gerry lindgren

the only one i could find

http://www.thelocalplanet.com/Current_Issue/Cover_Story/Article.asp?ArticleID=3814

Out of all the US runners (Pre,Ryun,Scott,Mills etc..)Gerry Lindgren is my favorite. The guys training schedule makes Dave Bedford (10km - 27.30, 200 miles a week in training)look like a complete pussy. Does anybody know where i can get any videos of him that i can watch in the UK.

No man can eat 50 hard boiled eggs.

i believe much of what has been written about lindgren, and it's all incredibly facsinating. however, to soften the blow on TomM....i hate seeing someone get destroyed for simply stating his opinion.....i'm with him 100% in his thread breaking down lindgren's supposed 88 miles at 7 minute pace. no way. and i know that some people can defend it by saying "well, it may not have happened exactly like that, but the point is lindgren was different and did stuff like that." it becomes a slippery slope, becuase if you find out that one reported fact isn't true, then why should you believe anything/everything else. great thread though.....fact or fiction. keep the stories coming!

It?s not like this kind of mileage is unheard of. Marius wrote about a Kenyan guard who ran 20 miles in the morning, stood for 10 hours for his job and ran another 20 miles in the evening. That is 280mi / week right there. It is not that unrealistic of for people to really show that kind of ability. It is a type of dedication that a lot of US runners do not, or are not willing to have any more. I mean Frank Shorter and Jack B. used to get up in the middle of the night and run 10 extra miles just to get in more than the other guy. One night they ran into each other at 12:00am.

TomM - You make me laugh watching you get so enraged and bent out of shape over Gerry's supposed workouts regardless of whether it's fact or fiction. Hahahaha!

You DOLT. BWAHAHAHA!!!

He was in college when he was supposed to be running 350 a week, not high school.

Because of all the interest, I dug out my old papers this morning, with the questionnaire stuff. As a researcher I am bound to not identify data associated with any particular individual so none of the papers have names on them. I found one that had answers to my question that were pretty impressive: typical weekly mileage in 1967 -- 250. Typical weekly mileage in 1968 -- 250, in the 70's -- 250, in the 80's -- 100, past 2 years -- 50

Single longest training run in 1967 -- 66 miles, in 1968 -- 35 miles, in the 70's -- 40 miles, in the 80's -- 28, past 2 years -- 20

Highest single week of mileage in 1967 -- 380, in 1968 -- 300, in the 1970's 300, in the 80's -- 120, past 2 yrs -- 65

Typical number of races per year in 1967 -- 30, '68 -- 25, '70's 25, '80s -- 15, past 2 yrs -- 5-6

How many miles of fast reps (100s, 200s, 300s, 400s) typical during a week of mid-season training: 1967 and 1968 -- 12 miles, 70's -- 10, 80's -- 8, past 2 years -- 5miles/week

Amount of long intervals (800s, 1000s, 1200s, miles) in typical week mid season -- 1967-68 & '70s about 10miles

Miles of threshold/tempo running in a typical week in 1967-68 -- 60, 70s -- 45, 80s -- 25, past 2 yrs - 10

I seriously doubt that these answers meant that a typical week included all of these various intensities of training, but that in a week when reps or intervals or tempo runs were emphasized, this was the amount. Who knows what this individual's definition of threshold/tempo tunning meant, but at any elevated intensity, 60 miles in a week is a heck of a lot. This same subject indicated, "Only minor sprains and influenza," when asked about days missed in 1967 -- no days missed. Indicated he missed no days, but was "unable to run long hard pace; slow race times and inconsistent for a period of time." In 1968 missed 2-3 weeks as result of getting hit by a car. nothing else The same information on many other great runners, so I thank you for motivating me to go back and look this up

tupper,

thanks for that post. lindgren had a way about him. one didn't know if he was putting you on or deadly serious. i imagine he did a lot of what he claims, if not all. i ran against lindgren, rick riley and art sandison in the fall of 1969 at the WSU golf course over 4 miles. gerry kicked butt and then hung around to speak to my team. he was a down to earth, great guy. the next day while we were waiting for our plane, he was hauling out around the pullman airport on one of his famous 10 milers. 2 years later he showed up on the campus of the university i was attending about 400 miles away just out of the blue. a very whimsical person.

everybody, the point of the lindgren legend is just love running and train. malmo and hodgie-san say that all the time as do others.

best wishes gerry if you are reading

jtd, email me if you have time. thanks.

wc

i thought i was running 70m a week when i was a freshman in hs...then i measured some of the routes and was only running 40m....

jtupper: Thanks for the great stuff, im doing a research paper on Lendgren and would REALLY appreciate anything and everything you have on him, Thanks so much

acu_xc@yahoo.co.uk

Sorry about the typo "Lindgren"

How could you confuse a 70 mpw and 40 mpw? Did you consider a half hour run 7 miles??

i was a big rounder....i may have been exaggerrating a bit but many of my courses were off than what i thought they were to be. 10m a week do to rounding...i dont know and i dont feel like going to get oldlogs from 10 years ago. why doesnt someone go get the wheel and measure some of his courses...the 10m through wheat fields...closer to 9 than 10 but who gives a shit ya know...he was fast as hell

That reminds me of a friend of mine in HS/college who used to run a 3 mile loop around his neighborhood when he first started running. As he improved as a runner, he would sometimes mention getting a new course record of like 18 minutes or 17 minutes. When his time got down to 10 or 11 minutes, even he got suspicious about the accuracy.

I think if you have a young runner who is a bit flaky and claims not to be worried about mileage totals, it is quite likely that their mileage claims are not going to be particularly accurate. Say they ran for an hour or so Monday morning, or was it 45 minutes, so probably 10 miles, or maybe 7....multiply this by 30+ training runs a week, and it's quite likely that claims for 380 miles or several 350 mile weeks would have a margin of error of at least 20%, and even more if the runner wasn't even keeping a log.

I wish people would quit bringing up this "Ah, shut the hell up, it's not important how accurate his claims are, the point is he ran awesome". I know he ran great times. But if somebody posted on here saying something like, "When Frank Shorter was in his Olympic training years, he would routinely go out and do 10 X 1mile in 3:50", I'm sure people wouldn't just accept it. So if somebody questioned that, would you just say that the important things was he won 2 Olympic medals, so just accept the training claims? Since one of the purposes of this messageboard is to share helpful running information, shouldn't we at least strive for accuracy?

Thanks to Jack Daniels for taking the time to look up that info. I also did a browse on google about Lindgren, and while I didn't find any great articles, it was interesting all the different "facts" I found. In various places it said he held the world record for a training week with 250 miles (the 2 week record, Gary Bjorklund I think, was 420), that he beat the Russians to win Olympic Gold, that he won 6 NCAA titles, that he won 11 NCAA titles, etc. So I hardly feel I need to defend my right to question some of the stories told about him when there is obviously a bit of a mythical aura surrounding his career.

Is it me, or did Jack Daniels just break every rule regarding confidentiality? By the way, this is the same Jack Daniels who walked out on the Cortland University Cross Country team weeks before nationals one year because he decided then and there to follow some chic to Hawaii. And you know its true Daniels.

TomM - Why do some people dislike him so much? I don't get it. I'll agree his posts seem a bit mean spirited but they're not that bad are they? It seems like the worst thing he says is (paraphrase) "my beloved ultra runners can't do it so neither can an elite runner". I mean really, who cares? What am I missing here?

You know that kid in high school who always got his ass kicked by everyone and still tried to be one of the "cool" people? That's TomM. He's a piece of shit who talks noise all day long, but hides behind is little dogs in real life. Fucking prick. Other than that, a great guy!

I even travel the junior high circuit meets in my area giving away Lingren/Pre border clash T-shirts (although they never actually met at border clash..I don't think)

Anyway, TomM maybe right..and it dosen't matter,,,as far as I am concerned, he didn't have to exaggereate..he is what Lennon would call a working class hero....running 8:40 indoors in high school, gettin beat by Clarke who ran 8:36..in some smoky arena(where was that anyway? Compton?)

Well, his mystique, his work ethic and his genuine love for the sport is what I try to generate in these kids...I also pass out Eric Hulst T-shirts to the winners ion other junior high meets..he was another Lindgren.