5km pace/100m jog rec.
Wed: am 5 miles. pm 15 miles.
Thu: am 5 miles. pm 6 x 1 mile reps. 3 mins rec.
Fri: am 5 miles. pm 5 miles.
Sat. XC race. or fartlek.
I averaged 113 miles per week for 2 years before winning London. The long runs were slow in the winter, but got faster as the season progressed so that I would be running close to race pace on the long runs in the last 6 weeks before a marathon. Number of reps also reduced and recoveries lengthened so I could run efforts faster - i.e. 10 x 400 in 58 sec/200 jog rec.
In 1985 I started to get injured and that was the end of my elite career...but I wouldn't have changed it to have a longer but less successful one.
So what happened to the other runners from that era ?? Bedford,Cram and Coe et al we know about but what about Charlie Spedding, Mike McLeod, Angela and Katherine Tooby - all names that I remember well.
Perhaps I don't get out enough.......
Can I extend the debate and ask you why so few men from the UK can achieve a sub 2.15 marathon these days?, I believe 20 years ago there were at least 40 who achieved this time.
Ahem - don't tell Mrs (well its OK we weren't married then) but I fancied Katherine something rotten - wasn't reciprocated I'm afraid.....Sob
I hardly ever dropped below 100 miles a week except for marathons and the National XC (which I was crap at, so don't know why). I won the 1982 Inter counties 20 miles in 1hr 42mins off a 100 mile week, and won the Southark 5 miles in 23mins something in the afternoon after a 22 mile run with Keith Penney (who was a 47 mins 10miler so it wasn't a slow run). You have to build up over many years to reach that level of fitness and resilience, but it can all come crashing down very quickly if you get it wrong. Ron Hill once ran all 6 legs of a relay...not sure if he won it though.
Charlie Spedding had to retire because of achiles tendon trouble, Steve Jones ran LM this year in 2.50 he lives in Boulder Colorado, Eamonn Martin is coaching, Mike McLeod still pops up in races and I think his son is very good, I think one of the Tooby's married Geoff Whiteman who ran for GB in the European Marathon in the 80's (it is Susan Tooby not Katherine, I think Katherine would have been Kathy Binns who was second in London in 82 (I think) and became a doctor. Of the other UK LM winners, Hugh Jones is still a prolific racer, wins Barbados most years (his wife comes from there), but I'm not sure what has happened to Alaster Hutton - I saw him at the LM 21st birthday party, but not since.
(I dont know, you wait 20 years for a Tooby and three come along at once!)
What's your take on cross training? A lot of people do weights (on purpose I don't!) or plyometrics. Nothing mentioned in your build up in that area.
One more please! I have seen the Ethiopeans practicing almost team racing in XC and at WC level, team based strategy, all runners together. Is this the way forward, the Kenyans couldn't respond to this model, not to mention the European. Could UK Athletics not learn from the Ethiopeans? Is there any collaboration?
Still can't decide if I should join a club, my main worry would be loosing focus and control, possibly worrying about other's training. Hence, does it matter?
Saw Geoff Smith in Boston another 80's hero, he is not doing any running at all, based in US doing some football training with kids as far as I understand.
I would join a club if I was you, as long as you do your training and not someone elses you'll be OK, but just running with people of similar standard will help you improve.
Trouble with running as a team like the Ethiopians is that it's not that impressive if your team is minutes behind the leaders - we need to get a few individuals up there first, but training as a team may help. If you look at the history of good clubs, often there is a cluster of good performances when a small group develop together. Invicta had me at 2.09, Nick Brawn at 2.11, Merv Brameld at 2.13, Andy Girling at 2.15 and Martin Knapp at 2.17 all in the early 80's...it would be the same at Coventry, Birchfield, tipton, Gateshead at various times.
I'm sure Ron Hill did speed work, he was an Olympic finalist at 10,000m in Mexico in 1968 and National XC winner.
(joking aside, agree it's fascinating stuff even if I am now knackered just reading it!)
you know Big tim dont you
Remember that Gratton bloke we pay all those hundreds of thousands of pounds to??
Remember I said he'd disappeared. Well you'll never guess what....!!
Yep on both accounts PH, Big Tim runs for my club and I own 2:09 Events....but I have been careful not to promote that here...until now, of course.
I hope (if you excuse the pun) it will run and run
MG2 (if you're still reading my posts): I know it's an obvious question but what, if anything, would you have changed in your training with the benefit of hindsight?
:-)
Turtle blood, now if only we had the technology in the 80's?