Running

Peter Snell: Athlete

Reading time: 3 min

As a teenager I had no idea that I had the potential to win an Olympic gold medal and my athletic career developed only by lucky circumstances

Peter Snell

Peter Snell was a natural athlete. He excelled at rugby, tennis, cricket and golf among other sports. It just so happens that one day, coach Arthur Lydiard spotted the 19-year-old Snell run an 880-yard handicap race in 1957. Lydiard was impressed by Snell‘s natural speed and convinced Snell to drop his other sports and pursue track. The rest we shall say is history.

Snell’s impressive resume includes all of the following:

  • 800m gold medal at the 1960 Rome Olympic games
  • 880y and Mile gold medals at the 1962 Perth Commonwealth games
  • 800m and 1500m gold medals at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics games – a feat that has not been replicated since.
  • World Records in the 800m, 880y, 1000m, Mile and 4 x 1 Mile relay
  • Voted New Zealand’s Sports Champion of the (20th) Century

There is a lot to say about Peter Snell. But here are just two tidbits about the 1960 Olympics and his 800m world record.

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Lydiard Hills

Reading time: 8 min

If you want to be a successful runner, you have to consider everything. It’s no good just thinking about endurance and not to develop fine speed.

Arthur Lydiard

New Zealand’s Arthur Lydiard is one of the outstanding running coaches of all time – possibly the greatest. He dramatically changed the sport of running in two significant ways: training and popularity.

First, Lydiard developed and spread the idea of a periodized running program. He started runners with aerobic running up to 100 miles per week – that many years of trial-and-error lead him to believe was the sweet spot for aerobic development. Then he would progressively transition runners toward more anaerobic training specific to their target event. He did this before the words aerobic and anaerobic were popular training lexicon.

His program was so successful that, incredibly, Lydiard sent three local athletes to the 1960 Rome Olympics: Peter Snell (800m), Murray Halberg (5000m) and Barry Magee (Marathon) and all three made in on the podium! Snell and Halberg won gold and Magee a bronze. Four years later at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, Snell would win gold in the 800m and the 1500m – a feat that has not been repeated at the games!

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Running Base Building Program

Reading time: 4 min

Build a foundation of running fitness AND a foundation running technique as part of your Running Base

You’ve learned about Base Runs. You’ve learned about Fast but Not Hard drills. The good news is that the combination of Base Runs plus Fast but Not Hard drills equals a solid running base building program. Building a firm Base is all about building a foundation of running fitness and a foundation of running technique.

Base Runs will develop your general endurance and allow your body to strengthen running muscles and tissues gradually while running. Further, if you follow all the Base Running suggestion, you’ll practice your nasal breathing, run on variable terrain, overcome any over-emphasis on GPS-based paces and learn to direct your focus inwards. Fantastic!

Fast but Not Hard drills develop your general speed with a particular focus on technique. You can implement Rule #1. And work your way through the different Cues to learn more about what works and what doesn’t for you. Super.

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How to Run a Turn

Reading time: 2 min

It is a powerful feeling to sense an acceleration out of every corner just by positioning your body correctly.

Imagine you are riding a bicycle at a decent speed. You come to a left turn. What do you do to take the corner? Do you turn handlebars bars to the left?

The answer is No. You lean the bike to the left and countersteer the handlebars to the right.

You don’t turn the handlebars to the left going into the corner. As you come out of the corner though, you may make a small correction to your trajectory by turning the handlebars slightly. But to get through the corner, you lean and countersteer.

When you run a turn, your hips are the bike, and your shoulders and sternum are the handlebars.

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A Tale of Two 800m Races

Reading time: 3 min

The last few posts on Base Running. Fast but Not Hard drills, Rule #1 and Running Cues have been very dense. Revisit those posts often. There is a lot of “meat on the bones” and it’ll take time to implement the suggestions. So for today, something a little lighter, but still on point. We are going to watch two of the greatest 800m races in history: the 1972 Olympic final, and the 2012 Olympic final.

The 1972 Olympic final is one of the most thrilling races you’ll ever see by a true champion who is often considered the most “underrated” 800m runner.

The 2012 Olympic final is without-a-doubt the greatest 800m race ever based on the calibre of the field and the performance of every runner in the race.

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“Fast” Running Cues

Reading time: 8 min

Before going into the Running Cues, let’s recap what we have covered thus far:

  • Base Running: Base is a pace that can run comfortably breathing only out of your Nose. You’ll spend most of your running time at Base
  • Fast but Not Hard running: Drills in which you run reps at a “Fast” pace, but the combo of chosen rep speed & length and recovery duration ensure that no rep feels “Hard.” Your focus is not on the difficulty of the exercise but instead on your body and your technique. These include Strides, Diagonals and Surges.
  • Rule #1: If you can’t Stay Loose, you’re training too Hard. Rule #1 is your mechanism to ensure your Fast but Not Hard drills (and other training I’ll introduce later) are not “Hard.”

So what should you focus on during Fast but Not Hard exercises? Here are a few Running cues and techniques to develop:

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Fast But Not Hard

Reading time: 8 min

An introduction to faster pace running drills whose primary focus is on Form rather than Fitness

What does Fast but Not Hard mean? Simple, you run multiple reps at a “fast” pace for a short duration with adequate recovery. The combo of chosen speed, length and recovery are such that no rep feels “hard.” Your focus is not on the difficulty of the exercise but instead on your body and your technique.

In my opinion, Fast but Not Hard running is just as crucial as your Base runs. Be sure to read up on Base Running if you not already done so! Much like Base running though if you are not careful, you’ll run these drills too fast or with inadequate recovery and they will become “hard.” They mustn’t be “hard” because the primary focus must NOT be on effort, it must be on form.

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Spanning the Cadence Spectrum

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I have prepared well and I have the confidence I can win.

Kenenisa Bekele

Ever heard the name Kenenisa Bekele? If not, it’s about time you hear it. Bekele is “arguably the greatest long-distance runner of all time.” There is much debate on who is the greatest, but without-a-doubt Bekele would end up on the short-list of candidates. Here are but a few of his accomplishments:

  • Current 5000m (12:37.35) and 10000m (26:17.33) world record holder.
  • Eleven-time world cross-country champion
  • Won every 10000m race he competed in for eight years straight winning four world championship titles in this time span
  • Gold in the 5000m and 10000m at the 2008 Beijing Olympics
  • Gold in the 10000m and silver in the 5000m at the 2004 Athens Olympics. In the 5000m he was beaten by another runner that is “arguably the greatest distance runner of all-time” Hicham El Guerouj
  • Fifth fastest marathoner of all-time with a time of 2:03:03

With this pedigree, you can imagine it was a bit of surprise when during the 2007 world championship 10000m final in Osaka Japan Bekele was distanced by his rivals in the final few laps and had to play catch-up.

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Name the Second Man to Break the 4min Barrier

Reading time: 3 min

Doctors and scientists said that breaking the four-minute mile was impossible, that one would die in the attempt. Thus, when I got up from the track after collapsing at the finish line, I figured I was dead.

Roger Bannister

I’m sure you’ve heard of Sir Roger Bannister. He was the first man to break the 4min barrier in the Mile by running 3:59.4 on May 6th, 1954. A remarkable achievement. In the video below you can watch the record attempt with insightful commentary from the man himself Roger Bannister

It is all the more impressive when you consider that he was running on a cinder track. According to investigative reporter David Epstein in his acclaimed TED talk Are Athletes Really Getting Faster Better Stronger, cinder tracks are 1.5% slower than modern synthetic tracks. If this is true, that means Bannister’s time in 1954 is roughly equivalent to a 3:55.8 today. I’d highly suggest you watch David Epstein’s entire TED talk. If you want to skip right to Bannister part, jump to 2:49.

You may not know the name of the second man to break the 4min barrier: John Landy of Australia. Forty-six days after Bannister ran his breakthrough race, Landy ran a scorching 3:57.9, 1.6 seconds faster than Bannister’s time. What I want you to see today is what Landy looks like when he runs.

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