Autumn 2007 - British Milers Club

Delusions of grandeurAbout 15 years ago a man phoned me and blurted outimmediately, “I want to run a 4-minute mile.” He was just 40years old. At that time I was conducting a correspondencecourse in running. One of the requirements before starting thetuition was a self-testing procedure to ascertain a pupil’scurrent fitness levels and included the Balke Test, speed test,flexibility test, muscular endurance test, muscular power testand elastic leg strength tests. He declined to take these testsas a preliminary to being advised and instead kept harping onabout me coming to watch him run “to examine his technique”.Now, if at the age of 40 an athlete runs like an elephant orCharlie Chaplin there isn’t much one can do about it, so Ideclined to see him run. He later turned up at my houseunannounced while I was out shopping and on my return Inoticed a man peering through my kitchen window, it was ourMad Miler.An athlete of just 40 rather foolishly announced to all andsundry in AW in 2007 his intention of running a sub 4 mile. Asomewhat cynical letter appeared in AW from three leadingveterans who invited the aspirant to train with them.A 40 year old American after perusing the Serpentine RCwebsite and noting my fifty articles on it, decided to send me along e-mail to the effect that he had time to spare and hadalways been a runner and would like to run a sub 4 mile. Isimply wrote back with a target schedule stating that the timesby Frank Horwillfor reps. would not be achieved for a long time and he just hadto keep pegging away at the schedule aiming to improve thecycle each time around.Here is the regime I used to get five runners under 4 mins andis on the same lines as adopted by Coe in 1975.Day 1 - Endurance – 4 x 16 in 4:16 with 200 jog in 90secs.Day 2 - Recovery – a.m. 35mins run. p.m. 12 hours later35mins runDay 3 - 1500 metres pace – Race pace familiarisation – 2 x900 in 1:56 with 400 jog in 90secs or static restRepeat after 5mins rest.Day 4 - Repeat Day 2Day 5 - Endurance – 4 x 1k in 2mins30secs with 2mins restDay 6 - RESTDay 7 - 800 metres speed – 4 x 400 in 56secs with 400jog/3mins.Day 8 - Repeat Day 2Day 9 - Full out sprinting – 1 x 350. 1 x 300. 1 x 250. 1 x200. Walk 400 after each rep.Day 10 - Repeat Day 2Day 11 - 3 x 2k in 5mins 20secs jog 300 in 2minsDay 12 - Repeat Day 2Day 13 - 1 x 1200 in 2:57, jog 600 in 4.5mins, 2 x 600 in sub90 secs, jog 300 in 2mins, 4 x 300 in sub 45secs,walk 100 in 60secs42 BMC News : Autumn 2007