from the Brit Miler page on Bowerman's death in 99.....
BILL BOWERMAN
1911-1999
In 1964 Bowerman’s system of training was
revealed. He had practised it for 10 years
before at Oregon University with great
success. In 1962 four of his athletes broke the
world record for 4x1 mile with 16:09. His
athletes were to break the American junior
and senior 5k records, the national threequarters
of a mile and 2,000 metres records
and also the 20k record. He coached one sub
4-minute miler every year for 20 years.
His system of training was as follows:
a) A pace was fixed at the start of each month
on the track. For example, 75-seconds per 400
in December.
b) Each month the pace increased by 2-
seconds.
c) The total number of repetitions were twice
the racing distance in the first week, three
times in the second, twice in the third and
three times in the fourth. For example, if the
athlete was training for the mile, he might do
8x400 in the first week and 12 x 400 in the
second.
d) The recovery time (jog) after repetitions
followed a weekly pattern: -1st week – jog
same distance of rep. 2nd week – Jog half
distance of rep. 3rd and 4th weeks – Jog a
quarter distance of rep. If we use rep. 400s as
an example, this would be: - 8x400, jog 400
1st week. 12x400, jog 200 2nd week. 8x400
jog 100 3rd week. 12x400 jog 100 4th week.
e) Track training occurred twice a week allyear-
round.
f) Fartlek was done four times a week of
which two were severe.
g) The rep. distances used ranged through
100m, 200m, 300m and 400m to 600m.
h) If the selected pace on the track could not
be achieved in all sessions for the entire
month, the month had to be repeated before
moving on to a faster month.
i) A deviation from the above plan was given
to advanced athletes where the track session
started at a set pace and each repetition got
faster, for example, 8x400 (75-72-70-68-66-