gerry lindgren

Marc Bloom's book, "Run with the Champions" is the only place i have heard tell of the 88 mile long run up and down Spokane Mountain. My only other sources about Lindgren have been a very small sampling in Jack Daniel's Running Formula (a reputable source, i assume), and the booklet The Gerry Lindgren Story which was put out by RW back in the '70s sometime. It's available through interlibrary loan. in that book he talks about running 3 times a day and putting in 25-35 miles on a regular basis. I, for one, believe everything i've read in these sources...that's not to say that everything on this board is in accord with these books.

Also, his training schedule was in the How They Train series by Fred Wilt. Seems like he did a lot of intervals in high school, too, if that book is to be believed.

Don't you guys get it? Its not about the numbers, its about just getting out there and running. That is what Gerry did. He didnt keep a training log, true, but it is also true that he broke American records over 50 times during his career.

You don't run crazy super-amazing time whatever you want to call it unless you train like an animal.

And to Gerry it wasn't "training" it was just running. He ran for the joy of running, pure and simple. Perhaps he was a little obsessed, but like Lindgren himself quoted "You can be the best, you just have to be willing to pay the price"

And to Gerry he enjoyed paying the price.

He wasn't concerned with all of the bullshit todays overanylitical runners are concerned with, no heart-rate monitors, no vaam bullshit or carbo drinks, powerade, no internet, no runnersworld!

don't you get it? Its not whether he ran exactly 350 miles in one week, (which is more likely than not a true statement) its just that running was what he loved to do and his results speak for themselves.

this may sound like a cliche, but just get out there and run, do yourself some good. and have fun with it, don't wear a heart rate monito, if you feel good run fast, if you feel bad run slow, just run goddammit. don't waste your time worrying about what others can/will/have done.

Amen to that Greg. Jesus loves you!

Greg,

I nominate that for post of the month!

TomM wrote:

I mean, just because someone says they ran 350 miles a week for 9 straight weeks doesn't mean they actually did it. When you consider the logistics of running 350 miles a week while attending college, it is only natural for doubts to creep in. Where did he find the time, for one thing? Didn't he have classes? How did he get enough food to eat? 50 miles per day would amount to roughly an extra 5000 calories burned per day on top of the 2000-3000 calories an average person that age needs. Anyway, the most convincing criticism of such claims is the most obvious one--it would have been too exhausting.

I've never read nine weeks of 350 mile weeks before this thread, so who knows how reliable that is. But I would certainly believe he did 350 at least once. And I am definitely willing to believe that he did more than 150 mpw. I consistantly ran above 120 mile/wk and had many weeks of 140-145 miles as a 19 year old college student taking engineering classes. I even had time to watch tv sometimes and had my only straight A quarter of my undergraduate career during the time I ran the highest mileage. It would have only taken him an extra 2.5 hrs or so per day over what I was doing (considering that he was running 6 min pace vs. my 7:30)... I certainly had almost that much free time (I tended not to study hard until the last week or two of each quarter). I'm certainly not a talent at all - the coach at my university barely let me talk to him (the brush off)much less tryout to walk onto the team - so I can see how someone who was infinitely more talent as well as crazier/more obsessed than me can do double + what I did. I wasn't excessively tired when I ran that much, have never come close to getting injured (other than sprained ankle), so it should be no problem for a talented "super-runner".

As for the calories... he was quite light right (120lb?)? and probably very efficient So he probably burned no more than, say 70 kcal/mi and maybe a lot less since most people seem to quote 80 kcal/mi for average weight runners. That's less than 3500 kcal from running... I don't know about you, but I could eat that much in no time. A 1/2 gallon of ice cream that I can (and do sometimes) eat in one sitting could cover 2/3rds that.

I'll see if I can get ahold of that "running with the Champions" book. It details how Lingren would run before school, after school at practice, and then often get up a 1am and run 10 more miles. It has the figure of Lingren's HS mileage at 200mpw.

Then it says that when he got to WSU an exercise phys. guy told him running more than 90mpw would hurt him, so he ran 50mi/day (350mi/wk) for 9 weeks to prove him wrong.

I'm paraphrasing from memeory, or course, I'll see if I can get ahold of the actual book.

not that it matters, but i think it was 6 weeks...

Think Ultramarathoner, but faster, a lot faster.

TomM wrote:

Bottom line: give some convincing evidence to support the belief that he did these monster weeks. Just repeating that he did it isn't helpful.

How do we know he did it? Because Timo said he did! Timo knows his stuff. Never question Timo. End of story.

I second that nomination.

In my day, I thought 115 per week was "paying the price."

I have had the opportunity to speak to Gerry on a couple of occasions and have asked him about some of these stories. He seemed very unimpressed with the numbers, as if 350 per week several weeks in a row were no big deal. He doesn't seem to understand the fascination or wonder the rest of us express in these numbers and this mileage. Like people have said before, he says he was "just running." He did confirm a lot of these stories, though. He also told a lot of other ones...like passing out in a ditch (for how long he wasn't sure) and having an "out of body experience" before getting up and finishing one of the legendary 80 mile runs up mt spokane and back.

He is a very unique and interesting guy. Personally, I believe his accounts of his training...even as UNbelievable as they are

did he have a social life? Was he a nerd?

he was a long distance runner. he ran 350M a week. of course he had no social life. if he did it was probably centered around running as most dedicated distance runners lives are. well mine is anyway. nerd or not he was fast as hell end of story.

MD Beast...

From what I've read/heard he had some family issues with his dad and one of the reasons why he ran so much was to get away from him.

Alan

Gerry is a different kind of person. Believe what you want. How did he do it, well he put his left foot in front of his right and then right infront of left, repeat the process. Why don't you e-mail him and ask him? Some peoples bodys can handle a lot, but after a while it does break down, and his did. It just took a lot longer than most. Gerry's biggest problem was pace. He went hard a lot.

Was he a nerd? Well, he wore some pretty cool eyeglasses.

Stress fractures? Yes he had some in hs, and just ran throught them. Talk about high threshold of pain.

Along with Jim Ryun, he was the first American to receive mainstream media recognition, and inspire a generation of distance runners.

Lindgren had, what I think is the great post race quote of all-time. To a beat reporter who was forced to cover the PAC 10 (then 6 or 8) Cross Country Championships, Lindgren, when asked how he won replied,"it was a left footers course today, and I'm a left footed runner".

He was a true free spirit who once ran, according to accounts, a 4:08 opening mile in a ten mile road race. . .classic.

A few more observations:

the fact that somebody ran 120-140 mpw and had a little free time in college doesn't convince me that somebody else could run 350. There's a huge difference.

you don't run through stress fractures just because you have a high tolerance for pain. Stress fractures that continue to take a pounding turn into full-on fractures. (although, from the legend surrounding Lindgren, he probably wouldn't have let a broken leg or two slow him down).

if you run 350 mpw, you don't do it at 6-minute mile pace. Guys that win Comrades do that 50+ miler at barely under 6-minute pace, and there are some top marathoners in that field.

you don't do 80+ mile long runs just real casually and eating a few berries along the way. You're going to need a steady supply of food and drink along the way. And you're not going to be able to do that on a regular basis and still come back and blast out hard workouts a day or two later.

I know the criticism I'll get for being a disbeliever: that I've got a closed mind, no imagination, blah blah blah, I'm limited in my running by what society has told me is possible. OK, fine. But if I'm going to believe that somebody did something that nobody else has been able to come close to doing--ie run 350 mpw, including lots of fast running (in high school, no less)--and did it without even thinking there is anything remarkable about it--"oh yeah, I just ran whenever I had any free time, I ran with my heart not my head", I'm going to have to see evidence more convincing than just a bunch of claims based on very anecdotal evidence. For instance, if he could really run basically double, or more, the mileage of his competitors, he should have been able to absolutely obliterate the world records of the time, as well as his competition. I know he was a great runner, but he wasn't head and shoulders above all the rest. Why should I believe he wasn't just training like everybody else pretty much? Because he said so, and those claims were embellished by others, and printed in some books?

And sure, he may wonder why people care what mileage he ran, when the important part was the races. That's true. All I'm saying is, he didn't run as much as is being claimed by some posters on this site. It reminds me of the recent case of Robert Garside, the guy who claimed to be running around the world recently, who made all these outlandish claims for daily mileage, and when questioned said basically that people were closed-minded in their thinking and that he just ran for the joy of it and it wasn't that surprising that he was trashing all these ultra records because he wasn't restricted by traditional thinking. Of course, close investigation found him out in enough lies to make any of his claims doubtful at best.

Yo Tom. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but nobody cares if you believe it or not.