I think Bruce is pretty underrated as far as 70s coaches go. Cassidy and the Shea sisters give him some pretty impressive results!
However, some of his training is a bit surprising in intensity and volume. Maybe it's been exaggerated over the decades -- a bit of the classic "young folks have it so easy" mentality.
The obvious discussion point is the 60x400 workout he gives Cassidy. This seems almost irresponsible for a coach to give a runner, no matter how strong they may be. A near certain recipe for overtraining if not immediate injury. However, this has been litigated to death on these boards.
But I have to bring it all up again when I saw another workout he gave some milers during his tenure at NC State.
This is a "standard Monday" workout for 1500m types:
3 mi warmup
mile of strides
3x:
[3x600 with 300 jog
mile jog
3x300 (no recovery listed)
mile jog]
mile of strides
mile cool down
By my count this is ~18.75 miles of running (!!) Even if you figure the strides are ~1/2 walking thats still 17+ miles!
This is a "standard" Monday workout for milers??
Moreover, Denton's group is a made up of a mix of post-collegiate guys, some age-groupers, and some "joggers."
Nobody but an All-American candidate or OTQ-type runner, that I know of, would be doing almost 19 miles of running as a "standard" Monday workout? ESPECIALLY IF THEY ARE MILERS??
We there old guys really that much tougher? There's no way this kind of training worked for any more than 20% of those who tried it?
I need someone to put this in context, I am struggling to believe it all.