I have noticed through the course of several threads an understandable, yet eroneous conclusion that many people make due to the success of other athletes.
I'm not the first runner (or the last) who's been asked, "How do you break x:xx time in a race?" as if there was some sort of secret race strategy or magic formula that allows the faster runners to do so. What is even more disturbing than the question is that it is often followed up with, "so-and-so said I need to do XYZ,".....so-and-so usualy being someone not qualified to give advice and XYZ often being a "magic workout."
The fact is "proper run training" allows YOU to reach YOUR potential. It has little to do with absolutes such as "to run 18:00 you need to run 30 miles a week but if you want to run 17:00 then you need to train 40 miles a week." It all depends on the person, the amount of training they've done in the past, and as much as we hate to admit it.....genetics!
This leads me to The Zatopek Paradox. Emil Zatopek DOMINATED the running scene in the early 1950s winning gold in the 5,000, 10,000, and marathon in the 1952 Olympics and broke 18 world records. If one wanted to become faster in 1952, they'd be wise to take a look at Zatopek's training (but beware....see The Khannouchi Paradox coming soon). Zatopek's success was attributed to a high level of interval training. The man liked to train fast all the time, and it worked for him. In fact, it would have worked for most people compared to what they were doing at the time.
But here comes the paradox. What if YOU were to train that way today? Would you see the kind of success he had....at least relative to your geneticly determined potential? Well, lets see. How good *was* Zatopek.
Zatopek's PR in the 5,000 was 14:07!! Wow! That's fast! I bet you wish YOU could run 14:07. But, keep in mind that Zatopek was likely one of the most gifted runners of his time. In fact, no one could run faster.
However, here is something to think about. 52 years later in the US Olympic trials, 25 people ran FASTER than Emil Zatopek's world record. In fact, they were required to run 19 seconds faster than his record in order to even be allowed in the race. Once you include all the milers, steeple chasers, 10K runners, marathoners, and those out with injury who were capapble of running under 14:07 in the US and extrapolate that out over the 6 billion people in the world, and you'd likely have over 1,000 people in one year who were faster than the fastest man ever to run 5,000 meters 50 years earlier.
If you want to look at it a different way, the current world record is a full 10% faster than his world record. It is quite possible that the current record holder has more talent than Zatopek had, but not 1,000 people.
One could argue that improvements in equipment can account for some of this, and that is correct. But the simple fact of the matter is that science and the art of coaching has continued to evolve since the era of Zatopek. We know more now than ever before and it DOES matter how you train. There is no magic workout that will replace consistency. That's a given. But the fundamentals that have been laid out by the likes of Lydiard, Daniels, Martin, Kellog, Pfitzinger, etc. have allowed for the runners of today to eek out an extra 10% over what runners 50 years ago could do.
Training the way Zatopek did will unlikely get you to 14:07 unless you posess the talent that he had. What it will do is get you to within 90% of what modern training theory will get you. This same concept applies to antiquated swimming and cycling training methods. And, rest assured, in 50 years you will see the same happen in triathlon.
-----------------------------Baron Von Speedypants
-----------------------------RunTraining articles here:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...runtraining;#1612485
I'm not the first runner (or the last) who's been asked, "How do you break x:xx time in a race?" as if there was some sort of secret race strategy or magic formula that allows the faster runners to do so. What is even more disturbing than the question is that it is often followed up with, "so-and-so said I need to do XYZ,".....so-and-so usualy being someone not qualified to give advice and XYZ often being a "magic workout."
The fact is "proper run training" allows YOU to reach YOUR potential. It has little to do with absolutes such as "to run 18:00 you need to run 30 miles a week but if you want to run 17:00 then you need to train 40 miles a week." It all depends on the person, the amount of training they've done in the past, and as much as we hate to admit it.....genetics!
This leads me to The Zatopek Paradox. Emil Zatopek DOMINATED the running scene in the early 1950s winning gold in the 5,000, 10,000, and marathon in the 1952 Olympics and broke 18 world records. If one wanted to become faster in 1952, they'd be wise to take a look at Zatopek's training (but beware....see The Khannouchi Paradox coming soon). Zatopek's success was attributed to a high level of interval training. The man liked to train fast all the time, and it worked for him. In fact, it would have worked for most people compared to what they were doing at the time.
But here comes the paradox. What if YOU were to train that way today? Would you see the kind of success he had....at least relative to your geneticly determined potential? Well, lets see. How good *was* Zatopek.
Zatopek's PR in the 5,000 was 14:07!! Wow! That's fast! I bet you wish YOU could run 14:07. But, keep in mind that Zatopek was likely one of the most gifted runners of his time. In fact, no one could run faster.
However, here is something to think about. 52 years later in the US Olympic trials, 25 people ran FASTER than Emil Zatopek's world record. In fact, they were required to run 19 seconds faster than his record in order to even be allowed in the race. Once you include all the milers, steeple chasers, 10K runners, marathoners, and those out with injury who were capapble of running under 14:07 in the US and extrapolate that out over the 6 billion people in the world, and you'd likely have over 1,000 people in one year who were faster than the fastest man ever to run 5,000 meters 50 years earlier.
If you want to look at it a different way, the current world record is a full 10% faster than his world record. It is quite possible that the current record holder has more talent than Zatopek had, but not 1,000 people.
One could argue that improvements in equipment can account for some of this, and that is correct. But the simple fact of the matter is that science and the art of coaching has continued to evolve since the era of Zatopek. We know more now than ever before and it DOES matter how you train. There is no magic workout that will replace consistency. That's a given. But the fundamentals that have been laid out by the likes of Lydiard, Daniels, Martin, Kellog, Pfitzinger, etc. have allowed for the runners of today to eek out an extra 10% over what runners 50 years ago could do.
Training the way Zatopek did will unlikely get you to 14:07 unless you posess the talent that he had. What it will do is get you to within 90% of what modern training theory will get you. This same concept applies to antiquated swimming and cycling training methods. And, rest assured, in 50 years you will see the same happen in triathlon.
-----------------------------Baron Von Speedypants
-----------------------------RunTraining articles here:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...runtraining;#1612485