Old School Oregon training week

That was my point.Thiswasnot exactly an average group of guys. 20 years later,3:33is still at the topofthe US lists.

Maybe you didn'tmean it but it seemed like you were suggesting that this was fairly typical training for good guys.

If you were a miler at Arkansas, it was expected that you would do these workouts.

I didn't "tell him" I was going to walk on. I talked to him just as anyone would who is interested in going to run for Oregon. he's just a bad recruiter

Les wrote:

mitslel wrote:

Speaking of Dellinger, what happened to Oregon in the 90s? They were so strong, but then just had nothing to speak of (when compared to the 70s and 80s).

Did he just check out?

By the end of the 80s, Oregon was no longer getting the cream of the crop. Dellinger was never the greatest recruiter, Oregon got the top kids for a long time because of their distance tradition, but by then other schools like Stanford were offering better deals. Without talent, the program went downhill.

This is spot on.

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This is classic. In 1991, I called Dellinger to tell him I was going to walk on at Oregon. I had run 3:45, 4:05 indoors, at 4500 feet, and was an NCAA Indoor Qualifier.

I said, Bill, I don't need money, so if you don't have an athletic scholarship, that's not a big deal, I have money to pay for school......

So, no BS, Dellinger tells me "You know, we have a really good team, so I'm not sure we even need you."

Classic this guy turned down free points at NCAAs, FREE POINTS....[/quote]

I find it hard to believe that you actually got Bill on the phone, to ask him about something like walking on. But if you did talk to him, I can see him saying that. I have some good Dellinger stories of my own. Maybe for another time.

EXXX-Duck wrote:

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This is classic. In 1991, I called Dellinger to tell him I was going to walk on at Oregon. I had run 3:45, 4:05 indoors, at 4500 feet, and was an NCAA Indoor Qualifier.

I said, Bill, I don't need money, so if you don't have an athletic scholarship, that's not a big deal, I have money to pay for school......

So, no BS, Dellinger tells me "You know, we have a really good team, so I'm not sure we even need you."

Classic this guy turned down free points at NCAAs, FREE POINTS....

I find it hard to believe that you actually got Bill on the phone, to ask him about something like walking on. But if you did talk to him, I can see him saying that. I have some good Dellinger stories of my own. Maybe for another time.[/quote]

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It was him, and it wasn't even hard to get him on the phone. Hell, I got Mcdonnell on the phone on the first try. By way of comparison, Mcdonnell was all over it. He made it clear I would get no money my first year, but that I might get some help if I scored at NCAAs. No scoring at NCAAs, no "partial" scholarship. He was no dummy. A free 3:45 guy!? Hello.

Original Poster- I find it very interesting your long run was only 10 miles. You said some guys ran further. How far? And was there any time of year you did a longer run than that?

Bill was not very specific about how long your sunday runs should be. Long runs were generally not part of the Oregon program. I think most guys went 10-12 miles. We did not meet as a team on those days so you were free to do what you wanted. I knew some guys who even took sundays off.

Most of us did our sunday runs on our own. It was not uncommon to be out on a sunday run and come across all your teammates at different spots on the run.

Funny thing, I don't remember Bill ever getting us together and saying that the workout for the day was a 10 mile run (the only exception being the 10 miler at the end of camp) It was always fartleks or repeats-tempo-repeats.

If you saturday workout was 8x300 then 10 miles at 6:00 pace then 8x300 (17 miles with warm up and cool down), do you really need a long run?

How many know Dellinger retired for 1 year prior to his third Olympics in Tokyo? He earned bronze in that Olympics, and the last American to medal in that event. Schul won iin that same race. No American as ever won a medal since.

I have his log for that last year. His "system" at Oregon was very similar to the methods he used on himself. He coached himself and cycled between 100+ miles to 60 miles per week.

He coached with a philosophy that made an athlete responsible for his own success. He would guard his athletes from ruin if the workouts got out of hand, but he saw that everyone had different needs that only an individual can know.

Anyone was welcome to train with the team. Nelson won the NCAA steeple. Dan was a walk on.

What Dellinger taught, that I carry with me today is not to let other people dictate your path. He is a man that sees each person's potential coming from the self and not from a pat on back from the coach. He never kissed tail, nor would he desire to see his men do the same.

Recently, Bill advised me, consistent with the philosophy he lived by. Paraphrase.( Don't let anyone determine your path.) An important lesson we all can be inspired by.

Mikesblack wrote:

How many know Dellinger retired for 1 year prior to his third Olympics in Tokyo? He earned bronze in that Olympics, and the last American to medal in that event. Schul won iin that same race. No American as ever won a medal since.

Bill worked in a lumber mill with Gary Davisson, a man I used to work for when I lived in Eugene. It was hard, physical work. Bill told me that he looked at everything he was doing at work as training -- every movement, every thing that he lifted was training. And it paid off, if you look that the film you can see that Bill just clawed his way from out of nowhere to a medal.

Heck, with all of the cinders in his face at Tokyo, he must have felt as if it was just another day at the mill.

Compare Dellinger's attitude to that of all of the whiny brats who complain about having to stand on their feet working "retail". Oh, the poor dears.

Mike -

Thanks for the support of a fine coach: Bill Dellinger.

Can you please send me and email? Thanks man!

Tinman

runfastcoach@gmail.com

Exx-duck, do you mind teling us some of your good delinger stories to us?

I'd also like to know what workouts were done for track during the march-april months. Thanks!

I love this thread. Anyone have anything new to add?

I stumbled on this old one today-some pretty good stuff here.

hey exxx duck if ur still around id be interested with an email of ur training logs

xfatlard2312x@aol.com

malmo wrote:

Exxx-duck wrote:

I disagree with your observation that the "knuckleheads" raced the workouts. One thing I observed watching elite athletes train is that the good ones bring the same intensity to the tough workouts as they do the races.

What you aren't seeing is that the sub 13:30 runners WERE training at their proper level. The hangers-on weren't. That's not intensity, that's punching in the time-clock, day to day training.

This is because Dellinger, for whatever reasons, was not as attentive to individual coaching as Bowerman was.

I.e. Dellinger "let," people over train or burn themselves out, Bowerman intelligently prevented and forcefully stopped runners from over training.

I can only think of two reasons for this change between Bowerman's Oregon training philosophy and Dellinger's.

1. Dellinger was not dedicated enough to work that hard.

2. Dellinger was not the former pre-med student and rocket scientist that Bowerman.

Dellinger has said that it was hard to follow Bowerman because Bowerman was a "genius," and Dellinger himself was not.

Exxxduck wrote:

Wally World wrote:

Exxx-duck,

Thanks for the info. What type of progression / improvement did you personally have with the system?

I flamed out after about 3 years. The mistake I made was trying to do too much mileage along with all the interval work . The week I posted was around 85 miles but it could easily climb to 90-100 with a little longer morning run and a little added to cool downs, which I did some weeks.

The system will make you strong as an ox, or it could wipe you out. I guess it's all about how you go about it. When you were a walk on frosh back then no one took you aside and told you how to adjust into the system. You had to learn things on your own.

Bowerman would have; Dellinger could not be bothered with anything but the top ten guys.

You nailed the downside to the Dellinger approach Perfectly.

Dellinger ruined handfuls of talented runners because he could not be patient and steward careers the way Bowerman did. He didn't even try. It was a once size fits all approach to coaching. Bowerman was giving individualized training routines, Dellinger, evidently did not want to work that hard.

Very few of Dellinger's runners wanted his coaching or input after they graduated...

Tweeter wrote:

Exxx-duck wrote:

Thursday: a.m. 5 sets 800/300 on dirt track. I think the rest was a 300 jog after each.

Great workout. The rest is actually 300m after the 800m and 200m after the 300m.

The entire thing is done as a cutdown (see below). This was my best.

Set1 2:15/48

Set2 2:10/47

Set3 2:08/46

Set4 2:05/44

Set5 2:00/43

Because it's done continuously and with little rest it can get quite tough. I believe it is still done several times per year in Tenley Town.

This workout was also done on Pre's Trail; when I was doing it it was a set of 6...

Alder Street wrote:

Exxx-Duck wrote:

Tweeter: That is some smokin fast running to do at 7 a.m on a thursday morning! I only knew a couple of guys that could hit those splits. Great to hear from you.

800/300 wasn't ever done in the morning was it?

It was done for years in the afternoon, or Pre's train, the dirt track...which they never should have removed.