Jim Ryan is absolutely right. I did a 40x440 workout---average 72 seconds per 440--in the middle of my junior year outdoor track season, in early April 1977. That ruined me for the rest of the season, I was dead-legged. Ran my worst 2 mile ever in high school, a 10:52, ten days after that workout and did not run better than 10:48, rest of 1977. Two years later, training on my own and running races for the Charlottesville Track Club, I trained with 800 meter runners, whose favorite workout was 8x440 in 60 seconds, with jog interval of 150 yards (I was running my 440s in 65, average). We finished those workouts with 110 sprints/jog 110 interval, for one mile (16 110 sprints). May 1979, I ran a 9:42 2 mile--huge improvement, because my training was much smarter, much more focused. Hill training, sand training and running in deep snow always made the big difference for me, too---there's a reason the Finns run regularly in the deep snow and do sand training, you get a lot stronger and faster but without killing yourself on the track.
Jim Ryun was over-trained by an inexperienced H.S.Track-Coach-Timmons. You should've been doing 10 x 800 m/ sub 2:20 pace and 6x mile/ sub 5 min. pace and your time in the 2 mile would've been under 9:30/ 2 mile.
Everything Jim says from 3:23 to 3:39 is sixteen seconds of absolute gold, and it's probably the hardest thing to understand until you do exactly that about a thousand times.
Pure Gold! It's too bad that Coach Timmons burnt Ryun out with his insane training in H.S.! Ryun had the potential to run a 3:47 mile, post college but he was burnt out and beat. Even Salazar wasn't running 100 MPW in H.S.
Ryun ran his first mile in gym class as a sophomore, 5:38. I ran my first mile as an 8th grader in track, 5:38. Based on his experience, that meant I would represent America in the 1980 Olympics. Thank God for the US boycott or my real lack of talent would have had no excuses for me not making the team.
I learned about upper body strength in running, ..instinctively , ....I loved to bench and do curls,..also I ran with 2and a half pound plates and pass them to a team mate when I got tired.,....I experimented with different arm swings and found I could drive my legs with my arms at the end of the race, when I was tired, and also keep a steady pace better.
Maybe if you had got a hold of 'Running to the Top' by Arthur Lydiard you could have been a contender as you seem to have had the speed all you needed was the Engine tuned up by a serious diet Endurance......Ryan talks here of a morning Distance run of Four Miles... different times back then...
@TimBrownSenorCafe- Props to you sir on your running endeavor back then. Watching some of these videos w/ Jim Ryun, like you, he's also sortof a running hero =)
When I ran cross country in the 1980s. Here was my coaches training method, if we were going to have a race on a hilly course that week, about 3 or 4 days before the race he would have us do sprints intervals up a very steep hill. Your calves would be blown out. So you would ice your legs for a couple days before. We were competing against some high schools that had very active running programs, they would have organized runs all summer long, and they even recruited runners from around the country to move to their town for high school - even though that stuff was suppose to be illegal many schools would do this, for other sports as well.
My high school years 2015-2019. A town near me did this. They won state 3 out of the 4 years of those years? But they were in our district. We trained like you guys. But they had all summer, two a days, and then a full two seasons of running.
Asked my coach for a Jim ryan work--out,...we walked off the track half way through, .......I heard during a long break ,....he was eating a lot of pizza and gained 50 pounds and couldn't break a 5 min mile.....I think it was in his book.
Well I ran in the 70s and let me tell you the shoes were absolute crap. Adidas has just come out. But I couldn’t afford them. We trained in sprinters tennis shoes they were like ballet slippers
600 repeats are wayyy better effect for a miler....and you don't need too many (8-10?)......400 is not enough......so point being, Ryun coulda been even better, had he done 600's and 1200's!!!
I disagree. The 400 will always be the staple distance for interval work for the mile. The longer distance intervals will not build the necessary speed that is required.
@@dennispacelli1007 Again, I disagree. We only have so much ability to recover from hard workouts and over training happens very easy. That's why quality training at the right distances is so important; in the past I ran myself into the ground and got slower and slower; the harder I trained the worse I got and ended up having to take a couple of weeks off to fully recover. Rather than thinking "a lot of training" we need to be thinking "just enough training" to get good results.
@@CaneFu There is NO one way to train, sorry.....IF there were coaches tell me they wouldn't have all of their books/articles/dvd's on their shelves. I DO AGREE 400's build speed and strength I just did 8x250-300 m at 110 percent I know pace! Ryun said 20 mile runs I disagree with that for a miler He should have gone to Villanova and run with Jumbo Elliot(coach)Marty Liquori, Sydney Maree, Don Paige, Dick Buerkle IMO.....
@@dennispacelli1007 You are correct in that many people train different ways but you are wrong if you think that all training is equally valid because it isn't. Some forms of training are better than others and you just admitted that.
Steroids don't help with primarily aerobic events. You really need to do some studying. Besides, synthetic steroids weren't synthesized in the US until 1958, and it took many years before they filtered down to the high school level in the strength events. Good lord, people like you are incredibly ignorant.
@@kurtfrancis4621 ... You're wrong on one count.... Steroids DO help with aerobic events because they improve recovery between workouts...ever hear of Lance Armstrong who publicly admitted to using steroids??? Probably every top middle distance runner in the Olympics today uses them at one time or another. However, I doubt that Ryun ever used them back then.
@@CaneFu You're completely wrong my friend. Lance admitted to using EPO, HGH, and blood doping. If you have proof that Lance used "Steroids" then prove it!
@@richardmilliken5651 That's like saying a bank robber using a revolver instead of a shotgun to rob a bank is somehow not as bad. The fact is that Lance Armstrong publicly admitted to using testosterone in the Oprah interview. Testosterone IS a steroid you boob.
Jim Ryan is absolutely right. I did a 40x440 workout---average 72 seconds per 440--in the middle of my junior year outdoor track season, in early April 1977. That ruined me for the rest of the season, I was dead-legged. Ran my worst 2 mile ever in high school, a 10:52, ten days after that workout and did not run better than 10:48, rest of 1977. Two years later, training on my own and running races for the Charlottesville Track Club, I trained with 800 meter runners, whose favorite workout was 8x440 in 60 seconds, with jog interval of 150 yards (I was running my 440s in 65, average). We finished those workouts with 110 sprints/jog 110 interval, for one mile (16 110 sprints). May 1979, I ran a 9:42 2 mile--huge improvement, because my training was much smarter, much more focused. Hill training, sand training and running in deep snow always made the big difference for me, too---there's a reason the Finns run regularly in the deep snow and do sand training, you get a lot stronger and faster but without killing yourself on the track.
Jim Ryun was over-trained by an inexperienced H.S.Track-Coach-Timmons. You should've been doing 10 x 800 m/ sub 2:20 pace and 6x mile/ sub 5 min. pace and your time in the 2 mile would've been under 9:30/ 2 mile.
probably some of the best advice around
Everything Jim says from 3:23 to 3:39 is sixteen seconds of absolute gold, and it's probably the hardest thing to understand until you do exactly that about a thousand times.
Unless you are Ed Whitlock, then it isn't true...ran slow slow, then run a 2:54 marathon at age 74!!!!
Pure Gold! It's too bad that Coach Timmons burnt Ryun out with his insane training in H.S.! Ryun had the potential to run a 3:47 mile, post college but he was burnt out and beat.
Even Salazar wasn't running 100 MPW in H.S.
Some real gems here. Beautiful ode to his high school coach.
I agree -- will repackage it and put some edits on tiktok.
Filmed, apparently, on an ocean-going ship.
... during a hurricane. 🙄
Ryun ran his first mile in gym class as a sophomore, 5:38. I ran my first mile as an 8th grader in track, 5:38.
Based on his experience, that meant I would represent America in the 1980 Olympics. Thank God for the US boycott or my real lack of talent would have had no excuses for me not making the team.
In high school I did 20 x 440 at :70 with 2:00 jog between - every night. And it was exhausting! I can't imagine doing 40 x 440!
he was my childhood hero
The man talking at the beginning is my coach!!! Hahaha
The workout didn't start until you got tired. I like that.
He visited my school last week OMG
I learned about upper body strength in running, ..instinctively , ....I loved to bench and do curls,..also I ran with 2and a half pound plates and pass them to a team mate when I got tired.,....I experimented with different arm swings and found I could drive my legs with my arms at the end of the race, when I was tired, and also keep a steady pace better.
So you did 300 miles a week running with two and a half pound plates?
Maybe if you had got a hold of 'Running to the Top' by Arthur Lydiard you could have been a contender as you seem to have had the speed all you needed was the Engine tuned up by a serious diet Endurance......Ryan talks here of a morning Distance run of Four Miles... different times back then...
@TimBrownSenorCafe- Props to you sir on your running endeavor back then. Watching some of these videos w/ Jim Ryun, like you, he's also sortof a running hero =)
When I ran cross country in the 1980s. Here was my coaches training method, if we were going to have a race on a hilly course that week, about 3 or 4 days before the race he would have us do sprints intervals up a very steep hill. Your calves would be blown out. So you would ice your legs for a couple days before. We were competing against some high schools that had very active running programs, they would have organized runs all summer long, and they even recruited runners from around the country to move to their town for high school - even though that stuff was suppose to be illegal many schools would do this, for other sports as well.
My high school years 2015-2019. A town near me did this. They won state 3 out of the 4 years of those years? But they were in our district. We trained like you guys. But they had all summer, two a days, and then a full two seasons of running.
please keep the camera still
Asked my coach for a Jim ryan work--out,...we walked off the track half way through, .......I heard during a long break ,....he was eating a lot of pizza and gained 50 pounds and couldn't break a 5 min mile.....I think it was in his book.
Ryun would run in the dead of a Kansas winter with a thick ass scarf and no DRI-FIT®️ love the OLD SCHOOL GRIT 😏
Well I ran in the 70s and let me tell you the shoes were absolute crap. Adidas has just come out. But I couldn’t afford them. We trained in sprinters tennis shoes they were like ballet slippers
The person holding the camera must have Parkinson's...
Nope - but I feel you -- hope you got something out of what Ryun SAID.
600 repeats are wayyy better effect for a miler....and you don't need too many (8-10?)......400 is not enough......so point being, Ryun coulda been even better, had he done 600's and 1200's!!!
I disagree. The 400 will always be the staple distance for interval work for the mile. The longer distance intervals will not build the necessary speed that is required.
@@CaneFu DO them both they won't take away from anything You are both correct!
@@dennispacelli1007 Again, I disagree. We only have so much ability to recover from hard workouts and over training happens very easy. That's why quality training at the right distances is so important; in the past I ran myself into the ground and got slower and slower; the harder I trained the worse I got and ended up having to take a couple of weeks off to fully recover. Rather than thinking "a lot of training" we need to be thinking "just enough training" to get good results.
@@CaneFu There is NO one way to train, sorry.....IF there were coaches tell me they wouldn't have all of their books/articles/dvd's on their shelves. I DO AGREE 400's build speed and strength I just did 8x250-300 m at 110 percent I know pace! Ryun said 20 mile runs I disagree with that for a miler He should have gone to Villanova and run with Jumbo Elliot(coach)Marty Liquori, Sydney Maree, Don Paige, Dick Buerkle IMO.....
@@dennispacelli1007 You are correct in that many people train different ways but you are wrong if you think that all training is equally valid because it isn't. Some forms of training are better than others and you just admitted that.
Bet the kids today couldn't compete with the academic standard to enter the post high-school of the sixties .
The academic standards of university admissions today are the strictest they have ever been historically.
Can Ryun prove he never was on steroids in hs or college or after? Mandatory testing for steroids was after Ryun Retired, I believe.
Steroids don't help with primarily aerobic events. You really need to do some studying. Besides, synthetic steroids weren't synthesized in the US until 1958, and it took many years before they filtered down to the high school level in the strength events. Good lord, people like you are incredibly ignorant.
@@kurtfrancis4621 ... You're wrong on one count....
Steroids DO help with aerobic events because they improve recovery between workouts...ever hear of Lance Armstrong who publicly admitted to using steroids??? Probably every top middle distance runner in the Olympics today uses them at one time or another. However, I doubt that Ryun ever used them back then.
@@kurtfrancis4621 bullsh*t, steroids can help you recover from muscle tear downs. So you have the ability to train harder and more frequently.
@@CaneFu You're completely wrong my friend. Lance admitted to using EPO, HGH, and blood doping. If you have proof that Lance used "Steroids" then prove it!
@@richardmilliken5651 That's like saying a bank robber using a revolver instead of a shotgun to rob a bank is somehow not as bad. The fact is that Lance Armstrong publicly admitted to using testosterone in the Oprah interview. Testosterone IS a steroid you boob.
Thumbs down....can't watch it.