Still Running (weakly). Issue 120

PAST – inspiration – “And Akabusi has got to sit there and wait, and wait, and make a late attack….. if he can, but he’s up against the man who is the world champion.”  David Coleman thus described the challenge facing our last leg runner (only a 400 hurdles bronze medallist) in the men’s 4x400 relay at the 1991 Tokyo World Championships.  Watch it on YouTube to see the dramatic denouement.

With this year’s Worlds well underway, again in Tokyo, I am self-indulgently going to recall some of my favourite moments from past championships.

Liz McColgan’s masterclass in 10,000 metre running at those same games.  Colin Jackson and Sally Gunnell setting world records in 1993.  Jonathan Edwards’s still-standing triple jump world record from 1995.  Paula Radcliffe’s only global marathon gold in Helsinki in 2005 (“digging deep, working hard” – Ron Pickering.)

But perhaps my absolute favourite is Eamonn Coghlan’s last 150 in the 5,000 in the inaugural event in Helsinki 1983, as he clenches his fists and looks heavenward even before he passes the Russian who is leading.  Fourth in the 1976 Olympic 1500, and again fourth in the 1980 Olympic 5,000, the Irishman finds true redemption here, celebrating so early because he knew he had the kick to win!

PRESENT – perspiration – The current World Championships in Tokyo are certainly exciting and unpredictable.  A photo finish was required for the men’s marathon – and almost the women’s.  And there was an equally close finish to the men’s 10,000.

If you had the impression that Africans had dominated this, the longest of the track events at the Worlds, you’d be right.  From 1991 to 2023, every single one of the 51 medals on offer in this event was won by an African – if you include Somalia-born Mo Farah of course.  Ethiopians won 21, Kenyans 17, Ugandans 5, Mo 4, Moroccans 3 and Eritreans 1.

And now a Frenchman wins the gold, and a Swede the bronze!

Add in marathon medals for a German man and a Uruguayan woman, and Seb Coe’s dream of a truly global championships may be coming true.

FUTURE – suggestion – How much track work should you do?

It is an obvious thing is to say, but in my book, speedwork on the track – and the track is by far the best place to do it – should be fast.

There is a mania nowadays to do huge volumes of 400s, 800s or mile reps.  But I think that track work should be done at faster than race pace.  (Your tempo runs can target race pace or slightly slower.)  And if you are going to run that fast, then you can’t do too much of it before the quality starts to suffer.

Faster than race pace of course should be hard – just on the fringes of feasibility – but if you start to really struggle, then the session is too long.  Your last rep should not be much slower than your first – maybe 2 seconds over 400.  On the other hand, if your last rep is much faster than all the others, you’re being too easy on yourself early on!

My upper limit was always 12x400 (200 jog), 10x600 (200 jog), 6x800 (400 jog) or 3x1600 (400 jog).  (Of course, you can mix these up if you like.)  I was running 16, 33 and 71 minutes for the 5km, 10km and half marathon respectively back then – roughly 5:10, 5:20 and 5:30 pace – so all of these efforts were at 5:10 or faster – 400s in 70 or less, 600s in 2:00 or less, 800s in 2:25 or less, 1600s in 5:10 or less.  Straying towards race pace or slower devalues the session.

I was once rather proud of the fact that I had done 3x1600 (400 jog) in 5:07, 5:08, 5:07, and reported the session to a teammate, whose response was, “What happened in the middle one?”!

A runner with 25, 52 and 1:58 PBs (roughly 8, 8:30 and 9 pace) might run 1:45s, 2:45s, 3:45s and 7:45s for 400, 600, 800 and 1600 respectively.

As Peter Coe, coach to Seb, used to say, “If speed is the name of the game, we must never get too far away from it.”