I read somewhere that the Finnish authorities required Viren to race in the trials (don't remember if it was '72 or '76) when he was still in his base phase, and Haikkola figured out that the only way to run well and not screw up his training was to do some huge taper, like nine days with no running whatsoever before the race. What's the real story? I think Haikkola described Viren as a "coiled spring" on race day.
You made that up. Viren ran something like 43 races during his Olympic year. His base phase ended in March, way before the Finnish track season started.
Thanks for the info. I didn't make it up but it's a fuzzy memory. It was definitely Viren and it was definitely an ill-timed trial relative to his training phase. Perhaps not Olympics... Anyone?
Hopefully this works
``table border="1" width="100%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2"%%
Month(71-72)
Km
Miles
#sessions
Km/session
Miles/session
%aerobic
#races
Oct.
392
245
60
6.5
4.1
71.9
0
Nov.
532
333
62
8.6
5.4
80.7
2
Dec.
739
462
70
10.6
6.6
74.0
0
Jan.
636
398
82
7.8
4.8
69.1
3
Feb.
844
528
76
11.1
6.9
78.2
2
Mar.
824
515
66
12.5
7.8
69.2
0
Apr.
630
394
64
9.8
6.2
76.4
2
May
589
368
62
9.5
5.9
75.0
4
June
489
306
55
8.9
5.6
83.0
7
July
558
349
62
9.0
5.6
79.9
7
Aug.
676
423
61
11.1
6.9
75.3
8
Sept.
439
274
52
8.4
5.3
85.9
9
Thanks malmo. I figured if anyone knew Viren's %aerobic in Feb. '72 it would be you. I'm wondering specifically about an extended period of no running prior to (I believe) an important trial. I may be nuts but I thought it was Viren and I thought it was more than a week.
Found it! If anyone cares. It's in the 1973 Runner's World "Finnish Running Secrets" book. I got the details wrong but the big picture right. It was the summer before Munich and of course training was pointing toward a peak at the games. All summer Viren had been racing (see malmo's statistics) and doing poorly in the pre-Olympics Viren tradition. The Finnish Association was hinting that only Vaatainen would be sent to the games (Vasala, another Lydiardite, also had yet to peak). The decisive trial was a match against GB and Spain six weeks before Munich. For nine days prior, Viren only jogged. Not clear how much but it could still have been high mileage (malmo says 349 miles in July). Viren ran 13:19, third all-time behind Clarke and Bedford. Two days later he did 7:43.2 for a new 11-second national record. I guess the take-home is that the usual wisdom of decreasing volume but maintaining intensity isn't necessarily the only answer. I'm going to try this.