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Be very strong… be very methodical in your life if you want to be a champion.

Alberto Juantorena

You HAVE to see Alberto Juantorena run. It is a sight like you’ve never seen before. And we’ll likely never see anything like it again in the sport of Track. Watch the video below. He is in the outside lane in the blue short and singlet.

Did you see the close-up from 0:32-0:35 in the video? Breathtaking! You can see why he was known as El Caballo – The Horse.

Double Gold Medalist

Among his many accomplishments, the one Juantorena is most famous for is winning both the 400m and 800m gold medals at the 1976 Olympic in Montreal. Given that the 400m is considered a sprint and the 800m a middle distance event, this is a mind-boggling accomplishment! More on this below.

In the 800m final, he ran a 1:43.50 setting a new world record (he would break this record the following year running a 1:43.44 – his PB for the event). Then a few days later he ran a 44.26 in the 400m final setting a low-altitude world record.

Here is a video summary. When you click on it, you’ll be redirected to YouTube to watch.

In the video, Juantorena explains how he was a 400m runner and, based on his coach’s suggestion, he also ran 800m to develop the strength to improve his 400m. But his times were so fast in the 800m, he decided to run both races in the Olympics. And voila, double gold!

The 800m – A High-Speed Endurance Event or a Long Sprint?

This begs the questions, is the 800m an endurance event or a sprint event? It requires tremendous pure speed and speed-endurance. Plus more traditional endurance used in races like the 1500m or Mile.

I read a fascinating article in USATF Techniques magazine about the topic called “The Long Sprint – Reclassifying the 800m”. You can read the article HERE.

The article explains that the body requirements during an 800m were traditionally thought to be more similar to 1500m than to the 400m. And the 1500m was more similar to 800m than to longer events like the 5000m. You can see the numbers in Figure 1 of the article. Hence it made sense that the 800m and 1500m were classified together as middle distance.

However, more recent analysis using different physiological techniques show that the 1500m and 5000m are more similar to one another, and the 400m and 800m are more similar (Figure 2 in the article).

Also, at the highest level, both the 400m and 800m are decelerating events – runners start out at faster speeds than they hold at the finish. Whereas events like the 1500m, 5000m and longer distance events all tend to be accelerating event in which world-class runners finish the race at higher speeds. This provides more support that the 800m is closer to a sprint than an endurance event.

All this to say, a change in thought process regarding the 800m may be required. A different training model including more sprint-like training and less endurance-like training may promote better performance. I emphasize may because it’ll surely depend on the runner himself/herself. I’ll revisit this topic in future posts for interested readers. I love the 800m.

For today, I’m just glad you had the opportunity to watch Alberto Juanterena run! Soon you’ll see how we are going to tie El Caballo into your training.