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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Rule #1: If You can’t Stay Loose, You’re Training too Hard

Reading time: 7 min

Demand perfection of yourself and you’ll seldom attain it. Fear of making a mistake is the biggest single cause of making one. Relax — pursue excellence, not perfection.

Lloyd “Bud” Winter

Lloyd “Bud” Winter is one of the most successful track coaches in history. Over a 29-year coaching career from 1949 to 1970 at San Jose State College, his programs produced 37 world-record holders, 49 NCAA records and 27 Olympians. Incredible!

A big part of his program revolves around learning to stay relaxed under stressful circumstances. He developed his techniques during World War II. Bud taught pilots to remain relaxed in the face of heavy gunfire and other brutal wartime scenarios. Talk about stressful! He then transferred these principles from the battlefield to the world of track and field. He outlined all the techniques in his 1981 book Relax and Win, which luckily for me, was re-released in 2012 when I picked it up!

Believe it or not, Bud Winter has only one degree of separation from Usain Bolt and many other of Jamaica’s greatest sprinters. In 1966, one of Bud’s former athletes of Jamaican descent invited him to Jamaica to give a series of seminars on Sprinting. In the audience for the lecture was Glen Mills who went on to become Jamaica’s premier sprint coach. Starting in 2004, Mills coached Usain Bolt, and the rest of the story is history.

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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

Reading time: 2 min

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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Nose Unblocking Technique

Reading time: 1 min

Improve your Nasal breathing using a simple technique from Patrick McKeown in his book Oxygen Advantage

Many runners struggle with nose breathing in general because the nose is runny or blocked. And I suggest that you complete all your Base Runs breathing only out of your nose! What to do?

Luckily there is a simple strategy to help with this. In the book Oxygen Advantage author Patrick McKeown outlines a simple but effective technique to improve your ability to breathe out of your nose. It goes as follows:

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BASE Running

Reading time: 7 min

An introduction to how I define Base Running – the pace at which you’ll spend the great majority of your running time. And a few extra thoughts on how to approach your Base runs

Base running – often referred to as “easy” pace – is probably the most important element of any endurance runner’s program. You’ll want to spend the great majority of your time at Base. The key to Base is to ensure that you are NOT running at a faster-than-necessary pace. Too often runners complete Base runs too quickly. Unfortunately the additional benefits of doing Base runs faster are slim to none.

Coaches and runners have known for a long time that Base runs tend to be too quick. Coaches imposed low RPE scores, HR limits, and specific pace targets based on a percent of your race times on their runners during Base run to keep the pace slow. These tactics have been successful in many circumstances. 

I find that RPE scores are hard to interpret. Running with an HR limit is annoying since HR depends so much on conditions like temperature and terrain changes and staring at a watch or slowing down when you hear a beep disconnects you from your internal running sensations. Having a pace target makes Base runs feel too much like a specific workout and many strive to go faster than the pace targets thinking, wrongly, that it will increase the benefits. So relying solely on these means may be problematic.

I suggest a simpler method in this program:

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