Bill Rodgers 1975 log.

Always fascinating and humbling to read his logs. Thanks for sharing.

Yes!

Thanks Hodgie! refreshing post... not a word about golfers

I find it interesting that in just starting with the first full week that he ran 16 miles at 11:15am and then 13 miles at 3:30pm. It worked for him but I would interested in the recovery between these runs.

my take is Bill and runners of his era didn't get bogged down by strict training schedules and such. Instead they knew if they trained hard they'd get better...we should all lose some of the science and just run.

Time factor wrote:

I find it interesting that in just starting with the first full week that he ran 16 miles at 11:15am and then 13 miles at 3:30pm. It worked for him but I would interested in the recovery between these runs.

I have seen stories of a mythical 201-mile week before the 1975 WCCC and Boston Marathon. I have even seen it written out day-by-day one time (probably on here). I don't see it in the buildup to '75 Boston and I don't see it in late 1974.

So is it just a myth?

Not that it matters much at all anyway, there is nothing magic about a 201-mile week. I was just curious if it did happen, because ofter the youngsters wonder how BR was so good and inevitably "mega-miles" are put forth as the answer. And while he certainly ran 130-140-150 mile weeks very consistently it doesn't look like he was trying to hit magic figures any of the time. It looks more like, if he was "trying" to do anything, he was trying to run about 18-25 miles a day in two runs and not much else. There is very little mention of the pace on distance runs and the intervals are rare and not that strict/structured.

I have been a fan of BR since I started running in 1978 at age 11 and this is just an observation and not a critique.

I was looking for the same thing; I think I found it, though. The total from Friday January 3 to Thursday January 9 is - I believe 201. So he did do it, but in a seven day period. I had read that after he did that, his mileage fell and he ran a lot of hard 5 to 8 miles, like at 5 minute pace. I don't see those runs, though. Not much formal speed work leading up to Boston - or to WXC. Excellent, excellent excellent stuff.

Thank you Hodge and BR.

Bob,

Thanks so much.

The lack of track "workouts" had alot to do with the lack of availabe facilities, especially in winter.

There were a few good tracks at universities in Boston back in the day but the availability of the facilities to post collegiate runners was nebulous.

When Greg Meyer came to town and Alberto Salazar was back from UofO the quality of the workouts picked up.

Most were moderate and everyone discouraged racing in workouts.

BR addresses this in his book which I would certainly recommend.

MI kid from the 80s wrote:

there is nothing magic about a 201-mile week.

agree 100%. what you record in your running logs and journals doesn't really matter in the long run (no pun intended)..its how you preform on race day that does. rather BR did 100 or 200 a week it's the results he got that will and should be remembered, not his weekly numbers (although there're REALLY great!) thanks Hodgie!!

MI kid from the 80s wrote:And while he certainly ran 130-140-150 mile weeks very consistently it doesn't look like he was trying to hit magic figures any of the time. It looks more like, if he was "trying" to do anything, he was trying to run about 18-25 miles a day in two runs and not much else. There is very little mention of the pace on distance runs and the intervals are rare and not that strict/structured.

What aren't you understanding about "hard"?

please read the right column wrote:

What aren't you understanding about "hard"?

Did you actually read any of his post at all before responding? Because the part you are objecting to here isn't clear. Nobody said a word about running hard or easy

Hodgie-San,

Do you speak with Dickie Mahoney at all these days? I saw his logs from 1978 where he averaged 128 miles a week with almost 3 weeks off that year. The log wasn't too detailed but he did post daily.

The guy was also a fulltime mailman. Very hardcore.

Was around in that era wrote:

Hodgie-San,

Do you speak with Dickie Mahoney at all these days? I saw his logs from 1978 where he averaged 128 miles a week with almost 3 weeks off that year. The log wasn't too detailed but he did post daily.

The guy was also a fulltime mailman. Very hardcore.

Have not spoke with Dickie directly in a long time. I did have a chance to catch up through his son who I have seen at various running events including Falmouth this year.

Dickie was also a very successful coach at Boston College during his tenure there.

Could you imagine if more elite american runners had the balls to train like this now!

please read the right column wrote:

MI kid from the 80s wrote:And while he certainly ran 130-140-150 mile weeks very consistently it doesn't look like he was trying to hit magic figures any of the time. It looks more like, if he was "trying" to do anything, he was trying to run about 18-25 miles a day in two runs and not much else. There is very little mention of the pace on distance runs and the intervals are rare and not that strict/structured.

What aren't you understanding about "hard"?

I am not missing anything about "hard" ... I know now that no matter how well you write, no matter how carefully you articulate your opinion, no matter how fine a point you put on it, somebody on LR is going to be a prick about it and try to show you up. I wish I could let it roll off my back, but I can't.

I saw all the references to "hard", "OK", "easy", "slow" and I know what those all mean. (It seemed like OK was used the most) But I don't know what those all mean to Bill Ro, so it isn't "pace" that is mentioned ... it is effort.

If my coach asked me "What pace did the group do the 10-miler in?" "OK" is not the answer he is looking for.

I love seeing the old logs as they are such an interesting window into different ways that it got done. I think anybody not familiar with BR at all would not have guessed that his training has almost no mention of runs at 5:00-pace and interval workouts that a solid college runner could usually do, and some morning it was a 5 mile easy run, and some mornings 18 miles at "OK" pace. Then he goes out and runs THIRD in a stacked field at WCCC (leading most of it!!). I had always thought that if he had "discovered" his amazing durability and ability earlier in life and had been able to not have to race for money so frequently, that he could have run 27:30-27:40 in a Euro race if he had focused on it.

Years ago when Chris Lear was going to get Meyer's logs from 1983 and post them on Bob's site, he said that he didn't have time to transcribe them into a typed-out document (they were too rough to scan in as-is), I was the one who volunteered and typed a years worth of workouts into a WORD document and sent it off to Lear. Now that is on Bob's site.

I am a collegiate runner running 40-50 miles a week and closing most runs at 5:10-5:20 pace for 3-4 miles. Makes me wonder how good I could be if I put in that much.

Every time I saw "only ran once-shit!" I smiles, as well as "dogshit horseshit farty new england weather!"

There's been some mythologizing on this but I now see where Bill did indeed run 200 miles in a 7 day period- Friday Jan. 3 to Thursday Jan. 9th. And in fact, since Thursday's PM run says: "14+" it gets rounded up to 201.

So there's your 200 mile week.

Here's a recent thread where a poster put down a totally inaccurate Jan. '75 week, mixing up certain days and/or getting some out of sequence.

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&id=2722827&thread=2721884

I love this stuff. None of this worrying about VO2 maxes and whatnot, just run baby. Look on the part where he mentions the world XC race, it says "12k (?)" under the mileage section...as if he wasn't even concerned with exactly how far he was RACING. Just went out there and ran his ass off. That is awesome.