craig vIrgin: how did he train?

He actually says he didn't run high really at any point in his life.

He gives his view on what high school runners should do:

http://www.illinoisrunner.com/virgindiscussion.html

Talks about his mileage a bit (about six paragraphs down); only ran 100 mile a weeks when training for marathon:

http://www.halhigdon.com/books/marathon.html

Craig ran 70 miles per week in high school with intervals that were around a ball field about 440 yard with a 220 jog for recovery. In the summer he ran 8-12 miles per day and did a fartlek on Wednesday. In the winter he ran 440 yard hills on a gravel road.

As a collegiate athlete at Univ of IL, he ran around 80-90 miles per week, doing intervals or fartlek during the season 3-4 times per week.

As a post-collegiate training for the 10k-15k and xc country worlds, he followed much of the same program of about 90 miles per week with fartlek and hill reps in the off-season and intervals as races approached, mostly 440s and 880s. Craig ran about 4 miles in the mornings, but wasn't fanatical. If he was tired, he skipped it.

He briefly trained for the Boston Marathon and increased his mileage to around a 100 miles, but not for more than about 10 weeks, if I recall correctly, and did a 20 mile run with the latter half faster, but still about (5:20 pace) which is still a little slower than race pace pace for him (he ran 2:10 and change.

Craig was very tough and very strong. He did a lot of arm swings and hand unusually strong arms and shoulders for a distance man. Part of it too was his upbringing on a farm. Craig was one of the best all-time h.s. runners America has seen. He ran 8:40 for two miles (not 3200m which is shorter by 3 seconds), 4:05, 13:39 for 3 miles indoors, and 13:50 at the state xc course (3 miles) running the first mile in 4:19. He won two World XC titles (1979-1980), held the 10,000m world record at 27:29, and made four US Olympic teams.

I had lunch with him at a friends house not far from his hometown of Lebanon, IL. Craig zoomed up in a really incredible looking sports car. As my friend prepared lunch, Craig showed me his scrapbooks from H.S. and beyond. He looked really skinny in those old black and white photos. Funny, Craig was not focused on times. I knew more about his p.r.s during his career than he did. It shows you that he was a competitor who focused on beating others and running as hard as he could. Much like Pre, Craig was intense, brash, hard-core when it came to racing. When I met him, I instantly noted the intensity in his eyes. I knew I was in the presence of greatness. I sure wish I could have watched him run in h.s.

I find this really interesting. If anyone has more information on Craig please share. He was one of our best ever and we can learn from him.

tinman wrote:

Craig was very tough and very strong. He did a lot of arm swings and hand unusually strong arms and shoulders for a distance man.

LOL! I trained with Virgin for a full year and never noticed "unusually strong shoulders and arms."

When Virgin was in HS, I remember reading an article about him (paraphrased), "Virgin runs 85 miles a week, not much compared to other top HS runners." Obviously "not much" back then didn't mean the same as it does now.

The one thing about Virgin was that he trained with incredible consistency, not leaving it all on the training track, but not very easy either. He regularly ran 20k tempo runs in 61 minutes. The reason why I point it out is because, in my day I've trained with many "hangers-on", you know the type - the ones who show up to the workout to prove themselves. They end up running their Olympics during the workout, and end up shot, and nowhere to be seen for a week - until their next Olympics. That's not training hard - that's training stupid.

Virgin was there for every workout and did them pretty much "on pace." The link below is an example of the training we did (with the obvious exceptions being the steeplechase workouts.) Now I will admit that the training we did together didn't really suit him, he was much more successful coaching himself.

As far as his raw competitiveness goes, there are few, if any Americans, with more. He brought a real tenacity to the track, putting it all on the line. His 8:41 in high school on a melting track is legend, so is the 27:39 in the 1979 Nationals where, in spite of the heat, he nearly lapped the entire field. One of the rare few who been legends in HS, college and internationally.

Always approachable, it seems he has friends in every town in America.

Terminally fastidious, we called him "Felix" after Felix Unger, Tony Randall's charactor in the 60s TV sitcom "The Odd Couple." After his second World XC Championship in Madrid, he had a change of clothes ready at the finish line and was groomed and ready for the post-race interview in minutes.

craig made 3 olympic teams...'76, '80 and '84. the 27:29 was an american record, not world.

I said that Craig made 4 Olympic teams and the 27:29 was a world record, not Malmo. So, it is my error. I know that Craig tried to make the 1988 team, so perhaps that was where I go the 4th on from...his run in the trials rather than making his 4th team. Also, for some reason I must have read that Craig held the world record at 27:29, but now it retrospect it must have been an American record since Henry Rono ran 27:22 in his glorious 80 days in 1978. I think that Craig could have fared well at the Olympics had he been at his best. Timing is everything.

Regarding Craigs arms, I did see his arms in 1994 when I had lunch with him and he must have been pounding the weights. At the time, he was attempting a comeback. I know that he said just a couple weeks before our meeting that he had run near 15:00 in a 5k. He was going to do some repeat 400s and 800s that day, so sped off in his car (I think it was an Italian car...so cool!). Later, Craig was hurt in a freak accident of some sort. I wish I could remember what it was, but I know it was horrible.

One thing a lot of people forget is that Craig was a medical miracle. He had a long history of severe kidney dysfunction. He was sickly as a child an spent a lot of time in St Louis getting dialysis treatments. He did have some flare-ups as an adult and had more treatments. There were two neat articles written by Craig published in either Runing Times or Runners World detailing his comebacks. On nothing bu 10 mile runs after a major health problem in the late fall, he ran a couple road 10ks and a 15k that were quite respectable: I think they were 29 min for the 10k and around 44-45 for the 15k.

Virgin, who had life-long (and life threatening) kidney problems eventually lost his right kidney in 1994. In 1997 he was involved in a near-fatal head-on car accident. Only after years of therapy and numerous surgeries was he able to run again.

A true champion.

He also was born with some sort of urilogical disease and was not expected to live. He had heart problems during college and still won an NCAA XC title a 3rd place, and two runner ups in the 10k on the track. It's amazing how much he accomplished considering all the health problems he had throughout his career.

Thanks for the info. I truly wish that had not happened to Craig. He is fine person.

Oh, by the way, wasn't he a state representative?

Another thing: I remember his company name: Front Runner

He ran, but was never elected. "Front Runner" didn't really market anything.

Sure it did. It marketed its prime asset: Craig Virgin.

tinman wrote:

Craig ran 70 miles per week in high school with intervals that were around a ball field about 440 yard with a 220 jog for recovery. In the summer he ran 8-12 miles per day and did a fartlek on Wednesday. In the winter he ran 440 yard hills on a gravel road.

Craig never ran over 50M/week in high school. His senior year he had on three workouts: 10-miler, fartlek on a golf course and 400's. He rotated those three workouts on the theory that you need all three - speed, strength and endurance - to reach your your potential.

the earlier posts on his HS training are closer to the truth...he certainly had many weeks over 50 as a HSer

Craig told me directly that he ran 70 miles per week (8-12 miles per day)in high school. I believe him.

In one of the articles I posted above Virgin said regarding the training of high school runners: "They need to run 60-80 miles per week in the off seasons and in season they need to run 50-60 miles a week."

Because none of use actually trained with Virgin, it's going to be a little difficult to know what he actually did. His recommendations can perhaps be best taken as what he did in high school.

Malmo actually has trained with Virgin.

tinman wrote:Craig told me directly that he ran 70 miles per week (8-12 miles per day)in high school. I believe him.

Interesting that he would tell two different stories.

When did Virgin tell two different stories? Tinman's account is in line with what's been published before, were's the difference?

Lebanon wrote:

Malmo actually has trained with Virgin.

I meant trained with him in high school. Sorry for being unclear but the thread is about what he did in high school.