Run-Down Forums

[Paul]

Thanks, everyone, for taking the time to read and respond concerning that article. I went back and reviewed that article myself a couple of times. Plus, I read every article in his link. I think the bit about fiber typing and interval training jumped out at me and that became MY emphasis. I think Hitchcock agrees with all the stuff DG mentions. He talks about a sound distance base and also talks about how much training the Kenyans do at just under LT (that Kenyan thread is spreading thru this website like a virus!! ). He is just throwing in a wrinkle here for people thinking they are not getting the most out of their training. I think also, Dan, that he writes for the 5K and 10K audience like you deduced. When Hitchcock says "on the other side of the fast twitch spectrum", in reality we are talking of 5 and 10% differences between individuals. In my opinion, he means that if you have more fast twitch fibers than your running partner or others on your team, your musculature will benefit from some extra interval training. I think it may be another training weapon to add to the runner's gym bag.

Paul

[Paul]

OK, one last bit of humor for this post. Back in the 70's Sports Illustrated did an article on Mark Cameron who was one of our best medal hopes in '76 and '80 (yes, we didn't go). He made a statement that if there was a chance Brillo Pads might increase your total (the combined weights of the snatch, and clean and jerk) by 5 Kgs that there wouldn't be a clean pot within 5 miles of any gym in the country. In the sports culture today it probably still couldn't be better put.

Paul

[Dan]

I like that quote.

Dan

[training2run]

I bought some performance enhancing stuff, then forgot to use it.

The hundred tablet bottle of asprin on my shelf is still almost full, but five or six years old, and ready to throw away.

Am I missing something?

I remember when there was actually such a thing as amature sports. No more!

They threw out the income from sports restriction, they might as well throw out the drug restrictions too...if people want to kill themselves they will always find a way to do it. Win at any cost? Well that will be the cost. Mad Dog Mike www.training2run.com

[Conway]

I think you are right on target ... Back in the 70's and coming into the 80's it was genreally felt that the sport needed money (pay days for athletes) in order for the sport ot grow and progress ... And lead by the likes of the SMTC, Carl Lewis, Joe Douglas, Edwin Moses, et al money did indeed come to the sport ...

Unfortunately as quickly as the money arrived in the mid to late 80's we were shown quite vividly the direction it was leading to with the front page positive testing of Ben Johnson in Seoul !!! The sport has indeed not been the same since ... Unfortunately heading in the wrong direction ...

Quality track and field competitions were as common as a nice spring rain here in the United States until the athletes priced themselves out of competition in the United States save for a handful of meets ... Track and Field is now almost a wasteland in the riches land on the planet ... Go figure ...

[Justin]

I'd never seek to understate the impact of money on the sport, but let's not kid ourselves that there was ever a golden age of the sport, before money and before drugs.

Remember, there was next to no testing outside major champs before the Ben Johnson saga focused minds. Stories of covered-up positives and colusion by leading figures in avoiding testing altogether were rife even outside those countries with organised drug programmes. Heck, steroids weren't even banned until 1976! The US and UK were among the most hypocritical of nations during the dark days of the 1980s, piously criticising others while doing little to sort out their own backyards.

Money didn't change that. The sophistication of the drugs and drug takers may have increased, but the urge so potently described in the Brillo quote existed before, and independently of, money.

Justin

[Dan]

I agree with both Conway and Justin, but Justin moreso in this case. Things certainly were not the same after Ben Johnson, but I think that change was more external to the sport than internal. The money conditions currently faced are not all that different than those Carl Lewis and co. existed under, which began before the Johnson fiasco.

There are lots of stories documenting the steroid usage of the 50's and 60's and how much of a joke testing was seen as until at least the late 70's, probably early 80's. When testing was introduced at the Montreal Olympics in '76, the Soviets had a ship off shore with a portable testing lab to make sure everyone was clean enough to be allowed to test... If not, they sent them home. If the same thing were to happen now (Regina Jacobs controversies, anyone?), it would grab a huge deal of attention, with the IAAF and USATF at each other's throats and journalists having a field day...

Dan

[Distance_Guru]

Steriods aren't the only things that have been around for a while, the Finns practicly invented blood doping. Which could explain why their distance runners were so successful in the first 3/4's of the 20th century.
_________________
Time is the fire in which we burn

[training2run]

The "Golden Age of Running" existed when we were young and in our prime - whenever that might have been. Mad Dog Mike www.training2run.com

[Conway]

Certanly this time that we are in cannot be hte golden age of running ... At least here in America ... Or are we separating track and field from running ???

[training2run]

Dear Conway: Are you young and in your prime? If not, I say, "this is not the golden age."

For just about anyone, the good-old-days are just that - days or eras that have passed.

As for separating t & f from running: I separate nutt'n frum nutt'n. Not sausage from eggs, not milk from honey, not salt from peppah, not caviar from vodka. Or, as we used to say in Texas, "if you don't get the grits, you don't get the gravy. Mad Dog Mike www.training2run.com

[Conway]

Well definitely no longer in my prime ... However, nostalgia aside, what would you consider to be the GOLDEN AGE of track and field ???? And to keep it simple picka decade ....

[training2run]

Nostalgia aside - can't do it, trivia buff that I am .

Unfortunately I am not a sports fan, just a particpant and coach. However, off the top of my head, I'd say the 1930s (before my time, but it seems like an exciting era for t &f). Mad Dog Mike www.training2run.com

[Distance_Guru]

I think the last ten years have been pretty darn good in T&F. We've seen the end of the career of one of the greatest track athletes of all time in Carl Lewis. And we've seen two of the greatest sprinters of all time in Mo Greene and Micheal Johnson both setting world records. There has been Kipketer in the 800, and El G in the 1500. And two of the best distance runners of all time in Geb and Tergat. Even if Tergat always seemed to get beat. On the womens side new events have been a shot in the arm, particularly Stacie Dragila in the pole vault. The popularity of the sport hasn't been as high as it was say 40 years ago but it has been improving in recent years.
_________________
Time is the fire in which we burn

[training2run]

Back to the top: The idea of designing training programs for the individual (re fast twitch/slow twitch) sounds *right on!*

I don't believe I have a single fast twitch fiber anywhere in my entire body. That's probably, Dan, why I'm such a fan of LSD. Mad Dog Mike www.training2run.com