Gerry Lindgren opened up 10 mile training run with 4:08 mile

Thats pretty crazy but you never know with Gerry as he isn't the most reliable. However i have heard about him training similar to this.

Thats pretty crazy but you never know with Gerry as he isn't the most reliable. However i have heard about him training similar to this.

I read the same thing in an interview by him. He said his coach gave him this workout, the purpose was to run an all out first mile, then hang on and run the next 9 as a time trial.

You guys do not know the half of it! The workout was to achieve a best time at every noteable distance (i.e. 400m, 800m, mile, 2 mile, 5k, etc)for the 10 miles.

I've heard first hand that that Gerry opened in 50.2 for 400m and was through 800m in 145.8. Clearly things started to deteriorate after that as he was only 4:08 at the mile.

I'm not sure what the other splits are so please post if you know.

Keep in mind this was on the roads gentlemen, not a super fast track like we see today. The guy was an animal.

My training partner and were running a 2 mile time trial at UCLA, and another one of his friends joined us who didn't like running on the track.

The two of us came in at a decent time for us, and the other fellow came dragging in quite a ways behind, cussing and swearing, mumbling abouto needing to study, and kept running the same pace past the finish line, straight towards the wall at the end of the track. He bounced off the wall, turned around and came running back towards us, continued on running the 330 or so yards back around the wrong direction, continued through the gate, and disappeared in the distance.

My friend saw other guy still running that afternoon, several hours later, and he still hadn't stopped.

you're an idiot if you believe anything he says

I heard he kept on going for another 15 miles and was on sub-2 marathon pace before he blacked out with about a mile to go.

Gold = wrote:

you're an idiot if you believe anything he says

Why? Opening up a 10 mile run in 4:08 isn't out of this world. Every current pro runner could do that so why couldn't Gerry? Is it really impossible to open up a run at 3200/5000m pace? Seems like a great workout to get used to running with dead legs.

kslsl wrote:

Why? Opening up a 10 mile run in 4:08 isn't out of this world. Every current pro runner could do that so why couldn't Gerry? Is it really impossible to open up a run at 3200/5000m pace? Seems like a great workout to get used to running with dead legs.

I bet he couldn't have stayed with McDougal the last 5 miles when he tempo'ed in 23:05!!

He only ran that fast because someone told him that his family was chasing him. He always ran fastest when he was running from responsibility.

wife and kids wrote:

He only ran that fast because someone told him that his family was chasing him. He always ran fastest when he was running from responsibility.

They drove him batty.

kslsl wrote:

Why? Opening up a 10 mile run in 4:08 isn't out of this world. Every current pro runner could do that so why couldn't Gerry? Is it really impossible to open up a run at 3200/5000m pace? Seems like a great workout to get used to running with dead legs.

Look at all the other things he says; running 300 miles a week, having been en route to a sub-2 hour marathon before he decided to quit a few miles before the finish line. The guy is either psychotic or a liar and probably both.

Gerry Lindgren was inspirational. He trained very hard. We know his placings and the times he ran in those races. The rest does not matter at all. He was one of the great runners of his era.

Gold = wrote:

kslsl wrote:

Why? Opening up a 10 mile run in 4:08 isn't out of this world. Every current pro runner could do that so why couldn't Gerry? Is it really impossible to open up a run at 3200/5000m pace? Seems like a great workout to get used to running with dead legs.

Look at all the other things he says; running 300 miles a week, having been en route to a sub-2 hour marathon before he decided to quit a few miles before the finish line. The guy is either psychotic or a liar and probably both.

So what? Those things are irrelevant to this particular run by him.

For a runner of his caliber, do you really think he couldn't run a 4:08 and then keep going? Any runner of his level should be able to do that. You have no idea what you're talking about if you think otherwise.

Regarding those other things, why does someone have to be psychotic or a liar to run 300mpw? Plenty of people run 200+ mpw and do just fine. Why couldn't one of the best runners IN THE WORLD handle 300mpw?

Your recollection of his marathon tale is very poor. It says more about your lack of intelligence and critical thinking than it does about whether or not he really did it.

250 mile weeks. Hmm.. overtraining is just as bad as undertraining.

BTW, is he promoting a book or something?

Tired of these anecdotes or rather tall tales.

He's a good runner and didn't he beat Pre once in Hawaii? No mention of that? Instead stories about running at night and running with jean shorts? And how he couldn't open a door on his own? Come on!

Frankly, Shorter's story is much more interesting.

Gold = wrote:

kslsl wrote:

Why? Opening up a 10 mile run in 4:08 isn't out of this world. Every current pro runner could do that so why couldn't Gerry? Is it really impossible to open up a run at 3200/5000m pace? Seems like a great workout to get used to running with dead legs.

Look at all the other things he says; running 300 miles a week, having been en route to a sub-2 hour marathon before he decided to quit a few miles before the finish line. .

Some lady just ran 300 miles in 3 days. What proof do you have that he couldn't run 4:34 pace for 90 minutes?

it may have happened wrote:

Gold = wrote:

Look at all the other things he says; running 300 miles a week, having been en route to a sub-2 hour marathon before he decided to quit a few miles before the finish line. .

Some lady just ran 300 miles in 3 days. What proof do you have that he couldn't run 4:34 pace for 90 minutes?

Ain't that the fvckin truth.

I can't speak to this specific workout. As with any athlete it is difficult to prove what one did or didn't do short of filming the event, or having an authoritative source to time it.

But I DO have some verified workouts from people very closely associated with Gerry.

One was a workout he did in prep for the US-USSR 10,000. The workout was repeat 1320s, with the first 440 in 70, the second in 60 and the third in 70, to train him to throw in those midrace surges he became known for. The workout is still the stuff of legend in the Spokane area.

I also have on record from a college teammate of his, that Gerry did quite a bit of training by himself, but when he joined the team on 10 mile runs, he routinely ran them under 50 minutes. This teammmate believes that while Gerry wasn't doing quite so many miles as he claimed, he DID do a great deal of high quality running during his college years.

i always drink to world peace