An article I found… with Barry Magee won the Bronze in the marathon in Rome Olympics 1960. He trained under Arthur Lydiard and now coaches the same methodology. Which coincidentally is the backbone to my training. Here are some excerpts.
Runnerstribe: Barry, great to have you on board for a chat, can you tell us a little bit about what the experience of the Rome Olympics was like?
Barry Magee: The Rome Olympics were an amazing experience as we saw Snell and Halberg win golds within 1 hour of each other - which absolutely put The Lydiard Way in the forefront of middle and distance coaching. Lydiard had 5 in the team - for 3 medals.
…
RT: What was it like having Arthur Lydiard as a coach?
BM: Arthur Lydiard was a genius of his time, and they are still figuring out how he knew so much that has changed the world of middle and distance running. He was like a father and friend to all of us and treated us all like family. No one had any doubts that he was truly the master coach. His schedules had runners right on the day mentally and physically - so it was absolutely fabulous to have him as my coach.
RT: Can you tell us a bit about his methods in your own words? How did he revolutionise distance running training?
BM: Lydiard's revolutionary methods were all based around the fact that we ALL conditioned like marathon runners regardless if training with Halberg and Snell, training for 800m or the marathon. Snell's training for 800m for Rome had heaps of training with me who was going to race the marathon. In 1964 Snell did 10 weeks of 100 miles (160k) in conditioning and much of that with me (who ran the marathon). Snell is a good example also with him running a 2:41 marathon 7 weeks before his world record 1 mile and the 800m/880yd records that followed a week later.
RT: Was there much competition between the three of you?
BM: There was plenty all the time as we all competed in the same races every winter in harrier XC and road racing. Halberg was one awesome competitor and the score after 10 years would have been something like 95 to him and 5 to me out of 100 races. (Keeps one humble.) Snell and I came out fairly even as we were racing different events a lot of the time but on his day he could do awesome stuff up to 10k cross country and sometimes beat me.
RT: You now coach many athletes yourself, do your methods differ from those Lydiard used with you?
BM: The simple answer is no. I have been described as being more Lydiard than Lydiard - so all my schedules are following all the Lydiard principles and adding a few of the lessons I learnt from my 12 years with him; all my experience of my years of running that helped produce an excellent balance, and that helped me to be rarely beaten in 29 years of Masters racing. E.g. 2:29 marathon at 49 years old, and 11 National Titles as a Master out of 16 attempts with 4 other top 2 or 3 and only 1 nowhere - that I can remember.
RT: Lydiard used to say that he could turn anyone into a champion, or at least into very competent and competitive runners; such was the universal success of his methods. Do you think this was true?
BM: Lydiard's statement about turning anyone into a champ was one he made with the stipulation that he needed 3 years to do it - but I do not know the percentages of how it worked out. But it was amazing what he could do for most as he turned B-grade runners into National Champions - and I did the same using the same schedules as he did.
RT: Some famous quotes have been attributed to you over the years. "Train don't strain" - very interesting words. Can you explain what you meant? Is that how you trained?
BM: 'Train don't strain' was a Lydiard quote really, that I have always used myself and taught others to use it also. All the champions I trained with knew how to train within themselves and not turn their training into racing, like many others did, but could not produce the goods in their races. We did not leave our efforts on the training track.
RT: You also said "Anyone can run 20 miles. It's the next six that count." What tips do you have for people looking to attempt a marathon?
BM: Most of the training for a marathon is to carry them over the last 10k - as I call the 32k mark the halfway in a marathon, and the real race begins there. My advice is what I did myself - with the main thing having say 8 runs of 2.5 hours and 2 of 3hrs done in the 11-12 weeks out from the marathon. The long runs are the most important of all .The speed work is the least important and we know that fine cardiac and respiratory efficiency is built up with lots of aerobic running and getting right the balance between aerobic and anaerobic running.
*mike comment: Note that when he says “8 runs of 2.5 hours and 2 of 3hrs done in the 11-12 weeks out from the marathon”, he’s referring to himself who ran 2.5 hour marathons in racing.
RT: What are your thoughts on the current state of marathoning in the world, and the incredible times we are seeing?
BM: The incredible state of marathoning is amazing to say the least - but what saddens me is the statements made by some coaches that do not believe that there are any or many clean records on the books today. I do know that they are doing times that even Lydiard thought could not be done. If it is true it is a very sad state of affairs, but we do know that some sports are drug riddled to the uttermost, and the stakes so high that the athletes are prepared to take the risks. So I still enjoy all the major marathons and the wonderful times that they are running them in, and hope that they are achieved with good training and natural talent. We know that many train 4hr a day or more but that is not new. Nurmi trained 6 hrs per day and Zatopek 6.5 hour a day and they won 11 gold medals between them!
No comments:
Post a Comment