World Cross Country

[Chris]

Was involved in this thread near the start, left and all hell broke loose.

However lets look at some FACTS that support one side of this argument...and just to let you know I was a member of Hallamshire at the same time as Coe was running his world records and infrequently saw him training and more frequently saw Peter Elliot and John Brown training and frequently trained with Carl Thackery (for those of you who don't know the name UK 15,000M and 20,000M (57.28!!) record holder and top 3 all time 10miles 46.07 and 1/2marathon. 61.04

Re 10 miles in 45 mins, whether he did or not I don't know but what I do know is he would have more than given Carl a race over 10 miles and he could do it in 46 mins!! Anyone who can run 8x800m in 'well' under 2 mins with 45 secs rest and has a mile pb of 3.46 is gonna find 4.35 pace pretty easy for a fair distance!!

Re weights, in winter he did 2 or 3 sessions a week and could front squat well over twice his bodyweight. Remember hsi father/coach was a scientist and everything Coe did was specific to running middle distances at world record pace. Power to weight ratio is crucial and this was how they developed that.

Finally to the person who said if he could do that over long distance why didn't he....pretty obvious really why would he? he won 2 Olympic golds, 2 Olympic silvers and set numerous world records between 800m and 1 mile...its only mere mortals who feel the need to test themselves over many distances, when you're the best at something you stick at it, you don't get there by being a jack of all trades!!

I think they are interesting points there Bladerunner.

I think the point about strength to weight ratio is good. The workouts in training are awesome.

I disagree with anyone though who wants to start talking about what such and such an athlete had the "potential" to do. I think this is what you are getting close to doing. It is the most meaningless word in the language.