I was at the end of my sophomore year at Bellarmine. I had just finished last in the WCAL 2 mile. I had set a PB by a minute and was still lapped twice. I asked coach “Rocket Ray” Devlin what I should do, and he said, “You need to run a lot this summer.”
No definition.
My first real pair of running shoes, Onitsuka Tiger Cortez, 1974, I ran 1,100 miles in my pair (used super glue to rebuild heel), photo courtesy of Pinterest
So, over 3 weeks, I built up to sixteen miles a day. I would run to Lake Vasona from my house, walk around the lake, check out the huge catfish that swum around the island (only if I was there by 8am) and then, run home. I did that for 8 weeks, and then, after getting sick, cut back to 8 miles a day on a soft dirt track at Willow Glen.
Each day, my Mom signed a sheet on how much I had run. She had mapped out my daily run with the old Ford Grand Squire and I had a dime taped into the bottom of my Onitsuka Cortez training shoes, just in case, I got sick.
The summer mileage helped. I went from last to top 7 in cross country and 2nd man in the mile, 2 miles,s and 880. The miles helped.
It would take me years to understand the lessons i had learned about training that summer, but I had the bug!
Monday: light run, 30 minutes easy pace, stretch, 2 x 150 m stride-outs, light cooldown.
2021 RunBlogRun, week # 20, speed development, day 1
Monday: light run, 30 minutes easy pace, stretch, 2 x 150 m stride-outs, light cooldown.
Tuesday: warm-up (1 mile easy, stretch), 6 x 90 seconds, 3k pace, 2 minutes jogging in between every run, on a trail, with a 30-minute cooldown.
Wednesday: light run, 30 minutes easy pace, stretch, 2 x 150 m light cooldown.
Thursday: warm-up (1 mile easy, stretch), 8 x 45 seconds, 4 x 150m stride-outs, cooldown
Friday: light run, 30 minutes easy pace, stretch, 2 x 150 m stride-outs, light cooldown.
Saturday: warm-up (1 mile easy, stretch), 12 x 35 seconds, at 800m pace, 2-minute jogging, on trails, cooldown.
Sunday: Long run, 50-55 minutes, at a conversational pace
Author
Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys. Theme song: Greg Allman, " I'm no Angel."
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