https://www.ultrarunning.com/features/ted-corbitt-an-ultrarunning-pioneer/UR: How often did you do 200 miles in a week, and for how long and when?
TC: I started this early in my marathon career but I only did it for one week. It happened on a Labor Day weekend—I would do 30 miles a day for seven consecutive days. On the weekdays I had to run after work, which made it tough. Later, I did it twice a year. In 1956, I did 200 miles a week for the months of January, February, and into March. This was a preparation for the Olympic marathon trials in 1956. In March I went to a 30-km race in New England and I did not have any speed; one of my teammates, John Connelly beat me- I said was overtrained (but improved) and he apologized. It made me feel terrible.
UR: Are you saying that the long 200-mile weeks did not necessarily pay off?
TC: They can and they did. It is just that I had not prepared for the marathon but that woke me up. This is one of the disadvantages of training by yourself. That is, you are not always doing what you think you are doing in terms of form and so forth and it’s very easy to train too hard for too long. That’s what happened to me in this March race. Coming up in April was the Boston Marathon (the first of two Olympics trials). So I started doing some speed work every day up to the day of the race, which I finished in 2:28:06 for sixth place.
UR: So ultimately the high mileage helped you?
TC: Yes, I think there is a place for 200-mile weeks for some runners who can build up to it. I built up to it and had great success. Some runners have observed that they run faster times after a long race. One New York ultrarunner ran a six-day race and then ran PRs in all the shorter races that followed that summer. I ran faster after long workouts. So I continued to run 30-mile workouts, but I eventually cut down on the number of them. I always tried to run one before my first marathon of the season. At some point I realized I did not need to do this anymore, but I ran one anyway, although sometimes I delayed it until the last possible day because I really did not want to do it. By then I was running ultras and I would run to work. Sometimes I would come up to Van Cortland Park and run 17 miles on the track and then run downtown to work to make a 30-mile day.
UR: Do you regret your training methods or do you think they were best for you? Would you have done anything differently?
TC: No, I learned about the body as I went along and at the time I did the high mileage it was all right. I was doing a lot of experimenting. Looking back, I realize that I had gotten good advice, though I did not know at the time that it was good advice and I had to find it out for myself. The good advice was to rest more. I would do the long runs again, but I would make a point of breaking off. You see, the fault of long running is that if you don’t come out of it in time, then you won’t run as fast as you are capable of running. For example, in 1956 I was training high mileage for Boston and, not having switched over to racing speed, I ran a poor 30-km training race. I could have run all day possibly but I could not run any faster.
UR: Were you working full-time when you were putting in high mileage?
TC: Yes, 40 hours a week. [Ted has been a physical therapist from 1948 to the present.] The only time I took off from work was to go to the Boston Marathon. Otherwise I just took my regular vacation time for trips and races. Some Boston Marathons were on Saturdays, which was not a day off in New York. So I would have to take the day off to run it.
UR: Was all your training on paved surfaces?
TC: No. I ran some cross-country trails in Van Cortlandt Park, and on the grass in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, where I made up a half-mile loop on the meadow that I used every time I went there. There were not many runners around and I figured it was better in terms of contact with the police to run in that area. In Highland Park in Brooklyn I also ran on the grass. I started running mostly on paved surfaces when I went to work in Manhattan. I would run through the streets in street clothes and street shoes.
UR: Did your training include any non-running activities?
TC: Other than weight training, no. I did stretching, but I would consider that just part of training, to warm up. I did weight training early on, before most runners would do it. It was done as part of an experimental physical therapy program. I was not the first runner to do this. The main reason other runners did not train with weights was that their coaches prevented it. At that time they did not know enough about proper training with weights.
UR: How about any other activity, like playing baseball?
TC: After I got out of high school, I did not play much more baseball. I did not do any other activity other than walking. I used to start each cross-country season with long walks, up to 28 miles. I had always walked to and from school and when I was injured in running I would walk to and from work and so forth.
UR: Would you do anything specific in preparation for a 50-mile race, such as extra long workouts? Shorter races?
TC: For races up to 30 miles my marathon training would suffice. My first 50-miler was the London-to-Brighton race and I would increase the amount of running that I did. By that time I was routinely running 100 miles or more per week. I gradually increased the amount and got up to 200-mile weeks. But this was probably the first time I did a 300-mile week. Manhattan Island is just over 31 miles around the edge and I started this on the Labor Day long weekend by running twice around each day. I had decided that if I could not do this, then I would not go to England. On the second lap I started getting pains at old muscle injury sites, but got to a certain point and the pain went away. On the third day the pain in my knee persisted so I stopped with ten miles to go—it was very hilly coming up the West Side and I decided I was satisfied. So most of the mileage was done in the other three days. I did this 300-mile training week at Labor Day every year after that whether I went to London or not.
HRE wrote:
PS,
I'd bet heavily that Ted Corbitt got to that sort of mileage fairly regularly.