Lasse Viren, and many of the other world class runners of his era actually raced quite frequently . In 1976 Viren raced 18 times prior to Montreal . In 1980 he raced 17 times prior to Moscow . Most of the early in the year races were
longer type road races (IE San Blas 1/2 Mar. ) followed by numerous track races (1500-5,000) in the last few months prior to the Games. Granted he trained thru these races and they were part of his "training"
leading up to the Olympics. I don't get todays elites racing so infrequently.
Racing during their build up and peaking for the Olympics is not a zero some game. I would argue a competitive 1/2 marathon in March or a 1,500 track race in June is going to help an athlete more than another quality "hard'
taining session. Not to mention for the good of the sport it would be nice if these athletes made themselves more visible on the racing circuit as opposed
to the hermit like approach many of them take.