Sub 4 mile thread

Read Once A Runner. Run 3:52.5. Get an Olympic Silver medal.

sork wrote:

Read Once A Runner. Run 3:52.5. Get an Olympic Silver medal.

thanks.....smarta$$

Fair disclosure: I never broke 4:00, but since you asked, I think it depends how old you are and how many years you think you can sustain a serious training regimen. If you are young and unattached, don't do anything crazy, stay healthy, and hope for a race with ideal conditions. Otherwise, it might be time to adopt the Once a Runner lifestyle.

The Self Coached Runner II by Allen Lawrence details nine months of daily training for Leonard Hilton, a 3:55 miler from the 70s. As the book explains, Hilton had talent but did not have crazy 400 speed so he had to really work for his success.

The book is a little dated but it's interesting to read and the workouts seem to make sense. A fair amount of tempo work and mixed intervals with minimum rest. A lot of fast tempos thrown into long runs and short interval workouts at end of easy runs. That said, about half of the 70-90 mile weeks are simple 5-12 mile runs at 6 flat to 6:30 pace.

The benchmark workout is listed as 6x500 in 73 with 100 jog recovery in between followed by 1 mile jog recovery and 800 in 1:56. From what I can tell the primary training goal was to master running 58-59 sec pace over intervals of 200-1200 meters in varying states of fatigue. That's very simplistic but the book is available used on amazon and worth a look-

I had a high school teammate who platuead at 4:03 in college. He eventually broke 4 but it took sustained periods of 90 mile weeks and 2-3 tracks session per week to hit 3:59 when he was 25. After that he basically hung up his spikes-

Good Luck-

Lenny Hilton wrote:

The Self Coached Runner II by Allen Lawrence details nine months of daily training for Leonard Hilton, a 3:55 miler from the 70s. As the book explains, Hilton had talent but did not have crazy 400 speed so he had to really work for his success.

The book is a little dated but it's interesting to read and the workouts seem to make sense. A fair amount of tempo work and mixed intervals with minimum rest. A lot of fast tempos thrown into long runs and short interval workouts at end of easy runs. That said, about half of the 70-90 mile weeks are simple 5-12 mile runs at 6 flat to 6:30 pace.

If 400 speed was his weakness, why didn't he work on his 400 speed instead of tempos and interval work? Easy runs at 6:00 pace aren't going to make his sprint speed better.

holy ouch:

"6x500 in 73 with 100 jog recovery in between followed by 1 mile jog recovery and 800 in 1:56."

Yeah, I remember that class, it was right between recess and lunch.

I haven't broken 4 but I do know that you do get better when you race without expectations. Just continue with your training and the times will come.

Pugg wrote:

Lenny Hilton wrote:

The Self Coached Runner II by Allen Lawrence details nine months of daily training for Leonard Hilton, a 3:55 miler from the 70s. As the book explains, Hilton had talent but did not have crazy 400 speed so he had to really work for his success.

The book is a little dated but it's interesting to read and the workouts seem to make sense. A fair amount of tempo work and mixed intervals with minimum rest. A lot of fast tempos thrown into long runs and short interval workouts at end of easy runs. That said, about half of the 70-90 mile weeks are simple 5-12 mile runs at 6 flat to 6:30 pace.

If 400 speed was his weakness, why didn't he work on his 400 speed instead of tempos and interval work? Easy runs at 6:00 pace aren't going to make his sprint speed better.

First off, let me say Hilton is an under appreciated runner. He broke 4 for the mile 32 times, was a 1972 Olympian in the 5000 Meters, and won the 1973 U.S. Mile Championship ( I believe over Marty Liquori). Sadly, he passed away in 2000 from pancreatic cancer.

As to the comment about developing speed, Lawrence talks a lot about speed as it relates to sub 4 ability. Lawrence states that 23.8 200m/ 52.0 400m ability is the minimum speed required to break 4 and that Hilton, a 4:15 hs miler, was able to meet those marks but not by much. According to Lawrence, strength work is exactly what runners with "average" natural speed need to develop race specific speed.

"Empirical observation suggests that the smaller the margin by which the runner exceeds the (speed) standards, the more high mileage training is required and the more the runner must build milling speed through overall running strength." pg. 102-103

A one week section of Hilton's training in late March is recorded as follows

M- 7 miles easy running (6 min- 6:30 pace according to book)

T- 3x 600 in 1:28 w 800 jog: 4x 200 in 25.5 w/ 600 Jog

W - 10miles easy

Th- AM 15 miles easy

PM 6 miles easy w/ 10x 100(fast and controlled)

Fr. AM 14 miles easy running

PM 4 miles easy incorporating 2x200 in 28.5 and 1 x 400 in 54

Sat- 3 x 1.5 mile in 6:57, 6:54, 6:58 800 recovery

Sun- 2x 100 in 12.5 w/300 jog jog 400 3 x400 in 60.5 w/ 200 jog; 300 in 40.5, jog 400; 100 in 12.5 jog 2 miles; then 2 miles in 11:25

p. 107

Elsewhere in the training log tempos of 10 miles easy incorporating 4 miles in 22:03, 14 miles easy w 3 x 1.5 miles in 7:00 w/ 4 min jog recovery, and 17 miles incorporating 3 miles in 15:00 are recorded.

Some of the workouts are actually pretty tame: 2 sets of 10x200 in 32 seconds w/ 200 jog recovery. However, Hilton hardly ever took a day off and if the book is to be believed never ran much slower than 6:30 pace except for jog recoveries in track workouts. The interval workouts were almost always of mixed distances and mixed paces.

Every once in a while Hilton apparently tackled monster days like

AM 2x1 Mile in 4:11 w 1 mile jog recovery, then jog 2 miles; then speed set of 300 in 46; 200 in 30, and 3 x100 in 13 w/ 200 recovery between all

PM 15 miles easy running.

According to the book the day before this session was a 6/10 double with strides and the day after is a 12/6 double w/ strides.

Ran 3:04.20 🥱. I did cocaine. It helped I guess.