Why was American running terrible in the 90s?

"Less is more" became the rave in the mid 80s. Simultaneously the number of high school sub 4:10/9:00 (mile and 2 miles) dropped off dramatically.

We covered this topic in detail 16 years ago. I posted a lot of cool graphs to go with the data, but tinypic has folded. I'll see if I can find and repost those graphs again.

https://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=709244&page=1

Dyestat inspired the youth in the 2000s. Thank you John.

American runners of the 90s:

Michael Johnson

Mike Marsh

Leroy Burrrell

Quincy Watts

Alan Johnson

Johnny Gray

Butch Reynolds

Gail Devers

Gwen Torrance

SFH

The Clark sisters

American joggers of the 90s:

Bob Kennedy

The rise of EPO.

There was a similar decline in distance swimming results at the same time due to exercise physiologist claims that less was best. Distance swimmers did not train the huge mileage of the 70s and 80s, but shorter swim events suffered as well.

The lowered demographics cited in these threads are a factor, but I posit another cause, The Michael Jordan Effect. In the 90s most all the good athletes went into basketball, and those in the pool were predominantly shorter than the 70s, 80s and in the 21st century.

I agree with you. I ran a 2;44 marathon as a HS junior . Nothing earth shattering WE always did long runs. I was on 2.28 pace till I blew up at 21 miles. Ended up having a great junior and senior year.

rnr wrote:

I agree with you. I ran a 2;44 marathon as a HS junior . Nothing earth shattering WE always did long runs. I was on 2.28 pace till I blew up at 21 miles. Ended up having a great junior and senior year.

Hey, cool man! I'd guess this was late '70s or early '80s. Maybe mid '80s if the concept lasted that long. Wonder what you could have done with the training knowledge you have now. I wasn't really hip to specifically training for a marathon - or anything. Even for 10k, I didn't do 6x1 mile. Looking back, I don't know why not! It's amazing how much better I train now,

To the younger generations reading this:

We weren't 'trying to be different' or rebelling. Road racing was not discouraged by anyone I ever talked to. As I mentioned earlier, my dad literally drove to full marathons and watched. I don't think anybody thought it was a bad idea. I still don't. Today, however, the Message Board will crucify you if you attempted this kind of thing at 15 years old like we all did.

Based on my personal experience, it was a mix of a bad era in shoes and poor training ideas.

I think shoe companies were messing a lot with shoe development and frankly caused a lot of shinsplints and knee pain, etc. because they just hadn’t figured out how to consistently make good shoes yet. That discouraged high mileage running for a lot of us.

Pairing that with training ideas. I attended a high school that was considered pretty good at the sport, but our XC training consistent mainly of 3 or four mile runs paired with a lot of hill repeats or short track intervals. I never did or was remotely encouraged to do the 40-60 mile weeks my kids now do or the volume of longer tempo runs they do.

tips4youtube wrote:

I assume the elites still trained well yet the results don't seem great outside of Bob Kennedy and Todd Williams. What happened?

Uh....just because we have won a handful of medals at the Olympics and Worlds in the distance events doesn't make us good. We still suck at distance running.

The reason American running was inferior during the 90s compared to what it is now is nothing more than genetics. Fewer talented people entered the sport in the 90s than did in the 2000s and 2010s. It has nothing to do with mileage, as high mileage is not a requirement for optimal results. The training used now is not qualitatively different that what was used during the 90s.

1) Demographics - slightly less depth can be explained by this

2) Stanford - once Vin started the time trial meets, times started to come down at the college level. There are a lot more opportunities now for better competition/times.

3) Training - Seb Coe/Said Aouita were freaks but many tried to emulate their training - can't remember when Coe and Martin put out their first edition of their book, but definitely had an impact with a lower mileage emphasis.

4) The advent of the Internet led to better coaching but also better awareness of other results - Dyestat/LetsRun

5) Bob Kennedy/Marc Davis - both were so good on low mileage in high school and college. Eventually they had to increase mileage substantially to compete at the top levels internationally, but they were able to be world-class without very high mileage.

6) International Athletes - even the foreigners weren't as good in the early 90's. The best African was Kapkory, and Kennedy laid him to waste in Bloomington and Mitchell in Boise.

7) Colorado - Wetmore's aerobic emphasis and ability to attract top tier Americans cannot be overlooked. Wetmore and Lananna had teams to compete with Arkansas.