Training for Speed Matters – Part 2

In the first part I discussed how many runners may be underperforming because they haven’t developed their speed. We saw how quickly Paula Radcliffe was running even when she was in the marathon.

Like Paula, almost all elite runners start out as track athletes usually in events lasting a mile or less. If they discover they don’t have the talent for that then they do longer track events – Eliud Kipchoge, the world’s premier marathoner, began by winning World Championship gold in the 5,000m at age 18. His winning time of 12:52.79 is a pace of 4:07/mile. He ran his best mile a year later in 3:50.

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Let’s go back to 2012 when Mo Farah was in the early stages of his Olympic / World Championship dominance. He took part in the BBC’s Superstars TV programme and clocked 12.98s over 100m; followed in by the Brownlee brothers – champion triathletes with Jonny clocking 14.33s and Alistair 14.70s.   Obviously these times are nothing compared to elite sprinters but these are athletes who are better suited to distance events. I doubt they spent too much of their valuable training time on preparing for a TV contest’s 100metres but how would you compare?

Mo’s training is on record with him being able to run 100m off a 2-step start in 11sec, 200m in 25s and 400m in 51s.  When he won the 5000m Olympic title in Rio in 2016, his final lap was 52.7s having already run 4,600m.

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I detailed in the Ageing runner series the world records for Masters runners at a variety of distances.  Here I will reproduce the latest records over 200m – ageing is often given as an excuse why runners aren’t fast. I contend it’s more often the case that they’ve failed to maximise their speed before attempting to become distance runners.

Men	Time	Male	Date
WR	19.19	Usain Bolt	20-Aug-09
V35	20.11	Linford Christie	25-Jun-95
V40	20.64	Troy Douglas	09-Aug-03
V45	21.65	Alexander Kosenkow	23-Jul-22
V50	22.44	Willie Gault	07-May-11
V55	23.24	Willie Gault	07-May-16
V60	24.00	Ronald Taylor	10-Jun-94
V65	24.65	Charles Allie	26-Jul-13
V70	25.75	Charles Allie	21-Jun-18
V75	27.73	Robert Lida	05-Aug-12
V80	29.54	Hijiya Hisamitsu	16-Sep-12
V85	31.69	Hijiya Hisamitsu	17-Sep-16
V90	36.02	Hiroo Tanaka	23-May-21
V95	45.34	Yoshiyuki Shimizu	23-Oct-23
Women	Time	Female	Date
WR	21.34	Florence Griffith Joyner	29-Sep-88
V35	21.81	Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce	21-Jul-22
V40	22.72	Merlene Ottey	23-Aug-04
V45	23.82	Merlene Ottey	27-Aug-06
V50	24.33	Merlene Ottey	18-Jul-10
V55	24.83	Mandy Mason	25-Nov-23
V60	27.78	Nicole Alexis	03-Jul-22
V65	28.53	Karla Del Grande	05-Aug-18
V70	31.30	Ingrid Meier	02-Jul-17
V75	31.56	Carol LaFayette-Boyd	09-Sep-18
V80	34.38	Carol LaFayette-Boyd	31-Jul-23
V85	40.20	Christa Bortignon	27-Aug-22
V90	55.62	Mitsu Morita	30-Jun-13
V95	01:13.0	Diane Friedman	22-Jul-17

Of course these are the world records for Masters athletes who are committed to the sport. You or I will probably never be able to achieve the numbers for our age groups. Yet I feel it’s also worth considering that if you’re a man who can barely run 200m in under 35s, there is at least one 80-year-old woman who could beat you in a race. I don’t say that to disparage Carol Lafayette-Boyd who achieved it last year but more as an encouragement to anyone, male or female of younger years, to reconsider that they might be underutilising their talent.

It’s notable looking at these tables that the best men are still easily running under 30secs for 200m (4min/mile) into their seventies while the women are capable of it into their sixties. Of course these records are set by dedicated sprinters but until you try, you won’t know what you’re truly capable of.