Leading into the New York City marathon; Runner’s World put out an interesting article about US runners going faster at NYC in the 70’s and 80’s vs now. In sports, everyone is entitled to their opinion but numbers do not lie Americans did run faster 30-40 years ago and if you have not yet red the Runner’s World piece, they have listed their reasons. Below are mine based off my observations in the world of US running and the athletes I coach.
Here’s’ the original article from Runner’s World – http://www.runnersworld.com/new-york-city-marathon/why-did-american-men-run-faster-in-new-york-decades-ago
RUNNING FADS VS KEEPING IT SIMPLE
Steve Jobs once said “simple is much harder for people to understand then complex.” I could not agree more. Back in the 70’s and early 80’s, runners got out and just ran. Sometimes in running clothes, sometimes in just sweats but at the end of the day the volume was done and onto the next day. Running 100+ miles a week was not considered “high volume”, that was just what you did. As for workouts it was very simple; run a lot of easy miles and once a week you got together w/ your group of running friends for a simple track workout. Bill Rodgers’ was famous for running hundreds of miles with any friend he could find in Boston then once a week joining the Greater Boston Track Club for a track workout with Coach Bill Squires.
Many modern runners now can’t run one day without their GPS watch telling them how fast to go and several do workouts that need an astrophysicist to explain. When runners now rely on technology to tell them how they feel vs being in touch w/ their bodies, they never really know their limits, never know when to back off and very rarely go to “that place” that they’ll need to on race day. Technology has a spot in training, but not as much as most think. This also goes for all these fancy workouts ranging from specific HR zones, lactate threshold based on ACTUAL lactate, H.I.T intervals and several others. I actually have a friend who hired a local coach to help her. After a few months she quit, I asked why and her response was, “I couldn’t even understand the workouts.” So many runners salivate over finding out new/edgy workout ideas that will bring them to “the next level”…I’ll save them time; there isn’t one. Does anyone think Alberto knew how fast he was running a tempo in back in 1981? Of course not….he listened to his body and when it said stop, he kept pushing. Oh; and he did these workouts while running 20+ miles a day.
It’s a 26 mile race, you have to put in the miles if you wanna be great. No secrets, no fancy workouts or a new piece of tech will get you there. There’s a reason why guys 30-40 years ago in simple shoes, cotton t’s and timex watches ran faster than modern day runners who have so many more advantages but neglect the most important piece of marathon training: foot pounds of work.
SEARCH FOR PERFECT TRAINING AND BIG NAME COACHES
In 1979 the Greater Boston Track Club put 4 athletes in the top 10 of the Boston Marathon; while training through the tough New England winter. Whether it was -10 out or 30 and a foot of snow guess what? They were out putting in the miles and the results speak for themselves. During this time you had these guys training in Boston, Alberto Salazar splitting time in Boston, out to Eugene and back then Dick Beardsley doing some training in Minnesota, some in Georgia and some in Boston. None of these locations would fall under the ideal of “ideal training locations” but they all produced results that can not be disputed.
For most athletes that race in college and want to pursue their dreams what do they do? They seek out big name coaches in running hotbeds like Boulder, Flagstaff and Portland. These, among others, are very beautiful places to run but athletes often give up friends, family and familiar surrounds to look for that perfect coach or perfect place to train. Also, many young runners don’t research programs and instead just look at a few “success” stories vs looking at the whole program. Many of these big name programs are over-flowing with talent so of course they will have a few rise to greatness but how about the other 50-70%? They fall between the cracks with many others waiting to take their place. If a teacher was only reaching 50% of his/her students how long do you think that teacher would have a job? Not very long. Coaches should be held to the same standard. I am not going to call out any specific program for obvious reasons but you’d be surprised how many of these pro programs have a less than 50% improvement rate. As a fan of US distance running, makes me sick to see so many talented runners search out for perfection to later find out there is no perfect training place.
All runners are products of their environments. There are no bad facilities, there is no bad weather just bad attitudes. Athletes have to believe that they will succeed no matter where and no matter what. I’m sure Beardsley didn’t enjoy 20 milers during sub-zero Minnesota winters but guess what….I’d bet the farm it helped make him tough as nails. I’ll take a mentally tough athlete that will train in anything vs a freak talent who looks for “ideal” instead of realizing all he needed is two arms, two legs and a will to work.
STRENGTH VS SPEED
I’m going to list 3 athletes PR’s and guess who has the fastest marathon at NYC:
A) Mile 3:58, Half 61
B) Mile 4:04, Half 61
C) Mile 4:16, Half 64
If you were to guess C then yup, you are right. The marathon is not about speed but about strength. It’s not how fast you can go it’s how long you can hold race pace. Sounds so simple but I see time and time again athletes doing workouts 30-45 sec faster than marathon pace but only 4-6 miles of work. Why? Many runners, especially men, have egos and like to say “I ran X workout at Y pace”. It’s a 26 mile race so your interval work should be geared towards that distance. If an athlete was training for a 10k would they only do 2 miles of interval work? Of course not; so why is the marathon any different? Six to eight miles of work isn’t gonna get it done when you are 20 miles in and need to call on something that just isn’t there.
It even gets better with long runs and weekly volume. in the 10 weeks before Bill Rodgers won his first of 4 NYC marathons he AVERAGED close to 150 miles per week with more 20+ mile days then I care to count. Over 95% of his runs were aerobic. Many pros now do several workouts a week but never get much above 20 miles for their long run. Racing 26 is a very long way; no better way to practice then, well, running. You can have all the speed in the world but if you don’t have the glue to hold it together it just doesn’t matter.
Oh and by the way; runner A is Tyler Pennel who just ran 2:15 at NYC, runner B is Matt Llano who just ran 2:20 and runner C is Bill Rodgers who won it 4 times and has 4 marathons at NYC at 2:10-2:12. How does a 4:16 miler run faster than athletes who have such a higher ceiling? Miles upon miles of aerobic work with a splash of smart interval training. You don’t get medals for completing fancy workouts; just who runs the fastest ON the day.
CONCLUSION
I love this sport and I really believe we have the talent in the US to compete with the East Africans and do it clean; I really really do. This will only happen when we do a better job of developing the talent we have; there are no shortcuts or science to this; many US runners proved that 30+ years ago.
A few weeks before the Chicago marathon and several before NYC; a friend of mine sent me a video of a pro marathoner getting ready for NYC doing 20 400s (5 miles worth of work) in beautiful Flagstaff in matching clothes with his pro coach timing. Several people commented on FloTrack about how amazing that workout was…I responded to my friend and said how one of my athletes worked her 8-10hr day then did the same workout plus another 20 in a less than scenic suburb of Chicago in the dark with her teammates (12.5 miles worth of work). Fast forward to their fall “A” races; this pro was the 12th American and ran 8 min slower than his PR at NYC; this school teacher was the 6th American at Chicago PR’ing by 3 minutes. There are no shortcuts and there is no substitute for mental toughness and specific work for the marathon.
-Michael Lucchesi