Christo Landry Talks Training: 150 Miles Week, 32 Mile Long Run

He trains like the Japanese train and it works pretty well for them. 150mpw and over distance runs, it's something more Americans should be doing. You don't just train for a 5k or 10k by running 3 or 6 miles. If you excel in the half marathon, I'd bet you're doing 16-18 milers. Why not go over 26.2 in training so the full distance A) isn't as overwhelming and B) you train your aerobic capacity at a very high level.

riley stops wrote:

He trains like the Japanese train and it works pretty well for them. 150mpw and over distance runs, it's something more Americans should be doing. You don't just train for a 5k or 10k by running 3 or 6 miles. If you excel in the half marathon, I'd bet you're doing 16-18 milers. Why not go over 26.2 in training so the full distance A) isn't as overwhelming and B) you train your aerobic capacity at a very high level.

Exactly. Ppl here love to dismiss running longer than 26.2 mi on long runs. But the replies never have substance. i.e. - One needs some speed to race it well. Well, you REALLY need speed as a miler. So maybe they should dismiss their distance runs altogether.

At some point of the cycle in the very least- like the base-training phase- Long runs over 26.2 miles would seem hugely beneficial. If rec runners can do marathons, then pros can hit a few runs longer.

Christo went sub 2'10....then.....So what??? so many guys are goingunder 2'05 nowdays. 2'10 is really good if we were still leaving in the 70's or early 80's.

sub 2'10 wrote:

Christo went sub 2'10....then.....So what??? so many guys are goingunder 2'05 nowdays. 2'10 is really good if we were still leaving in the 70's or early 80's.

If Christo goes sub 2:10, he does what very few Americans have done in a marathon other than Boston. It encourages his generation to emulate his commitment and training.

sub 2'10 wrote:

Christo went sub 2'10....then.....So what??? so many guys are goingunder 2'05 nowdays. 2'10 is really good if we were still leaving in the 70's or early 80's.

He'd be one of the top US marathoners and have a very good shot at running in the Olympics. Plus, look at Meb and Kiprotich, sub-2:10 is good enough to win on the right day.

ttc wrote:

long on the tooth wrote:

If it was just a simple formula of adding more miles to run faster over the marathon distance it would be done , thats the problem. Its far more complex.

There is no real physiological principle that shows running over 26 miles in a single training run will allow you to run faster. Its theory , its building a comfort zone of belief , if I run this much then this will happen, run 150 miles a week and become world class ? Clearly our american system of coaching faster elite marathoners is at fail. My attitude it lets examine what it going to take to really run faster , others around the world are , why cannot we be a part of the faster global elite ?

Then given that reply, 10K'ers could just run 40 mpw.

Wow you don't get it , train and race as a 10k athlete at the elite level which would be 90-100 miles a week , add some longer runs quality runs your there.

Ho Hum wrote:

sub 2'10 wrote:

Christo went sub 2'10....then.....So what??? so many guys are goingunder 2'05 nowdays. 2'10 is really good if we were still leaving in the 70's or early 80's.

He'd be one of the top US marathoners and have a very good shot at running in the Olympics. Plus, look at Meb and Kiprotich, sub-2:10 is good enough to win on the right day.

Ok , what does his 2:14 from today tell us , what were his splits over the last 6 miles ?

Tell like it is wrote:

Ho Hum wrote:

He'd be one of the top US marathoners and have a very good shot at running in the Olympics. Plus, look at Meb and Kiprotich, sub-2:10 is good enough to win on the right day.

Ok , what does his 2:14 from today tell us , what were his splits over the last 6 miles ?

Let's avg his splits out vs the ppl running under 150 mpw.

That's pretty much in line with his other results, no? I can't say I've followed him much other than his road results this summer.

Splits show he hit the half in 1:06, so he must've realized he wasn't in 2:10 shape pretty early on.

BUDDY EDELEN was faster than Christo. :-(

Buddy also, worked full time and ran with shoes as heavy as a soccer shoes

The shoes in the picture (link below) don't look as heavy as soccer shoes

"Wilt was an ambitious coach who was hoping to spot talented young athletes with a strong work ethic in a bid to improve the standard of distance running in the States, which, with the exception of Johnny Kelly and Nick Costes in the late 1950′s, had fallen behind world standards. He was influenced by the tough training regimes of Jim Peters and Emil Zatopek. His idea was simple but brutal; utilise Zatopek’s sessions of high intervals, with Peters’ regular hard running at race pace, then throw in a weekly long run at marathon distance for good measure! In Buddy Edelen, he had a runner with the commitment to put those ideas into practice."

Sounds like Canova stole the hard training regime that Fred Wilt planned for Buddy?

http://eightlane.org/blog/2013/10/25/leonard-buddy-edelen/

Ho Hum wrote:

That's pretty much in line with his other results, no? I can't say I've followed him much other than his road results this summer.

Splits show he hit the half in 1:06, so he must've realized he wasn't in 2:10 shape pretty early on.

Hmm , I would guess maybe over-trained , a marathon is just not a place to experiment with training. It fails more times than not. Lets hope a lesson learned and not this type of approach as he gets ready for the trials.

Landry compares favorably vs most under 150 mpw.

Ritz was a 5K AR holder, with a good 10K & 13.1mi. Good thing he didn't abandon track fitness, when he disappointed in his first couple 26.2's.

To me, you need some track fitness, but also to handle the 26.2 mi volume, which very well can only come by running 26.2+ mi.

Before one top level Marathon Kenny Moore and Frank Shorter did a long run together. Shorter did 20 miles and Moore continued on to complete 35 miles.

Then Shorter demolished Moore in the race.

Over distance is not really a great idea for a Marathon runner.

You're better off not knowing about those last 6 miles until race day.

Le Chapeau wrote:

Before one top level Marathon Kenny Moore and Frank Shorter did a long run together. Shorter did 20 miles and Moore continued on to complete 35 miles.

Then Shorter demolished Moore in the race.

Over distance is not really a great idea for a Marathon runner.

You're better off not knowing about those last 6 miles until race day.

Yeah I mean Canovas guys do runs longer than 20miles but we should def listen to you. Thanks for the wisdom dawg.

The problem with evaluating a performance in any race and even more so in the marathon is that the race is not simply a proving ground for your training. You can train perfectly and still have things go wrong in a race. In my experience that happens at least as often with "correct" training as running a good race does.

If you want to find out what works for you in training you often need multiple races to do it. Not that he's asking my advice, but I'd suggest to someone like Landry that if he believed in what he did in preparation for Chicago that he should recover, find another marathon, and do pretty much the same training. It took Ron Hill eight years to get his marathon from 2:24 to 2:09 and he "experimented" to use your word, for many years. But it seems that few elite westerners now persist at the marathon unless they are successful in it, whatever that may mean for them individually, in their first 2-3 tries.