In the August 2-9 Sports Illustrated there is an article on Dr. Tony Sandoval that states (p. 106), "referring to a 2:14 marathon he ran in 1979, an outlandish performance given he was training only 35 miles a week during med school".
Malmo or others, any insight? Obviously he had an earlier base with more miles.
A good read. I have always liked Sandoval and feel, like Craig Virgin, was a legitimate gold medal hope that was denied the opportunity.
I remember reading somewhere he'd run 2.14 off 40mpw. I thought that was maybe 1981 though. Given he was a 2.10 man running 100+ mpw and was a little skinny guy it wouldn't surprise that he could still pop a 2.14 after a period of low mileage.
Yeah, that's pretty crazy. He must have been putting in some quality efforts at that low training level.
You can hang out to fitness for a while that way, but eventually it will fade unless you go back to harder/higher training.
Maybe he ran 35 miles one week.
Or maybe he averaged 35 mpw from birth and the low to no miles as a kid brought the average down.
I don't know a good defintion for mpw.
How about average mpw over previous 12 months leading up to any given race?
So you could be a 2:10 runner at 100 mpw and drop to 35 for a year and run 2:14.
The moral of the story is that the exact numbers are not important. What is important is that he had a base built up over years of higher mileage. That he ran a 2:14 off 35 MPW (or 40 or whatever) just goes to show that the work to run a 2:14 was done in the years before- not the few weeks or months building up to it.
Just another example of this is Benji Durden, who ran his 2:09 off of 90 MPW- but that was after years previously spent at 120.
Yes, Sandoval was living off his previous training when he ran that 2:14. He'd been doing much more when he got his 2:10. Fitness doesn't go away overnight.
Here we go again HRE with you being a know-it-all...
http://www.theharrier.com/marcbloomrunning/worldclassrunners/sandoval.php
He ran the 2'14 before his 2;10.20 & his 2;10.19; not the other way around.
He had already put in the miles though:
As a senior in 1976, he won the Pac-8 conference 10,000 meters over a trio of Washington State Kenyans. Sandoval ran his last lap in 62 seconds to outkick Samson Kimobwa, who would set a world 10,000 record the next year. "They took 2-3-4 against me," Sandoval recalls with relish...
On a track runner's mileage, Sandoval took a crack at the '76 Olympic Marathon Trial. He'd run a 2:19 debut at the Fiesta Bowl in Phoenix the previous December. In the trial, held in Eugene, Oregon, Sandoval ran well but it was his first near-miss: fourth-place in 2:14:58.
Without professional running, Sandoval's path was clear. In 1977, he entered the University of Colorado Medical School in Denver. His next marathon, on 35 miles a week, was a 2:14:37 for second at the Nike-Oregon Track Club Marathon in Eugene in 1978.
Were those "badger miles", "coe miles", or "full miles"?
A runner is Arizona named Pete Spahn won a marathon running around 40mpw the year prior. He ran 2:18. This was back in the 1970's.
He was somewhat of a legend back in those days.
Obviously 'Sandoval Miles'.
He ran 2:14 in the 1976 trials off of training that was pretty similar to what he was doing for the 2:10. Then he ran a later 2:14 in the late 70s while in med school and on very reduced training. Thanks for calling me knowledgeable.
Not late 70s obviously. It was in the early 80s when he qualified for the '84 OTs.
Sir Lance-alot wrote:
Were those "badger miles", "coe miles", or "full miles"?
Along with that, we must consider the possibility that the course was not Rupp certified.
Sandoval's base was bolstered by having grown up at altitude.
If I ever run an amazing time, I'm going to claim it was off of 10 mpw and that I'm just rawwww talent. Hey, that was basically the name of the game in high school. Run as much as possible in winter/summer/weekend and claim that you haven't run at all and you're just super talented. Hey, no one knows for sure.
BAA HA HA HA, that is great!
Why even post stuff like this? You give people a fall sense of hope and one kid out there will think, "Hey, if I really run quality miles I can run a 2:14 on 35mpw...".
I have news for you, you can't. This is a one a million type runner (i.e., an elite).
Even if he did actually run a 2:14 on 35mpw, which I seriously doubt, I bet my life savings it was only for about 6-10 weeks after a HUGE base.
Run more my friends.
Some of our clients have run 2:16-2:17 on about 35-40 mpw. It is possible.
It's absolute bullshit that he walked around day-to-day @ 1% bodyfat, even if that's just a white lie to impress the readers.