JIM RYUN TRAINING

A lot of quality miles and a ton of intervals.

Jayhawk wrote:

A lot of easy miles and a ton of intervals.

Jayhawk wrote:

A lot of quality miles and a ton of intervals.

I remember reading once about an insane 440(yard) workout he did but don't recall the details. Anyone remember?

Ran 4 miles to school every morning, and lifted weights before school started.

It was swimming style training

His coach was a swimming coach and the training material i have seen correct or not seems to indicate this as well.

A lot of easy hard training and high mileage overall.

tuesday example 6 x 1500 at 5' (5'20" per mile pace) seems about spot on lactate 2 in swimming terms. With 3' of recovery. 6 x 800 in 2'49" probably somewhere in between lactaat 1 and lactaat 2.

wednesday: another typical swimming workout applied on the track. 4 x (8 x 400) going from 20 km pace to 5 km pace a lot of volume but with the recovery and the not so hard pace very doable and typical swimming kind of stuff.

thursday: another workout that comes from the pool. 3 x (10 x 200). Where they start every 2'30" (30"/200). In the pool recovery would only be 30" but that is because swimming is swimming and running is running.

saturday: 16 mile run 6'05" per mile.

I kind of like this training as a swimmer myself. I can see what advantage such structure would have.

Still at some points i think ryun might have been overtraining a bit: 20 x 400 in 62,5 is a though workout even for a 3'50" miler.

Back then swimming coaches where hard core it brought some good swimmers but even the best suffered from breakdown once in a while because of this. Training has been moving a lot to 2 mmol reps recently or with the good coaches i know i think it applies well in running to. A 1'50" 200 meter swimmer i know does stuff like 20 x 400 (think mile) where he starts at 5' but swims 4'45" per 400. In swimming there is a smaller defict then the 4 second rule that is famous here. The guy i talk about can swim 16' on a 1500 meter short course as well, imagine running 16' for 6000 meters.

There is still a lot of hard core stuff in the recent swimming. It is still somewhat crazy compared to running but it has become somewhat sensible, this to is a reason why swimming records get crushed. This buddy is a 16 year old btw. Just imagine a 16 year old high schoolboy running 13'22 for 5 kilometers and 3'52" for the 1600. That is what this kid does in swimming terms.

Just buy the book. His book from '67 highlights his workouts in great detail.

And YES he was high mileage. And those miles were mostly done in intervals, not this high mileage people talk about today of "oh, I did 90 miles last week all at 7 min per mile jogging pace." Ryun would run 90 in a week and 70 of those miles were 60 second quarters, 2:05 880's, and 4:20 to 4:30 miles.

The dude also hardly toned down his training for meets. He'd throw down 40 x 440y at 62 two days before a major race and then the very next day run 40 x 220y @ 28, then run the race.

Like I said. Just buy the book. It's very detailed.

I'd love to see some guys try to train like Ryun, Coe, and some of the other old school greats. Why not see what happens?

jjjjjjjjjj wrote:

I'd love to see some guys try to train like Ryun, Coe, and some of the other old school greats. Why not see what happens?

Those workouts would be considered cruel and unusual punishment for the weaklings of today's lazy/technology pampered society.

Is this a real Ryun train log or did you just make it up. The paces seem odd and I don't know if you know this but runners have been doing work outs like this for as long as running has been a series sport and we didn't get them from swim coaches.

look for the book "the jim ryun story". it details a lot of his training and gives a sample week at some point. i thought i had it, but i can't seem to find it. i can confirm everything that's been said so far. from what i've gathered, he ran more than 100mpw during XC and indoor, lifted weights a lot, did a lot of obscure football-type drills and ran two-a-days most of the time. the 2-week sample i read was from the middle of his outdoor season in 67(?), and it featured 8-9ish track workouts (varied paces and volume) and a long run with 4-6mile runs in the morning and a couple of pool workouts.

one workout i remember was 4x1500 at something goofy like 5mpm with 3mins of drills and weights for rest. then stuff like sets of 400s working down from 5k pace to mile pace with 2-3mins rest.

well. wrote:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=1576067&page=2

Notice friday: two 800 and one mile race - the same day.