Someone on here mentioned Lundberg, MacDonald, Mason, etc. We must have been at KU at the same time. I ran for Timmie for 18 months before I fully came to the realization that I sucked. Was his training hard? Damn straight. I would talk to my friends back East who were running (at UPENN and UMASS - remember, this was the mid-70's and both of the schools were very solid distance schools at the time) and they didn't believe me when I told them the workouts we were doing.
I even had the opportunity to do a few of those workouts with Ryun while he was back at KU training. Tell me that isn't one of the cooler things that can happen to a 19-20 year old track slug? I never did have the chance to take a dump while sitting next to him (that story does crack me up), but I did get several chances to watch him haul ass down the road in front of me.
With that in mind, there was talk at times that Ryun had sometimes done two of those type sessions a day. Probably lends some credence to the idea that he was over-trained, but it does beg the question of whether he ever would have become the "Jim Ryun" had he not done Timmie's training.
You know what? I don't care. Ryun was my hero. He was singularly outstanding. Hell, he was awesome. There were a few years in there when he stepped to the line that guys knew, absolutely knew, that they were running for second place (and, often, a distant second). So, maybe he could have gone on for a few more years and maybe he could have run sub-3:50. Maybe he could have run 13:15 for 5000. All he did do was 1:44.9 and 3:51.1. Who, right now, reading my rantings, wouldn't take those times and keep them as PR's?
The guy is a legend. Shoulda/woulda/coulda. I'm pretty sure that he did, huh? And from what I have read written about him and by him over the last several years, I believe he feels that everything he went through and did back then made him who he is today. And from what I can tell, he is a happy man.
And, enough of the slamming of Timmie. Did he overtrain folks? Yeah, I do believe that he did. But he too, like Cerrutty, bought into the Stotan philosophy. He worked you because he expected you to improve through the training and to run until your legs got rubbery and your tongue got road rash from dragging behind you. All I know is that I was a pretty lousy runner and he frequently gave me way more than the time of day. As a big fat slob now, I can still remember the XC workouts we did on the dirt roads around Lawrence and it does make me feel proud. And truthfully, I did them as much for Timmie's approval as much as anything else.
Drew - John Horton says hello.