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Philosophy, Training, Tactics: Since I coached Earl Jones, the bronze medalist in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, I became an expert on the middle distances. Before that I was an expert on the sprints because I had coached the 100 meter gold medalist in the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games. In between I was a decathlon expert because I had two good decathletes. Great athletes make great coaches of us, but the coach is essential in the training, conditioning and preparation of all athletes at all levels. The 800 meters is an in-between event: it is neither a sprint nor a distance race, although sometimes if takes on the attributes of both. In high school, sometimes it becomes a junk race, where the contestants are those who are either too slow for the 400 meters or too weak or lazy for the 1500 meters or mile. For this reason we are always very careful in our recruitment of high school 800 meter men. They should either be able to go up to the 1500 or down to the 400. If they cannot do either, they are probably in serious trouble concerning their ultimate potential. Halfmilers can be of either the 400 meter variety or the 1500 meter variety, although most of ours have been the latter. The former type might be better with the fall track group (sprinters, hurdlers, 400 meter men, field events) as they can’t usually keep up in cross country and might get discouraged; but the latter type definitely should be with the competitive cross country team in the fall. Each fall an increasing number of 400 meter men run with the cross country team several nights a week. Some are trying to move up to the 800, but some are just trying to get stronger for the 400. They get it from running on the road and on cross country course. We hope that our men do a lot of running during the summer. This is when they can get in a lot of off-season distance work without having any meets to interfere. It is absolutely essential for cross county men, but it is good for everyone, especially from the 800 on up. After cross country we try to keep our state of conditioning intact and add a little speed work to it. Most of the running is outdoors, but we try to run faster at least once a week in late November and early December to add the needed zip for the indoor track season. The runners are in pretty decent strength shape from cross county and can race pretty well off it. Many of the new fellows can run PR’s in late fall on the track with the college cross country season as background work. We try to hold them back some, however, as we would prefer them to hit their peaks later on. During the early part of indoor track season we usually run everyone from the 800 on up together, for at least part of the workout. We do pace and speed work indoors all winter on a 200m Mondo track. This is especially helpful with inclement weather, deep snow, icy roads, etc. We do try to do a lot of running outdoors during the winter; however, it is much better for distance and the runners who prefer it. In January we do endurance work. A favorite workout is a ladder workout on the indoor track. I put all of them on the track together and it resembles a cross county meet: We might have the longer distance group run sort of a double ladder: We might also do speed work, but we usually don’t do very much early in the indoor season. We could do pace work too with the pace they would need to run for their various events. We would split them for this type of workout. Outdoors we have several measured loops. We usually have organized morning workouts which are semi-compulsory, depending on class schedules, the maturity of our runners, etc.. Assistants who were young distance runners often run with the guys in the morning. We actually have to hit three peaks during the school year: Earl Jones ran 1:49.4 in December and was the Bronze medalist in the Olympics in August. That sort of shoots full of holes the theory that you can’t race effectively over a long period of time, that you burn out or get stale. We ran him mostly endurance stuff all season. His speed work was his races. Of course, he had a lot of natural speed to begin with. Being talented and able to help the team, he did run multiple races in almost every meet. We did not start the fast stuff until the weather really broke in the middle of May. We really did not peak him until after our conference meet. With lesser talented athletes, you have to do this much sooner or they never will peak. There are certainly individual differences between athletes and also differences in ability. These must be considered when arranging training schedules. With the pressure to hit NCAA qualifying times, we probably have to run speed work a lot sooner than we would like to, or the way we did it with Earl Jones. With our current group we sometimes run three or four 400’s pretty fast with 5-8 minutes rest between. Tommy Asinga (Surinam Olympian) has run 49-50-51-52 indoors and faster outdoors. He and two of his teammates (Greg Rhymer 1:47.7 and Paul McMullen 1:48.17) are a great workout trio. They get after each other and compete well in the workouts as well as in races. They are also very close friends which helps. With Jones we did real quality workouts in the late spring. One day I told him to run 60-56 for a 1:56. He ran 57-53 for a 1:50 and this was just part of a workout. I never thought I would ever see This happen again, but Asinga also did the same thing several years later. Another day Earl did 1:15.8 for 600 meters and I thought he could have finished another 200 in 28. This would have given him the American record in practice. At This time we knew he could do it and that we would have him go for the lead at the Olympic Trials. Another day he did 47.5, 48.6 and 49.5 with five minutes or less rest. Asinga has also done workouts of this caliber. Indoors we ran Jones in the two mile once and he ran 9:10. He came back that night with 1:09.8 for 600 yards to qualify for the NCAA meet and he also anchored our winning 1600 meter relay team. Relays are great for keeping interest up and for a change of pace. They are good for marginal runners and helps them develop. They get real enthused when they have good personnel along with them on the relay team. All of the members of our “hot” 3200 and 6400 meter relay teams were also members of the cross country team. In 1984 we won the NCAA indoor distance medley in 9:40 with Earl’s anchor in 4:01. Earl Jones’ first breakthrough in the 800 was when he ran 1:46.8 all by himself, going by the 400m in under 49.0. With not much competition in the race, we experimented by having him do this. He later took 2nd place in the NCAA in 1:45.8 behind Cruz, and then broke the American record while winning the Olympic Trials in 1:43.74, leading all the way. The TV analysts said he was crazy to lead, but it worked as he held off Johnny Gray, John Marshall and James Robinson to win in a huge upset. The first real indication of his potential was when he anchored our sprint medley relay (400-200-200-800) at the Drake Relays in 1:44.3. We gave him plenty of opportunity to run fast by giving him the slick in last place, far behind the leaders. He ran 52-52 and missed winning by a foot or less. After the Olympic Trials we went back to endurance work, doing lots of mileage and even ladders on the outdoor track all by himself in 90 degree weather. When I finally sent him to California to the Olympic training camp, all he had to do was some tune-up work. I didn’t want to send him out too soon for fear that they would give him too much speed work too soon, but it worked out just about right regarding the timing. It is always a concern when you turn over the training of one of your athletes to others at a very important lime in his career. You must have a year-around distance training program, and the summer and winter are very important. Success is found over a long period of time and a background of mileage and hard work is very important. Strength and endurance are more important than speed work. Long, slow jogging is pretty much a waste of time, except that it is probably better than walking, which is better than doing nothing. Distance running should not always be fun or enjoyable. It is hard work, but rewarding. Easy distance is okay as a supplement, but too many runners are basing their whole program on it and I don’t think it works. In order to run fast one has to train a great deal of time at his racing pace. You should use the things that work for you during cross country and track seasons. Many coaches use strength and endurance training in the fall and then abruptly switch to all speed work in the spring with a lot of long, slow distance thrown in between. Since we have adopted the above philosophy we have found that our men are running a great deal faster and more consistently for a longer period of time. There is no shortcut to success for a middle distance runner. It takes time, and too many get discouraged and give up with their goal right over the horizon. You should set up the training of your 800 meter men according to their abilities or to what they need. Those who have great speed and little endurance should, naturally, work on their endurance while those with a lot of endurance and little speed should work on their speed. When doing this, however, do not neglect the area in which they are good and change them from fast to slow. Speed is the most valuable attribute anyone could possibly have and they should not lose it by a lot of slow running. Long, slow running produces long, slow runners. What is worse, though, is short, slow running, other than as a warm-up or cool-down. Strategy is tough in the 800 and 1500 meter runs. On the college level or high school championship level, these races get very tactical. On the lower competitive levels, the good runners can either “blow-out” the opposition from the gun or else sit and kick with the knowledge that they can win either way. When the fields are more balanced and tougher, however, the problems get more complicated.
You have only four choices: 1. Lead: No one likes to do this because your opponents will let you set the pace and then they will out-kick you. I don’t see why the leader should always lose. Usually the man leading is not a very good runner and he feels that his only chance to win is to lead and he may be right. A good runner, however, should be able to lead and control the race, either by going out last or perhaps even by going slow. He has to know that his opponents are right there and that they are going to try to make a move on him sooner or later. It should be no surprise when they try to go by. Most of the leaders get a false sense of security when they are leading and then just give up when they get passed. You have to be mentally tough to lead. Earl Jones may have been the first quality runner to show the courage to lead from start to finish in quality fields. We talked him into going for it in the 1984 Olympic Trials and he led from start to finish and won in an American Record of 1:43.74. Later Johnny Gray took this tactic and refined it to his own tactics. He became a master at controlling the pace from in front. He would take the lead and then make the rest of the field run his pace and play with them when they tried to pass him. Unfortunately, this tactic sometimes would not work when the real top people get together, such as in the World Championship or Olympic final. In The 1985 TAC national championship 800 meter final, Earl Jones really went for it. He went out in under 23 at the 200 and was 48.3 at the 400. At 600 meters he was under 1:15. He died pretty badly in the last 50 meters, but still ran under 1:45 and finished behind two Olympians, Gray and John Marshall. I felt that, with his ability and strength, he could have mastered this technique and revolutionized the 800. I felt he had to do this a few more times, plus train this way, and he might have been the first man to break 1:40 in the event. 2. Drop behind in last position. This, as in the method of leading, keeps you on the pole and stops you from running long on the turns. This is important because you lose 11 feet on every turn by running in lane two instead of one. I always show our men the staggers on the track as to how much they run longer in lane two. You can get discouraged running in last and you have to know when to make your move. You can’t let the gaps open up between you and the leaders. You may have to run long when you start passing people and there is always the possibility that you won’t make it into the lead at all. You sure can’t afford to panic if you are in last. You have to have the confidence that you can make the right moves and win. You had better also have a good kick to run this way. 3. Run Inside: If you follow inside, you run a shorter distance, but you are probably in a box. A box is not that bad early in the race. There will come a time, however, when you must get out of it. You can’t panic if you are in one. Earl Jones ran in a box for 600 meters in the Olympics and it turned out to be a good place from which to get a bronze medal, but not particularly a good place from which to win a gold medal. The box was moving pretty fast and, at least, he didn’t run long. I told him to take the lead because he was in lane one and, if he didn’t, he would get cut off by the whole field and boxed, and that is just what happened. Either he decided not to go for it, or he just didn’t get there quickly enough, but he came off the first turn in 2nd place. Then the leader slowed down and the field pulled up on his shoulder and he was boxed. If the box doesn’t break up (it usually will if you have the confidence or guts to wait long enough), you may have to let the whole field pass you and then move all the way around everyone on the outside. This is hard to do. 4. Run Outside: If you run outside, you won’t get boxed, but you definitely run long. I really think this is the worst alternative, especially early in the race. You lose 11 feet on each turn (with 42” lanes). This is over 7 yards a lap and you can run a long way further than the required distance, especially on an indoor track with a lot of turns. Late in the race you may not have a choice. Try to run on the lead man’s shoulder rather than right next to him. Move yourself into striking position and then go, coming off the turn so you will have the whole straightway to get by him. Women are very inexperienced in tactics. If they are good, they usually win with no opposition, and rarely have the opportunity to race in traffic. When they get into a hotly contested race, they are usually unprepared for it. A good example was Mary Decker in the 1984 Olympics. She was not used to running in a crowd and she ended up falling and ending her Olympic dream. The 800 meters is an exciting, unpredictable event, but one that is fun to watch and fun to coach. It is the shortest event that is not run in lanes. If you can find an athlete who can run a 44.9 relay split and a sub 4-minute mile, I guarantee he will be a good 800 meter man and will make you a good coach. By Bob Parks Eastern Michigan University, 1994.
Copyright 2001 - http://thefastlane.borghoms.com Last updated on 16 June 2002 |
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