I think there is a part of truth in what HRE says, but he doesn't understand the real point.
If you want to prepare a minestrone, everybody can know exactly the what has to put inside : potatoes, beans, peas, cabbages, rice, broccoli, for example.
The question is : Why some minestrone has a better taste than another ? The ingredients are the same, BUT SOME DIFFERENCE, o course, there is.
May be the time used for cooking ? May be not the same ingredients are put in the water at the same time ? May be the quantity of every ingredient is different from one cook to another cook ?
So, practically NOTHING NEW IN THE INGREDIENTS.
Also if really something new there is (treadmills, alter G, machines for strength and recovery), we can't give the responsibility of the improvement in long distances to these Technologies, because the best (who are African) don't use anything like this.
What canged is the SYSTEM OF TRAINING.
It's not important if, in the past, somebody tried CASUALLY something we use today AS SYSTEM. The long run of 30 km during a Marathon of Bill Rodgers was, of sure, intensity as we used today, but in 1980 was ONE TIME, now is part of the system.
I tried something new, combined in some way ingredients all coaches knew, only with some particular athlete, in some particular period, AND THIS WAS NOT PART OF THE SYSTEM.
For example, with Shaheen we used running, at the end of the Fundamental Period, 5-6 times 1600m including 900m climbing + 300m downhill + 400m on track with 5 hurdles.
This was possible for the particular situation of the track in Kamarin (Iten), where 1200m before the track there is a road with those characteristics, and I had the idea TO USE WHAT WE HAD.
With Kenneth Kimwetich (1'43"03 / 2'13"49) I used, for 3 times (once every 3 weeks) during the Special and Specific period, a training including 5 times 500m as follows :
200m under 25" (as the start of a competition) + 100m bounding (under 15") + 200 final meters at max speed. In this way I wanted to increase the ability to recover fast fibers already tired. Long recovery (8'-10'), final best time under 66". Looking at the results (Kimwetich was already 30 years old), with Gianni Ghidini wi used the same training with Wilfred Bungei, William Yampoy and Gregory Konchellah (Kamel) : all them ran under 1'43", and Bungei won Olympics.
Did he won Olympics because of this training ? Of course NO. He won BECAUSE THE BALANCE IN HIS SYSTEMIC TRAINING.
So, the difference is in what we use SYSTEMATICALLY, not in one ingredient, already known in the past.
I'm 69, I was an athlete during the period 63-70, and of course I know the training systems of that period. I don't need somebody living in the past for reminding me what the top athletes did. I was a subscriptor of "How they Train" by Fred Wilt, I have all the numbers of "Track & Field, the Bible of Athletics", I have all the number of "Der Leichtathletik", so I well remember the COMMON Training.
We can divide the history of methodology in several periods :
1. The beginning of the Century. There was no knowledge about physiology, and training was only running. Who had more motivation and more strength, was able to train more. In the history of Dorando Pietri, winner (disqualified) of Marathon during OG 1908 in London, we can see he became professional going to compete in US, and in some case he ran, against the American winning Olympics, and against a champion representing the native people (redskins), every week, also a full Marathon indoor (Empire State Garden) where it was possible to bet, for the spectators, about the situation athletes can have every mile. There was no idea about recovery. The athletes continued to compete untill when their body was destroyed, after went home without training for several months.
2. The period in between the two Wars. Finnish athletes started to have some idea about training, the most part in the nature. It was the period when FARTLEK appeared, and was the first time runners used variations of speed.
In Germany, was also the period when the combination physiologist / coach (Gerschler / Reindell) gave scientific reasons for the INTERVAL-TRAINING, mainly used at that time by specialists of short distances.
3. The first 10 years after the second War ('45-'55). In this period, two figures did something new : EMIL ZATOPEK, running an incredible number of intervals with very short recovery (for example, 50 times 400m at 90% of his PB in 10000m with 30" recovery) and his long run with boots, and MIHAIL IGLOI, the first coach combined speed and volume, having the same success of Lydiard, success that couldn't bring to Olympic Gold only because of the Hungarian Revolution in 1956. Sandor Iharos was able to beat WR in 1500, 5000 and 10000m, and with him Sandor Rozsavolgyi and Laszlo Tabori had the same impact that, some year later, Snell, Walker, Dixon and Quax had on the World.
4. The period of Percy Cerutty, who found in Herb Elliot probably the most talented athlete ever (together Jim Ryun) for 1500m. Cerutty, not professional coach, practically ended to coach top runners after the retirement of Elliot, which happened in very unusual way : only 22, after winning Olympic Gold in Rome with the WR (in this, something as David Rudisha did in London in 800m).
Directly connected with Cerutty, but a little bit later, the history of Arthur Lydiard started.
He spoke about "Marathon training", avocating a large "Aerobic base" before going to the pecific quality. But really, this training can be good for every event, apart Marathon : nothing of specific for that event.
Lydiard had a great influence on all the coaches of the period, due to the successes of his athletes, and to the fact he was of English Language.
In Europe, during the same period, we had development of different schools, all connected with high mileage : in France with Frassinelli (Jazy ran sometimes 3 hours, starting every new season with very slow run), in Poland (with more intensity, producing top athletes as Jerzy Chromik and Krzystof Krzyszkowiak), in UK.
UK had a period with very high mileage, using winter, and the cross country season, as main motivation for developing qualities of endurance later used on track.
All the best athletes (also who later became a specialist of shorter distances) started in the school with long cross : Steve Ovett, Steve Cram (winning European Junior in Bydgoszcz '79 in 3000m), Seb Coe.
At the same time, they developed a system of CIRCUIT TRAINING looking at increasing of STRENGTH ENDURANCE, and this system was, later, used by North African athletes too, because is the best for 800-1500m (and also today, very little changed, and many changes made specific training worse in this direction...).
It was also the period of the great Portuguese runners : Fernando Mamede (WR holder of 10000m)and Carlos Lopes (winning of WCh in Cross Country, and Olympic Gold in the Marathon) followed, with different plans, the phylosophy of the great coach Moniz Pereira, who in my mind was the first lookin at the INTENSITY OF LONG INTERVALS.
5. A new period looking at higher intensity, WITH THE MISTAKE TO REDUCE DRAMATICALLY THE VOLUME. This was for making training more "comfortable" looking at the requests of new generations, which didn't have anymore the same will to use a lot of time for long run. But this fact, combined with the lack of general endurance due to a more sedentary type of life, REDUCED THE LEVEL OF RESULTS, and all the Western Countries (Europe, US and Oceania) went in the darkness, losing completing the clue of training.
6. The beginning of African athletes. Before, only some African had the opportunity to compete with some preparation, and their training was mainly in US, where they went to University. With the creation of WCh, and of a more professional athletics, they started to look at the opportunity to change their lives earning some money running. European managers (the first was Bicourt, immediately followed by Kim McDonald) started to support training camps, producing top athletes, that in short time were able to become the "black wave" dominating the World. The same happened in Ethiopia, also if in different way, directly under the control of the Federation (but the real input was the appearance of Gebrselassie, who organised together with Jos Hermens a system producing professional results).
African athletes had high aerobic level, because their normal life (in this, not different from the top US runners of the period '60-'80), and were able to increase the quality of their training.
However, if Ethiopians had in their culture the long run, Kenyans didn't have : they preferred runs of medium duration (30' - 1 hr max) at very high intensity, as a competition.
Looking at Marathon, the real explosion came after 1992, when the Italian Gabriele Rosa understood the potentiality of Kenyan runners for the longest event. He created several training camps, having the ability fo find a big budget from Fila, and the big adventure of Kenyan Marathon started.
7. The decline of long distances on track. After 2005, due to the beginning of the economic crisis in Europe, the budgets for big track meetings started to diminish. At the same time, the number of African looking at athletics for improving their level of life continued to raise. So, the market became every year more difficult, and more poor, for track runners of high level. This fact pushed Kenyan and Ethiopian runners of high quality, still Young, to move directly to long distances (may be one year in HM, second year immediately to Marathon).
Who had the opportunity to live in one of these Countries in the same period, could find athletes different from before : strong, young and fresh.
That's the reason because we could increase the VOLUME OF INTENSITY, and this school is now followed by all Kenya. The most important Group are in Iten, Kaptagat and Kapsabet, and, with some individual differences, everybody has similar programs, VERY DIFFERENT FROM THE PAST.
That's the history.