I thought I had thrown away that book a long time ago, but I found it this afternoon in a box while looking for something else. Bedford was doing as much as 200 miles a week in 1971, with three runs a day. His favorite post-run drink was beer. There are a lot of good cross country and track photos in the book. All of Bedford's races through the 1971 season are listed.
he was a great one. a much better runner against the clock, than he was a racer. Not enough finishing speed in the last 1/4. Nerves got to him at Munich. He should have easily been able to stay with the paces and even extend the other..but, didn't. He helped usher in the high mileage decade of the 70s. I was doing 100-120 mpw in college in the early 70s and just shook my head when I read what guys like Bedford and Puttemans and others were doing. Even the top milers like John Walker were putting in 100 mpw in their build ups.
It is a great book, my dad has a copy. Its pretty well used, but a great pictorial on one of the greatest runners never to win a medal!
I am willing to pay top dollar for the book, if you are interested in selling it.
Living in the Past wrote:
His favorite post-run drink was beer.
Still was the last time I spent time with him.
Did Bedford ever win World Cross country? I know he won the English Junior and placed high in Senior on same day. Think he did get a Commonwealth medal in 10k?
He won the world cross country championship in 1971, ahead of Trevor Wright and NZ's Eddie Gray.
Here is one of my favorite passages from the book:
Many doctors have said that 200 miles a week is foolish, is madness and very bad generally because it increases proneness to injury. But what they don't realize is that if a man is injured for say six months in a year, then he is in fact only running 100 miles a week, which is what most distance men are doing anyway, so what do they know?
Wasn't his winning margin the biggest ever (may not be anymore). I think he also won the British Nationals by a huge margin that year.