Salazar's training as an elite marathoner 1980-1983

If my memory serves me, an "The Runner" magazine had a sample of his training (three week cycle??) during his annual transition from Summer 5,000 and 10,000 racing to a Fall Marathon.

The Runner merged with Runner's World in the late 1980s. I could not find it quickly on-line anywhere.

bumppppp

A typical week for Alberto had more than 100 miles of running. Monday would include a fartlek run followed by eight to twelve 200-meter repeats at 30 seconds with 30 seconds rest. Tuesday would have a hard track or loop trail sessions. A staple of Tuesday afternoon was to alternate a fast mile at 4:30 to 4:40 with a "recovery" mile at 5:20 to 5:40 for seven to nine miles (the result being an average of about a 5-minute mile pace for the entire distance). Thursday morning usually was a five-mile run at marathon race pace (about 24:30). Thursday afternoon was a fast 7-10 mile run followed by six to nine 300-meter cut downs (56 to 42 seconds), or a similar workout. Saturday was the toughest workout of the week. I once saw him do 4 x 1-mile cut downs , starting in the mid-4:20s and finishing around 4:10. This was a hard workout, but not uncommon. And that was an easy workout compared to the notorious "30th Avenue" session*, which was a key workout leading up to Alberto's New York marathon victories. If the Sunday long run is counted, the result is six hard workouts each week. With that load, he ran his mileage at a relatively easy pace (I usually saw him going 6:30 to 7:00 minute mile pace)

I think Malmo has posted Salazar's logs from around that era.

Loads of doubles and relatively few long runs. Lots of days of 7am/7pm from memory with 2-3 track sessions a week. Rarely ran over 15 miles at a time but weekly mileage often over 90.

'Twice a day, every day'

He burned out and didn't rest. ALL athletes need rest periods. I have his logs from the magazine and it's really no surprise. You can only get away with what he did at that level for so long. REST is just as important as the hard workouts.

sandybeaver wrote:

Does anyone out there know what Salazar did as an athlete in his prime? I've seen the logs Malmo has posted from his NCAA XC days but because he's more well known as a coach nowadays it makes it very hard to search for and find what he did as an athlete himself "back in the day" vs his NOP stuff.

I'm particularly interested in the training leading up to his great 1982 year when he was one of the world's best from the 5k on up at all distances, road and track.

This sums ups Dellinger's training perfectly. 1200m cutdowns and 800/300s were also huge on Delliger's play list.

From the same article..."*"30th Avenue" was a University of Oregon staple cross country workout until the early 1980s when it became apparent that athletes were getting injured from the effort. The workout started with 3 consecutive laps on the track at 60, 65 and then 70 seconds to simulate the fast start of a race. The runners then headed out onto the roads at a fast pace, usually in the 5:20-:30 per-mile range. At about two miles into the run, the runners went up 30th Avenue, about a mile long hill at 6-7 percent grade, followed by a similar downhill. At the bottom of the hill, the runners ran another 1200 meters on the road in 3:15 (usually faster) and continued on their mid 5-minute mile pace for several miles, actually running on a stretch of Interstate-5 as they returned to the track. At the track, the runners then ran 3 consecutive laps in 70, 65 and then 60 seconds. Because of the extreme amount of pounding this workout imposed on the legs, it was replaced with a similar effort on the Amazon barkdust running trail when it opened in the early 1980s."

Doubles wrote:

I think Malmo has posted Salazar's logs from around that era.

Loads of doubles and relatively few long runs. Lots of days of 7am/7pm from memory with 2-3 track sessions a week. Rarely ran over 15 miles at a time but weekly mileage often over 90.

'Twice a day, every day'

As I said originally, I know Malmo has posted one college XC season. I recall most weeks around 100-105 with long runs being 12-14. Makes good sense for 10k training. I had never seen anything specific to what he did as an elite marathoner.

As to the poster criticizing him for burning out, you can't burn out if you never catch fire. Considering all distances the guy was the best overall distance runner in the world for 3 years. We should all be so lucky to burn out like that. And I hate to be an armchair psychologist, but perhaps he wouldn't be such a driven coach if he had won his own Olympic gold.

Weaver you almost made me vomit with that "can't burn out if you never catch fire" line. What a bunch of bs. Plenty of people burnout who never catch fire.

Salazar's staple track session for 10ks and marathons was 4 to 6x mile at current 10k pace, at 4:50 when starting vs 4:27 in top shape, with slow 3 minute 1 lap recoveries.

The I5 bit always blew me away, then when I saw it years later, and drove the route they'd run, I realized how outright insane that was for many reasons.

Running Megaland Eugene, OR, and the best distance guys in the nation, and they had to run on an interstate? Give me a break.

And agreed, Salazar could have kept it going another two or three years, easy, if he'd just known how to moderate things every so often.

Can't claim it as my own line. Didn't want to attribute it to Hodgie because it's not his either but that's where I first saw it.

I never realized the 30th street ave run was that hard - I had seen the specifics before but never knew the terrain made it that much harder. I do remember that in Men of Oregon Bowerman had Moore, Burleson and others do a point-to-point long run with the last ~5 miles down I-5 (this was in the mid-60s - was it even an interstate then?) to finish on campus so this had been done for a while.

robert678 wrote:

If the Sunday long run is counted, the result is six hard workouts each week.

Someone explain how this is possible clean. Are the intense workouts "short" given his high performance?

I read that Salazar ran a good marathon largely off the back of 10,000m training then gradually got worse as he tried to train as a marathoner

ya, that routine was based on dellinger stuff. but there always are recovery issues with this kind of schedule. plus no cross training and technique work. all of which al=sal addresses in his coaching techniques.

the guy can learn.

I didn't criticize him for burning out, if your post was directed towards me. Alberto ran TOO hard TOO often. If you believe catching fire for a short time is the answer, then that's your opinion. Alberto should have had a much longer career than he did, contrary to what you believe. His workouts were hard, but didn't include enough recovery (think addiction).Alberto ran a 20k in Chicago in the early 80's and complained afterwards that he should have been much faster...he was tired from TOO many hard workouts and not enough rest. I have all of his logs and much more. I'd share it, but your post reeked of arrogance so I'll take a pass on that. But when I see Al, I'll let him know how you feel.

longjack wrote:

plus no cross training and technique work. all of which al=sal addresses in his coaching techniques.

I'm not sure what that means, but Salazar did supplemental training, such as sit ups with a 25 pound plate while hanging from his knees off a bench.

He also ran the Hayward Field stairs with a tire innertube filled with sand on his shoulders.

pop_pop!_v2.2.1 wrote:

robert678 wrote:

If the Sunday long run is counted, the result is six hard workouts each week.

Someone explain how this is possible clean. Are the intense workouts "short" given his high performance?

Because robert678 isn't correct. It's not 6 hard workouts a week. It's ONE hard session a week, and 5 tasty bon-bons.

Dellinger's system revolved around smaller chunks of effort, and being that most of them were of the "cut-down" variety, they weren't difficult at all.