V10 N. 35 Part II- El Caballo's Training Schedule

Bruce Kritzler was able to track down this speech given by Alberto Juantorena in 1985 outlining his training from 1971 up to the Olympics in 1976.  It appeared on the website 

 .....https://beaconhillstriders.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Alberto-Juantorena-Training-for-400m-800m.pdf   

translated by one Victor Lopez.  In the documentation you will see on Saturday July 17, 1976,  Juantorena lists that workout from which the picture in the previous posting appears.  He notes that the workout consisted of 3 x 600 in 1:31, 1:21, and 1:19.  Our source who provided the picture added that the rest interval was 15 minutes.  I find it amazing that we could cobble this information together based on a photo out of a forty-four years old scrapbook and the internet.  Amazingly despite terrible political relations, then as well as now,  between the US and Cuba, Juantorena was able to travel to the US to give the Keynote speech in 1985 when The Athletics Congress (TAC) met in Houston, Texas.

The piece is rather lengthy and a bit laborious to read yet it is a very revealing portrait of the system used in Cuba in those days with the added expertise of a Polish coach.

After the meltdown of the Communist Bloc in Europe in 1989, a lot of this coaching and other forms of aid dried up and returned to Europe.  But as some have noted, Cuba has an incredibly rich culture and picked up certain technical knowledge from the Eastern Bloc in those days and made itself a vibrant nation despite the US boycott on their economy.  They have one of the best health care systems in the world and export and train more doctors into the developing world than just about any other nation.  When I was teaching in Zimbabwe from 1982-85, children graduating from rural schools were being sent to Cuba for medical school.

It is also true that Cuba provided technical and military expertise during the liberation movements in southern Africa as was the West.  It was part of the game being played by the Soviets, the Chinese, and the Americans in those days.  If you think this sounds far fetched, check out this story of a naval engagement fought on Lake Tanganyika located between Tanzania and the Congo between Cuban CIA mercenaries and Che Guevara representing the East.  They even used 'Swift Boats'.  Remember those?

https://miami.cbslocal.com/2018/06/21/cold-war-navy-seal-clandestine-congo/

The armaments were overlapping with both sides using each other's weapons.    There were victories and defeats in both camps in those times.

Now the struggle for hearts and minds between those former and current 'enemies'  has taken on a different character, but it is still there.   In the past the Soviets and their satellites battled on the athletic stage as well as inside the countries they were trying to influence.    They brought African students to Eastern Europe and China to study while the Americans offered Rockefeller and Ford Foundation scholarships to do the same.  Both sides were hoping that those students would return to their countries and when in positions of influence, they would turn to their 'educators' to make business deals and economic agreements.  Today it seems much less an "us versus them"  notion on the sports fields. I'm not going to get into drug testing past and present, you are all very aware of that story.  Apart from football (soccer) and rugby there seems to be much less nationalism being displayed.  It is more the individuals and their agents that are important as well as their contracts with shoe manufacturers.  And one 'economic system' versus another 'system' is less the issue.  Globalization has changed the context of the sports world.  Africans are representing a multitude of nations other than those where they were born. Soccer teams are multinational.   The competition on the field is just as fierce, but the driving factors are very different.
As Deputy Minister of Sport in Cuba, it would be interesting to know what Juantorena thinks of all this.  George Brose

George —

Rudisha came by 600 m in his London Oly WR in 1:14.30 — 4.7 faster that el Caballo’s third 600 interval following another 15 minute rest.  Bork and I ran 3 wks before his stunning 1961 runaway NCCA win 10 x 440 with a 55 yrd jog and a 55 yrd walk between each — chop chop chop — and John averaged high 58s or very low 59s.  Dales was there on the watch.    This on a slightly soft cinder track in our stadium.  Rest was minimal and it was punishing @ — physically for me  —  about 17 at the time.   This was after we swept the MAC Champs 880 along with Richard Greene, RIP. 

Watching that London final, he came by in 49.28 leading and absolutely hammered that 3rd 200 m running a 25.02 and finishing w a 26.61. Between 600 and 700 m, the Botswanan, Nigel Amos, but 18 @ the time, actually closed some of the distance between he and Rudisha.   The per 200 m average for the Kenyan was 25.22.   Smokin’.  

The Maasai Warrior re-incarnated —drawing on eons of selective ancestral DNA running down game in hot conditions @ 6500 - 8000 ft.   The fluid biomechanics.   The OLY stage.  His stride length.  The efficiency while running that fast.  The supreme package of traits melded together — all in a single human being.  

Will we ever see such a man like he or Hikam el Guerrouj again —given what is happening with the planet’s increasing carbon dioxide?   This is in the middle of the 22nd year El G has held the WR in the mile and 21st for the 1500 m.   At no time in modern history has either record survived for anything like those periods.  He also holds the 2000 m record in 4:44 and change — meaning at even pace throughout he had to come by the mile in 3:49.  The North African.    The Moroccan.   Simply stunning.  World records reveal to us of what man is capable.   The pinnacle of athletic achievement and daring do.   

What better.   

Rich

V 10 N. 34 El Caballo

Let's start with the picture.  Here is Alberto Juantorena in his skivvies at the practice track in Montreal (Centre Claude Robillard) in 1976.
Looks well toned but not ripped by today's standards.

A good friend who wishes to remain anonymous has sent this in and asks that it not be reproduced.

Said that in prep for the 800 that day he had done 3 x 600 about 1:21.  Had a Polish coach Zabierzowski  there timing with another Polish coach.

His campadres:

 Leandro Civil on left ran 800 at Montreal.  Eliminated in semis.
Civil had the following podium finishes at major championships: 2nd in the 1975 Pan American Games 800 metres. In the 1971 Pan American Games 800 metres he finished fifth and in the 1979 Pan American Games 800 metres he finished sixth.

Personal Best: 800 1:45.88 (1976).

 Luis Medina Eliminated in first rounds of 800 and 1500  1:50.15 and 3:42.71
He had won the Pan Am Games 800 and was 3rd in the 1500 in 1975.

Juantorena's Bio from Sports-reference.com

Alberto Juantorena, known as El Caballo, or The Horse, began as a basketball player but was discovered as a sprinter and competed at the 1972 Olympics, making the semi-finals of the 400 metres. In 1973, Juantorena won the 400 at the Universiade and in 1975 won two silver medals - 400 metres and 4x400 metres relay (with [Eddy Gutierrez], Carlos Ãlvarez, and DÃmaso Alfonso) - at the Pan American Games. In 1976 he increased his range and won the 400 and 800 at the Montreal Olympics, the 800 in a world-record time of 1:43.50 and the 400 in a low-altitude world record of 44.26. In 1977, Juantorena won the 400 and 800 at the first World Cup of Athletics, and in that year set another world record in the 800, running 1:43.44 in Sofia at the Universiade.  In 1979 he won again silver in 400 metres and bronze with the 4x400 metres relay team (with Carlos Ãlvarez and the non-Olympians Pedro Tanis and Frank Montiah at the Pan American Games. At the Central American and Caribbean Games, Juantorena won the 400 in both 1974 and 1978, and the 800 in 1978 and 1982.

He was World Ranked #1 in the 400 in 1974, 1976, 1977, and 1978, and in the 800 in 1976-77, and was voted World Athlete of the Year in 1976 and 1977. Juantorena competed at the 1980 Olympics with less success and competed at the first World Athletics Championships in 1983, where he broke his foot after finishing his heat in the first round of the 800 when he stepped on the inner track border, after which he retired from competition. He has since become the Vice-Minister of Sports in Cuba.

Personal Bests: 400 44.26 (1976); 8001:43.44 (1977).

1972 Munich 400m   Round 1  45.94   (1)
                     Quarters            45.96   (2)
                     Semis                46.07   (5)

1976 Montreal 400m  Round 1  47.89   (3)
                      Quarters           45.92   (2)
                      Semis               45.10   (1)
                      Final                 44.26   (1)

1976   800m    Round 1  1:47.15 (1)
                       Semis     1:45.88 (1)
                       Final       1:43.50 (1) WR

1976   4x400    Final       3:03.81 (7)  44.7 split

1980 Moscow 400m  Round 1     46.98  (3)
                                Quarters    46.23  (2)
                                Semis        45.95  (3)
                                Final          45.09  (4)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtsTHhep_DA  Here's the double on youtube. Thanks to Steve Smith for the link.

Alberto's nephew  Osmany Juantorena Portundo was also an Olympian playing volleyball  in 2016  for Italy.
Same weight 187 but 6' 6.5"

"Juantourena ran 7 races in 7 days covering 2.5 miles in 8 minutes and 15 seconds, give or take a few seconds...mile split 3:18 and pace was about 18.18mph...I always wondered how much weight he lost...looks pretty skinny there...I saw the semi where he beat Wolhouter...he had a long stride...met him in Japan, got a pix but lord knows where that is...Russ"

In retrospect, our sport had very low fashion standards compared to others. I like that about T&F.

SVM

See the next post for a continuation of this article.