article about long distance runners

[JD074]

Interesting article about some noted differences between white and black South African long distance runners. They posit that training differences may explain some or all of the physiological differences (type IIA muscle fibers, blood-lactate concentrations, whatever.)

http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0416.htm

Actually, there's no mystery, according to Noakes. 'I tell my runners to try to do as much as they can on as little training as possible,' says the South African scientist. 'Obviously this means focusing on intense training, as the black runners in our study did, rather than on grandiose mileage levels.

 

[surfsider]

Good article JD. It put me in mind of an article I read many years ago(about 15) that made the same point about the level of training intensity possibly being the difference. Some said that black Africans may have physiological advantages that allow them to train harder, others thought that the motivation for the economic benefits that accrue from being a top distance runner in Africa played a large part in the intensity of the training.
The Kenyans train in large groups for long periods of time and this fosters competition. Even scheduled easy training runs can become races. In the article I read a British runner(forget the name) went to Kenya to train at altitude. He was mostly struck by how hard they went at it in training. At the end of the training period in ran the Kenyan national cross country championships and finished 41st. He made the British national cross country team and in the world championships finished 11th!

 

[Colonel Callan]

Good article - and it brings up some interesting points.

Runners in the West used to train harder, faster, for the most part. For
some reason, the folks at Runner's World, and at many colleges, began to
push the LSD (long slow distance) method of training. They would
mistakenly point at Arthur Lydiard's runners like Olympic Champs Peter
Snell and Murray Halberg as proof of this being the way to go. These
guys didn't run slow, however. They ran at a very quick tempo much of
the time, just at the edge of their aerobic threshold, which is what many
of the top E. African and Arab runners (Moroccans like El Guerrouj, Ramzi
- the world champ at 800 and 1500 etc) do. However, you can avoid a lot
of pain by running slower and not doing the required interval work.
Despite what is claimed by some, the Africans and Arabs do a lot of
interval work also. Which is what top runners of the past, like Jim Ryun,
Lasse Viren, Cova, Lopes, Coe, Ovett, Cram etc. did, although Ryun
overdid it, and never ran near his potential. (Interestingly enough, about
three years ago Lydiard stated that if he'd coached Ryun in the 1960's,
Ryun would STILL hold the world record in the mile, an opinion shared by
many, many knowledgeable people - he was the perfect physical
specimen for middle distances, a freak) Craig Mottram of Australia is
among the top three 5k men in the world now, and he trains very hard
with his distance and tempo runs, but he says he only puts in one or two
days a week on the track itself. But he has shown he can run with the
best, and he's about 6'2", not short like most of the Africans.

In the end, the Western runners do not train as hard or fast as they did, in
terms of overall numbers. Coe, Cram, Steve Scott, and others are all still
near the top of the all time lists in the 800, 1k, 1500, mile, 2k etc, and
they were in their heydays 20 years ago! Only now are Mottram and
Webb running almost as fast. But with less whites participating, and -
despite PC harumphs to the contrary - many Africans getting away with
murder when it comes to drug use, whites have fallen off the chart in
many events. Dave Moorcroft ran 13:00 in the 5k back in the early 80's,
crushing Henry Rono's (Kenyan) 5k record. That time would put him in
the mix today - he'd no doubt run faster, never mind his performances
at other distances. Look at how many top runners, white, that Britain was
producing with a small population, and most of the kids far more
interested in soccer. Then boom. Nothing. Until the Aussie decided he
didn't care who he was runnning against. It's taken this long to find a guy
like Mottram? (I won't go into Bauman who was probably set up because
he openly complained about some of the African drug cheats) Yeah,
smaller numbers competing and selective enforcement of drug policy can
go a long way toward working the psyche of white kids, making them
think they can't compete. The same was done in the sprints, although I
think we are seeing the dawn of a backlash. Ah, another of my
grandstanding rants. I would like to see this backlash spread into other
sports - but sports like the NFL have a lot of "gates" that are heavily
guarded. So does boxing, but we all know what's happening there.

If you're a young kid with talent just getting into running, don't be
intimidated. But do realize you must train hard. Train smart, but very
hard. Most people have no idea of the pain involved. But you can get
used to that. Ask Jim Ryun, Steve Scott, Lasse Viren, Sebastian Coe, Dave
Moorcroft, Alberto Cova and droves of others who would meet and beat
Africans all the time. It's interesting how the press likes to ignore the
coincidences regarding Dr. Gabriele Rosa, Jos Hermens, Dr. Woldemeskel
Kostre (former E. Bloc fella) and others when it comes to explain the
sudden surge in E. African dominance in distance running. Although in
honors won, the Moroccans are right there - in fact generally
outperforming the Kenyans in big meets. But like whites, they are bad
guys in the eyes of the press.

Maybe I'll rant on the sprints next, or do some more complaining about
Michael Vick.

 

[surfsider]

Exactly right Colonel! LSD is the drug that put American running into a stupor. I got so sick of Runner's World pushing the wonders of slogging around for hours blah, blah, blah. They seemed bound and determined to make running a non-competitive sport where everyone's a winner just by takng part. Becoming a good runner requires that one endure some pain. We need a Zatopek to show them how its done.