Best distance runners who only did singles

Such a person does not exist.

Old school...Jack Foster, 2:11 marathon master's record holder at 41 from New Zealand long time ago. Everyday...just go out and run...rarely ran "track work".

I'm sure there are hundreds more. This obsession with "even 5k runners should run 150 miles a week in doubles!" started in the last decade. Funny how the "status-quo" changes from one extreme to the next from decade to decade. My guess is that the answer is somewhere in the middle.

Alan

Thanks Alan. Due to work commitments I'm finding it difficult to hit doubles and feel a lot better hitting singles at ~70mpw these days, though I have up to run 150mpw training for 5/10k!

Runningart2004 wrote:

Old school...Jack Foster, 2:11 marathon master's record holder at 41 from New Zealand long time ago. Everyday...just go out and run...rarely ran "track work".

I'm sure there are hundreds more. This obsession with "even 5k runners should run 150 miles a week in doubles!" started in the last decade. Funny how the "status-quo" changes from one extreme to the next from decade to decade. My guess is that the answer is somewhere in the middle.

Alan

Sure, there are hundreds of high level singles doers, but for every one of THEM there are dozen of doublers that are faster. And doubles doesn't necessarily mean mega mileage, yes you will be able to do more miles than in singles but 70-80 miles a week for a middle distance runner is better in doubles. For most people, you will generally feel better, run a little faster on average, stay more injury free and be more consistant. Sure you might have to do more laundry or wake up earlier, but the trade off is worth it come race day.

Wes Santee came within 1/2 second of being the first person under 4 minutes. He feels that if he had at least some doubles it would have been the thing that pushed him through the barrier first. Taboriwho was the third person under four minutes trained twice daily with Igloi.

Lazslo before the Melbourne Olympics was kept from training for about 10 days and the loss of fitness cost him a medal in his opinion. (He was shoved by Landy and barely lost the Bronze to Landy). So even 40-50 years ago the top athletes were starting to recognise the differance made by the second work out. Very few top tier athletes today do singles.

0/10 son

Brian Diemer ran 80-85 miles a week in singles and also took one day off a week. He was an Olympic Bronze medalist in the steeple chase in 1984. However I'm not certain whether you should categorize a steeplechaser as a long distance runner.

Tardis Runner wrote:

(He was shoved by Landy and barely lost the Bronze to Landy)

Landy, during a championship race, once accidentaly spiked a fallen competitor and actually stopped and turned back to see if the fellow racer was alright. He still won the race, but I find it unbelievable that an athlete of that calibur would do that. I didn't see Morceli do that when El Guerrouj fell in '96. I find it hard to believe that Landy pushed someone on purpose.

Harald Norpoth had a great career and an Olympic silver at 5,000 meters on one run a day. Jonathan Wyatt is mostly a once a day runner. Steve Hoag, I think, mostly did once a days and managed a 2:11 marathon. Pat McMahon reportedly ran once a day and was second at Boston in 1971. Jack Foster has already been mentioned. Bob Deines got 6th at Boston twice in the late 60s and came fourth at the 1968 Olympic Trials Marathon on one run a day.

If you go back to the amateur era there were a good many people who only ran once a day, mostly because of work. But it's a lot easier to find successful people doing two a days.

tomato de la tron wrote:

Anybody got any good examples of long distance guys who only trained singles?

Chris McDougall. 120 mpw in singles, I think!

Alan, you also might find it funny that this last decade has also seen a huge improvement in American performances from 800m-Marathon.

Mileage works. If you can't do it, don't give up, but you'll be better if you can.

HRE wrote:

Harald Norpoth had a great career and an Olympic silver at 5,000 meters on one run a day. Jonathan Wyatt is mostly a once a day runner. Steve Hoag, I think, mostly did once a days and managed a 2:11 marathon. Pat McMahon reportedly ran once a day and was second at Boston in 1971. Jack Foster has already been mentioned. Bob Deines got 6th at Boston twice in the late 60s and came fourth at the 1968 Olympic Trials Marathon on one run a day.

If you go back to the amateur era there were a good many people who only ran once a day, mostly because of work. But it's a lot easier to find successful people doing two a days.

Please, stop quoting old school runners and their comparitively slow times. Anything over 1:46/3:36/13:30/2:08 should not be used as a training model anymore. Honestly, Kenyans often train 3 times a day, at 6am, 10am and 4pm.

My fav - Marc Smet 13:23/27:48/2:10:00 trained 1hr/day occasionally did 90 minute runs.

I agree that old 5k and 10k times don't compare too well, but guys have been running 1:45, 3:36 for about 40 years so that suggests they were doing something right.

I dont think anyone thinks that the 3rd workout a day by the Kenyans makes any difference, but it is that second one -15k@ 3 min pace that does the trick.

I think we would do pretty well on singles if 4 days were that level of intensity, plus a 2 hr run Sunday.

BRJones wrote:

Mileage works. If you can't do it, don't give up, but you'll be better if you can.

an idea that recently burst onto the scene....40 years ago....

This thread is ridiculous. The number of runners who did singles only is few and far between, and most of them would have been before the 1960s.

Diemer ran doubles.

I love these threads - like there is some absolute # to which your performances could approach, if ONLY your training was perfectly fine tuned.

Life is less than perfect - most runners 30-40yrs ago trained 1x/day because they had jobs and families and obligations. Could they have been better if they trained more?.....who cares? they found what worked for them, and hopefully they enjoyed it while they were doing it.

Marty Liquori wrote 30yrs ago, "There are many fine runners who compete at the world class level year in year out and run once a day".

I imagine most distance runners try to avoid doing people who are married.

No. I don't think I'll stop quoting them. All of the people I mentioned had reasonable success against other "old school people with slow times" who ran twice a day. Both Wyatt, who is not "old school" but still running successfully today, and Norpoth have times that are well within well within your standards.

No one is saying it's the best thing to do, certainly I'm not, and it's not what Kenyans do, other than Cosmos Ndetti who reportedly ran singles much of the time. But Kenyans don't usually have jobs either.