Salazar's training as an elite marathoner 1980-1983

From Run with the Champions by Marc Bloom p.38,

Salazar went to Oregon to train with Bill Dellinger, who coached him throughout his career. Salazar believes that his consistently high level of running year-round, with no breaks between seasons, was a key factor in his success. "Some people may have done certain workouts faster, " says Salazar, "but I piled them on month after month."

Before his world record 2:08:13 marathon at New York in 1981, Salazar ran 120 to 130 miles a week and trained twice a day, On Sundays, when he did 20 miles, he ran only once. Three days a week, he ran fast - 1 day on the track; 1 day on the wood-chip trails that Eugene, Oregon, is know for; and 1 day combing trail work and roadwork. His track work, for example, consisted of repeat 300s in 47 to 48 seconds, with a 100-yard jog between runs. "Nothing intense", he says, "just for leg turnover." His trail work was more intense - a 9-mile continuous run, alternating 5 fast miles of 4:32 to 4:35 each with 4 "rest" miles of 5:05. "And that was a pretty slow trail," Salazar notes.

Salazar also did a 11-mile run on a regular basis. He ran at 4:53 to 5:00 a mile, his goal pace for the marathon, while throwing in three fast 3/4-mile surges. That callousing workout, as Dellinger called it, enabled Salazar to run a 4:33 split for his breakaway 17th mile in New York.

A year later (before he set his American 5000-meter and 10,000-meter records on the track), Salazar's mileage was slightly less. He ran 100 to 110 miles per week, with most of it at or below race pace. For example, he did 6 x mile in 4:20; or 4 x 1200 in 3:05 to 3:06; or 12 x 200 in 29 to 30 - all with short rests.

malmo wrote:

Because robert678 isn't correct. It's not 6 hard workouts a week. It's ONE hard session a week, and 5 tasty bon-bons.

Dellinger's system revolved around smaller chunks of effort, and being that most of them were of the "cut-down" variety, they weren't difficult at all.

Thank you. I'll probably start a tempest, but it seems similar to what "tinman" is doing. Not the same by any stretch, but, similar.

dhhcb wrote:

A year later (before he set his American 5000-meter and 10,000-meter records on the track), Salazar's mileage was slightly less. He ran 100 to 110 miles per week, with most of it at or below race pace. For example, he did 6 x mile in 4:20; or 4 x 1200 in 3:05 to 3:06; or 12 x 200 in 29 to 30 - all with short rests.

I trained under Salazar in the mid/late 90's. That 6x1 mile @ 4.20 and 4x1200@ 3.0x were staples for the 5/10k guys.

So, Salazar did a lot of moderate workouts with only 1 truly hard workout a week?