Funniest thing I've read in a while, thank you Amby.

Well, they've had two long interviews with Ritzenhein in the last month, so I'd guess he's aware of it.

I think people are getting carried away with this "experiment of one" talk. There are certain realities of training that all must follow, then a few subtle changes are for the individual. Its not like 100 mpw works for one 5k runner, but 13 miles a week works for another 5k runner. Lets get real folks, the reason you didn't make the team is not because your coach didn't find out what works for you.

Brent wrote:

coopington wrote:

...probably including himself.

Definitely including himself. Burfoot ran his best times off of 120+ miles per week.

I was all set to think he was writing satire here but as another post shows he was evidently serious.

Amby did do his best running off of 120 or so a week. But at the very end of his career he did most of his training by running a hard 3-4 miles each way to work and back totalling about 50 mpw. He wasn't running marathons seriously then but he mentioned somewhere that his performances didn't drop off despite the lower miles. I know he managed a win or two at Machester during this period.

Later he wrote that he didn't think that his hard 50 mpw was a short cut to racing success but rather that his 100+ weeks were a "long cut" to success.

My take is that cutting back to 50 from 100 is very different from only getting to 50 but evidently Amby has another take on it.

Brent wrote:

r.t.i. wrote:

Authors like Burfoot are in the business of selling subscriptions based on telling people what they want to hear. Isn't that how all magazines work?

Maybe....but who wants to hear that an elite runner should run 40 miles per week? Your description would explain why he would give low-mileage advice to recreational runners, but what does it have to do with Ritz or Salazar?

People who only allot time enough in their lives for 40 mpw and want to believe that they can still run their best off of that. Remember, this is the mag that gave legs to that FIRST program and the idea that people saw improvement while using it.

Pad Berson wrote:

The blog appears on the website only. There are no "subscriptions."

He's just floating a new idea, engaging in a bit of hyperbole.

A site that drives subscriptions to the mag. A site that reinforces the crap contained in said mag.

Pad Berson wrote:

Well, they've had two long interviews with Ritzenhein in the last month, so I'd guess he's aware of it.

Granting interviews doesn't imply that the subject regularly reads the site those interviews appear on. Answering interview requests is part of the game, it's garnering pub. Doesn't mean he has any interest in anything else that appears on the site.

A bunch of close minded idiots!!!

Did you remember reading this paragraph?

"Of course, Dathan should do a lot of other stuff. All that Nike can afford, in fact. He should sleep 10 hours a day in a altitude chamber, do tons of cross-training on non-impact machines, work out occasionally on low-gravity and under-water treadmills, and find the best physical therapist-trainer out there to be his personal strength/flexibility coach"

Have any of you actually trained this way? I am sure the answer is NO.

Before you cast it aside as blasphemy, maybe you should try to understand what the concept is behind the training plan.

I am very sure that Ritz could stay in the same shape he is now by training this way for at least 6 months. He may even be able to improve on his 10k time.

After 6 months though, he would have to go back and build a bigger base so he could make some more improvement.

People are too hung up on mileage without taking intensity into account. I have always believed runners do not run enough miles when they are building a base and they run way too many miles when they are sharpening to RACE!!

Mr Mountain wrote:

I am very sure that Ritz could stay in the same shape he is now by training this way for at least 6 months. He may even be able to improve on his 10k time.

After 6 months though, he would have to go back and build a bigger base so he could make some more improvement

Yeah, that's called peaking, which Salazar obviously already has down. To improve, however...40mpw isn't gonna cut it for anything but a high school freshman.

But you're not training when you're in racing season. Burfoot seems to be suggesting that Ritzenhein revise his TRAINING to 40 miles a week. That's different than doing 40 miles a week when you're in Europe in the summer running races. Lydiard used to have his guys at about that level when they were racing but obviously not when they were at home and trying to get fitter.

This article is ridiculous and Burfoot has to know it.

What would happen if RW came out with a new philosophy... Run 100 miles per week to your best marathon!

Would it lead to a new age of American Distance Running? I wonder how much influence they really have.

I just can't comprehend how Amby could write such drivel. Did he not see what happened to American Distance running in the 1990s when everyone ran 30-40 miles a week? Does he not see what's going on now when everyone who is serious puts in at leas 80 mpw? The difference is staggering.

I feel completely cheated by my hs coach and the Amby Burfoot mentality and influence in my running. I ran 20 mpw in hs. How good could I have been if I ran 40, 50, 60, 70 each year throughout hs? What about 80, 90, 100, 110 throughout college?

Maybe I wouldn't have been any better. Maybe I would have been much better. I know I wouldn't be National Class, let alone World Class, but I bet I would have come a lot closer to reaching my potential. For someone like me whose biggest weakness is my aerobic capacity, those years of mileage would have made a big difference... that much I know. Sadly, I can't get (much) of that back now at almost 32 years old.