200 miles a week!?!?

He takes a little liberty in what he calls "miles" but he still did some insane mileage. Too much. But he had other problems as well - emotional, etc. It was his coping mechanism. And boy did he cope.

I was reading about the Tanzanian runner Juma Ikangaa. He did some 220 mile weeks prepping for New York a few times. Can be done, but you better be very resilient, light, efficient, injury-resistant and run on soft surfaces.

Here is a thread about Gerry Lindgren:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&id=230714&thread=230403

runNman, Gerry did run 200 miles a week for 6 weeks just to prove to a Dr. it could be done.

Actuallly he ran 350 miles a week for 6 weeks to prove the physiology professor wrong; 50 miles a day.

350, I stand corrected, thank you

The stories regarding him are incredible. I heard one about him getting caught in an avalanche running in the mountains and "running" his way out of it ater almost dying. ???

How long did his 88 miler take?

50 miles a day is at least 5 hours a day (more likely 6.5 hours) running. I would like to see a cross section of his leg and the capilary density.

In the book that I am reading it says that he started at 5 in the morning, ran to the top of a nearby mountain, and tried to return home by 4 in the afternoon. On his fastest 88 miler he made it home by 2 in the afternoon (under 7min pace).

Anyone else think 350mpw and 88mi long runs are utter bullshit????

MUXC2K3 wrote:

Anyone else think 350mpw and 88mi long runs are utter bullshit????

i dont know if they're bullshit, but its clear that he did tons of miles for long periods of time, more than most every did. this guy sounded crazy. someone should write a gerry lindgren biography.

This post is from 19 years ago so not sure if I'll get a response but what is the book called?