THE TRAINING LEGACY OF EMIL ZATOPEK 1922-2000

MUCH was written recently about the superb achievements of Emil Zatopek on the track, but he should also be remembered for his revolutionary approach to running - something runners of all standards can learn from.

In the 1950s Zatopek was virtually unbeatable, combining huge workloads with intensive speed sessions to break world records and win gold medals.

On the track he is best remembered for his three gold medals - in the 5000m, 10000m and marathon - at the 1952 Olympics. Off it, it is his work ethic that stands out.

At first glance punishing training sessions like Zatopek's legendary 40x400m intervals seem to have no relevance to the average runner. The key is to look beyond the numbers.

Uncover the underlying principles of the unorthodox methods below and you too can learn from the master:

Use intervals to sustain speed - Zatopek's 40x400m session was legendary. While the numbers aren't worth thinking about for us mere mortals, the principles are. Breaking up a distance into intervals means a runner can sustain a higher speed for longer ...and so race longer.

Go to extremes in training - Once while on guard duty Zatopek held his breath so long he collapsed and had to be revived. Again, that's an extreme course of action for all but the maddest runner these days but in reality Zatopek had realised that by training his system to cope with limited air more efficiently he could become faster when he had a full supply. Nowadays athletes prefer altitude training in the thin air of the Alps or Rockies but the principles are the same.

Try resistance training - A favourite session of Zatopek's was to run in boots, often on the spot for hours on end. In these days of cushioned shoes that may not be the wisest thing to do but again Zatopek was leading the way, this time in the field of resistance training. The athletes of today such as Kelly Holmes who uses a stepper in the gym know how important such training is for achieving their goals.

Race at your own pace - Runners of all standards are often frightened by race pace. If they are ahead of a pre-determined speed they panic and often end up running slower than they had hoped. Kenyans see the folly of this thinking and so did Zatopek. Running the 1952 Olympic marathon he asked himself: "Is this too slow". When he decided it was he didn't imagine it was gamesmanship he just simply ran faster. He won. He took distance running where it had never been before simply by running how he felt. Half a century later the East Africans are beating the world with the same stick.

Add shorter bursts - Zatopek's genius was to refine his interval sessions, something you can do with very little effort. He worked out that simply running 10, 20, 30 or more 400m efforts wasn't good enough. He needed to break them up with faster efforts to simulate the start and finish. He added 10x200m before and after to hone his finishing speed. It worked. Emil Zatopek reminded all athletes that the body adapts to hard work and grows stronger. His simple techniques were brutally effective, quite simply they made him the greatest distance runner the world has ever seen.