Gerry Lindgren's Mileage.....(Crazy....or Crazy like a fox)

Dude was an animal.

Gerry Lindgren is a nut. He has said many things over the years that are not true.

Show me any modern HS boy that could have dropped an 8:40 on a dusty gym floor wish

He’s a confirmed liar with a very high-pitched voice. He seems neurodivergent, so it’s probably not his fault. No doubt he did high mileage and achieved some amazing things in the sport, but 350 miles a week is just total BS.

With tape outline the track boarders in old leather shoes. Stuffy gym air filling your lungs. None of them could do it.

So he ran 200 miles a week.

What did he win as a pro?

Did he run sub 13?

And I believe it was against Ron Clarke.

He never ran well after college and shortened his career as a world class runner by 5-10 years. If he had run 120-140mpw, he might he might have set 5 and 10 ARs that would have been out of Pre’s reach.

Dude ran a 4:01 mile in High School. In like 1964!

I just have mad respect for the old guys who paved the way. They had no idea how to train. Lydiard was just starting to figure things out. Ryun and Gerry were just throwing sh*t at the wall and seeing what works.

He had none of the advantages of his modern peers. No racing lights, No Carbon Plates, No lactate meters, No Testosterone Creme rub downs.....

It is not that they had no idea how to train,

it is that instead of being told how to train (like most of today's runners) they figured it out on their own. Conclusion: there is no one way to train.

High mileage works

High quality works

Cross Training works

etc.

No one won anything as a pro then. He set a world record. That's a pretty good return on his mileage investment.

Well, yes he MIGHT have set ARs. Inevitably "might" is pared with "might not." We only know .what he did. If he'd done something else he might have gotten better results but he might not have done nearly as well. I'm not sure how many people who post here understand how difficult it was fifty plus years ago to keep running seriously into your twenties. It had nothing to do with how you trained or getting burnt out. It was managing to set your life up in a way to support yourself. When Jim Ryun's spoken about why he quit running he doesn't talk about being sick of it or tired of pushing himself so much. He talks about not being able to find a way to support himself and his family and still find a way to train and race as he thought he needed to. I know that Lindgren also had a tough time with post collegiate life.

Walked away from his wife and kids with no explanation.

Never could figure out how he ran the times he ran. Ryun, Snell, Clarke, Coe, etc. Yes. But Lindgren? Didn't look like a runner . . . even when he was running. Heck, he was injured most of his junior year in HS. Just phenomenally talented.

Lindgren said he ran 16:08 for 4 miles on a cross country course. Nothing he says should be taken seriously.

One thing that I think makes Gerry such an interesting runner is that it gets pretty hard to tell where the truth ends and the "legend" starts. From what I've read, it seems more recently that Gerry may have trouble with this too. The testament to him is that so much of this is still believable because that's just the level of runner he was. Briefly before Ryun, he was the high school boy challenging world beaters, He beat Billy Mills in the 10k trials and I believe that was just after high school graduation. 13:44, 8:40, and 4:01 back in 1964 should speak for themselves also.

He spent his life training for that one moment.

Thank you. He deserves no honors after this.

"Mad respect" is about right. Granted, he probably has some mental disorders. Granted, he abandoned his family. Granted, you can't believe much of what he says. But, gosh, those high school times and accomplishments! World class as a senior in high school!!! That 8:40, indoors, in 1964, almost a WR. Beating the Soviets in the 10k when that meet was a big deal and no one respected our distance runners. And his college career was unparalleled. It's too bad his post-college career didn't live up to high school and college, but it doesn't diminish what he'd done by then.

Yeah, mad respect.