Tinman wrote:
Benji, I once read an article written by you about the use of long slow runs (3 hours I think) that you started doing after some bad injury in Europe. I recall you said that you had to slow down because of the injury and hence you learned the value of longer slow runs. Can you tell us more about it. I read that 20 years ago, I think. What was the situation and what lessons did you learn that helped you perform better? Thank you very much. Tinman
In 1977 I had a hiking accident in Zermat, Switzerland. A basketball sized rock feel from a trail above me and smashed into my knee. I limped 3000m down the hill and was taken to the hospital where some Swiss docs declared that I had destroyed my knee. They wanted to cut and I wanted to wait till I got back to the states. They finally relented and stuck me in a full leg cast. That was late August. The docs said I would limit the rest of my life and never run again.
I got home, got the cast cut off and started back running with some pain but not as bad as I expected. After about 3-4 weeks I realized my knee was getting worse so I quite running for a couple weeks and then started back. My routine when I started back was to run 2 miles or so one day (till the leg hurt too much) and then take the next day off. This was in October. By January I had progressed to about 2 hrs at 7:00 pace every other day.
In February, the leg was good enough to go easy (30-45) on the days in between, but I was still just running miles. In late February I started running the local road races again and was pleasantly surprised to find I was still able to run about 5:00 pace for the local 3 mile to 6 mile races.
In April (1978) I went to Boston and ran 2:15:04, a 4 minute PR, for 11th. That convinced me that hard easy with a focus on longer days as the hard was a good plan.