140 miles per week.

It completely matters is he is real or not. If this is just someone making up a story, (bravo if you did by the way, you had people, including myself, going for quite a while) then the credibility is completely lost. Like somone said earlier, it's like a science experiement, the more varifiable results you have from a certain set of circumstances, the better the certainty of your hypothesis is. Really, I see very few numbers of success stories based off of this hypothesis compared to some of the more traditional views on training involving periods of high mileage and periods of more race specific work and a peaking period. Personally I'm a fan of lots of mileage, like I said earlier I've never run 140 and might never, but I could certainly see myself hitting 120 or so at some point. Personally I became suspicious after I was attacked for asking a very innocent question about how he works with his coach on his training program or if he just does his own thing. My vote right now is fake, anyone else care to chime in on this one?

blah blah blah blah

I think we've been hadd....or is it jk'ed???

This has been a great thread, and I appreciate NFM's story true or untrue. Once A Runner IS fiction, but you all are inspired by that. I have read enough books and training logs to believe his story can happen and has happenned, even if the details aren't exact. Look at all the old school runners, Rodgers, Salazar, Snell, Flemming, the list goes on and on. They just got out there, believed in themselves and the work they put in. They put in high mileage and ran how they felt, all without the bells and whistles we have today, gu, dual density, midfoot shanks, drifit, heart rate monitors, gps, ipods. So you can either believe in and be inspired by this system, or be a sceptic. The reality is the work has already been done for us, this is what works.

[quote]HRE wrote:

My best racing came in the years when I'd do 130-150 during the summer. I paid no attention to pace. If I felt good I'd run fast, if not I'd run slow. The heat and humidity usually kept the intensity failry low. Come autumn, with shorter

DUDE, i admaire all the work you did and the way you did it but what kind of times did you run?

NFM said he was a junior, remember?

I don't know where he went, but it was fun while it lasted.

Listening to NFM say he ran 140 seems insane, then I think about Lindgren, what a cook.

Anyway, looks like this thread's over.

Its NOT "a magic"number by no means ... 140 mpw became "bread and butter" for me during the seventies because of the break down in training sessions (@ 10 miles per session) ... its really not about the volume of mileage ... my high was 210 mpw and the lowest I ever prepared for a marathon was 90-100 mpw .... its about the "pace/tempo" that you run these miles per week!

At my prime I was running @ 140-150 mpw at about 5:40-55 per mile average I guess ... some 10 mile runs had "pickup miles" at 4:32-4:40 pace in the middle. Its the balance of training .. the "easy" distance days, the intergration of "speed" or fast tempo into your longer efforts ex: (4x2000m at marathon race pace, etc) this can be done on the track or roads or park paths ... its the individual athlete too. Some people just break down ... I was lucky ... mileage made me faster from the mile to the marathon.

.Speed is Strength in Disguise

TF

TFFlyer wrote:

... my high was 210 mpw and the lowest I ever prepared for a marathon was 90-100 mpw .... its about the "pace/tempo" that you run these miles per week!

At my prime I was running @ 140-150 mpw at about 5:40-55 per mile average I guess ... some 10 mile runs had "pickup miles" at 4:32-4:40 pace in the middle.

TF

Okay, that's very damn impressive. Clearly you were extremely durable.

This has to to be Tom Fleming. Because I don't know how anyone could run those type of miles at those paces and NOT run 2:12 or under (actually, surprised you did not run 2:10/11. That's not a criticism, just saying your training suggests you coulda done it)

Tom Fleming could have run 2:10 if he had run on a fast course like Chicago... If memory serves, Tom ran mostly at NYC and Boston. I'm sure he'll correct me, if I'm mistaken.

This will be my last post.

I have given you everything you wanted about training. Say I am not real, whatever you want. I never even wanted attention. I run a lot, I run slow, and I race fast enough to make others hate me apprently. I have misslead those who are trying to find my identity with small minuet details, mostly because you guys are predictable, and I knew it was a matter of time untill a full grown man who lives in his mother's basement stays up late one night figuring out on one hand who i could be.

To tell you the truth, after people strated bitching that I was fake and then saying that my training was crap I stopped reading all together after that, I told you everything you needed to know, get over yourselves. Am I American? am I English, Irish?...Hell might be from Canadia. Maybe I am Bruce Hyide, maybe even the elusive JK? Does it really even matter? My times were give or take a couple of seconds, promise you that... I am very real. They actully even faster now. I have been waiting for that contiuned drop in my up distance PRs. My shorter distances seemingly have been the only things effected after the first major drop in all my times. Now, some year after my last up PR, i had a big break thru once more. It just takes a couple of boring years of patience. I find it funny, yet angering at the same time that you guys say I am fake, and you give a list of all these reason why. can you see how to me you just look freakn' CRAZY? you see what you want to. Some see a liar, some see good training. Which are you? I'm not gunna lie about my training. This is very very very hard way, but it works. It is not a very easy life to led either. It makes no sense while you are doing it. You have to continue to step back and look at the big picture. You have to look, and know...not think, know what it will really get you faster. What is faster? What is stronger? how change actually takes plac ein you legs to get you there? some think it is running faster each day than the day before. some think its running more than the day before.

the real truth is hard to swallow. The only true way to ensure that you will get better is to do more than anyone else, and to do it smarter than anyone else. I have outlined my training, this is what I do. I gurantee it is higher than 99% of you, yet slower than 85% of you. You see what you want to, maybe the same goes for me, but this is what makes sense to me, it has worked. Yes a few months ago I was second guessing it. I was getting fatser mile and 800 times, but my true passion distances weren't really, in fact I was 10+ seconds slower most times out. I thought I peaked already in my career, thought about staying down permently. Then half a year and boom, back at it. It was hard to do, but in hindsight I had no other choice, and to the talentless 99% of you out there (like me)there is no other choice except work hard.

Who are you going to be? The man who needs to find faults in everything that seems hard and scary because you don't know if you have th guts to truly take it on? or are you going to be the man who throws all caution in the wind and says "I sick of being slow" and just f***ing does it? I made my choice, and though the training sucked;it played a lot of mental games, it worked and it has continued to work. I pray for the best for you guys, I am done speaking on this issue. If you have questions about all my training (because you seem to keep asking the same ones over and over again) my 'secrets' to being injury free, my lack of tapering, my mileage in and out of seasons, my coach's stance, my workouts. It has all been said before, re-read, I don;t care. I'm not real? HA! good luck if you feel there are easy ways out, and everyone is screwing with you...because after all, that is the 'real' thing keeping you from running fast isn't it? Im sure you will be happy the reast of your life knowing that you never even gave yourself a chance.

I am done, and will never post again on this site, nor any others. I did, and look what happend. I second guessed my training, and I even thought for a minute I wasn't real. You guys are friggn' crazy, I truly believe it.

Now rip this post apart. It is yours for the taking. I am full aware (and have been from the beginning) that there is nothing I can say to convince the weak that I am real and that my training has worked for me and the few others who have tried it.

-Free

Thanks for the posts you made - I appreciated this thread.

Lots of respect to you bro. I think this might be the best thread in letsrun history thanks to your contributions. Good luck with the rest of your track season.

I don't remember seeing how easy your morning runs and actual easy runs are. Can you please reiterate those?

Guys ... you can do anything you want if you work hard and have strong goals, the desire to acheive them and the passion to see it through to the end! I retired at 37 yrs old because I was tired of training, and there were better ways to make money ... I really missed the racing thing for a year or so, but then got over it.

140 mpw is NOT easy ... 52 weeks in one year you know! I always had a couple weeks a year off and would balloon up to 170 lbs ... and then get back to it!

The LA Marathon course was hard (2:13) hills everywhere in '81 .. NYC and BAA are the Holy Grails of American marathons ... and Chicago is damn fast!

later, TF

NIKE FREE ME - Thanks for the follow up my friend. Best of luck with your running!

Question for Tom (TFFLyer):

Bottom line - is the sub 2:15 realm only for the super talented or can a half decent runner get there if they are prepared to put in the work over many years?

Many thanks for your posts.

There is something NIKE FREE ME could do to stop people from questioning whether or not he is real, he could tell us who he is. Although I don't blame him for not doing it, because I'm not gonna do it either even though I beleive it would lend legitimacy to many of my posts.

Also, I'm at least reversing a little bit of my stance from my previous posts on this thread. I'm not about to start running 140 miles a week, I beleive that my current volume is good, however I am taking a lesson from the story, real or fake. I'm taking the lesson of complete devotion which is something that I had been missing recently, and attempting to re-apply it to my training and get back to where I ought to be. So real or not, I'll take that away from this story.

Thanks for posting again, NIKE FREE ME. You know what, your last post was the best one.

I've been watching this site for awhile waiting for this thread to pop up again with an update from you on how your times have progressed. In actuality it doesn't really matter for mine or anyone else's training what times you were able to manage...we're either going to do it, or not do it...

Best of luck with your training in the future.

once in a rare while I might hit that....but bascially tried to stay between 100 and 120 during heavy training cycle. 140 per week is not necessary, though many top runners of the 70's did it at times in the seasonal cycle, including top milers of the day like Jerome Howe at K-State. A little more quality/fast running, is better than 'more miles/slow running', I think as I look back in retrospect.