Training Schedules of former WR holders/olympic medalists from the 70's

Wow, that's Seko territory to run a marathon in practice.

I ran a hill today, despite the surgeries, and when I charged up I then had to bound the best I could and got a good workout. When I rested 90 seconds and did another, but at a pace, it was a waste of my time and I got nothing out of it.

I've tried to understand the wave of medium effort workouts that permeate these threads (I hadn't looked at this site except 15 years ago until recently).

I don''t think the workouts are optimal

One that's not much of a secret is Frank Shorter. He did a Sunday long run of 2 hours or 20 miles, whichever happened first, usually running the last 3-6 miles at 5:00 pace if he didn't have a race that week. Tuesday and Thursday were track workouts. He'd do fast intervals at 5k pace or faster with short rest for both sessions. Tuesday would usually be 400s and Thursday something longer or a ladder workout of some type. The workouts were usually 2-3 miles of volume, sometimes as much as 4 miles. Frank ran doubles every day except Sunday and would usually try to hit about 20 miles a day, but sometimes only do 17. He averaged 17 miles a day for the entire decade of 1970s. That average includes time off, tapering, etc. His training was pretty consistent year round, he made some slight tweaks to peak for a big race, and was always great at peaking on just the right day. He referred to his training as "brain dead consistency".

I remember reading that 2 of his big workouts leading up to the 1972 Olympic Trials Marathon were 32 x 220 yd in 29-30 seconds with only 15 seconds of jogging rest, and also that same week he ran 16 x 440 yd in 60-64 with only 30 seconds of jogging rest. Also, 4 weeks out from his 1972 Olympic Marathon Gold he did 4 x 800 in 2:00 with only 60 seconds rest.

Not the type of training you usually see from a marathoner. Frank basically trained for the 5k but did the long run and the mileage for the marathon. He tried to treat his marathons like track races. It clearly worked well.