Still Running (weakly). Issue 115

PAST – inspiration – “At the tape, he’s smashed the World Record by two and a half seconds,” said the commentator as Jim Ryun beat Kip Keino by 30 yards in the 1967 USA v Commonwealth 1500 metres.  The record he beat was Herb Elliott’s from the 1960 Olympic final – 3:35.6 down to 3:33.1.

Ryun was only 20 at the time, but he had been making a name for himself for years.  In 1964, aged 17, he had become the first high school athlete to run a mile in under four minutes with 3:59.0.  He beat Olympic 800 and 1500 champ Peter Snell to win the 1965 AAU Championships in a time of 3:55.3, which stood as a high school record for 36 years.  He ran five sub fours in high school, including the first in a high school event, a 3:58.3, at the 1965 Kansas High School state meet.  ESPN named him the best high school athlete of all time, ahead of Tiger Woods and LeBron James.

In 1966, Ryun (19) set two World Records – the half mile (1:44.9), then the mile (3:51.3).  In 1967, he set a World Record in the indoor half mile (1:48.3) and the outdoor mile again (3:51.1).  Some of these were run on cinders; and of course Ryun did not have the benefit of today’s supershoes.

Ryun, classically built at 6 foot 2 and 12 stone, with an irresistible sprint finish, went to three Olympics, but encountered bad luck.  He was too young, at 17, to make a real impact in 1964.  In 1968, he lost to high-altitude born Keino at Mexico City, winning a silver medal for which he was castigated in America.  And in 1972, he was tripped in the 1500 heats and failed to qualify.  The IOC agreed a foul had occurred but refused US appeals to reinstate the World Record holder.

PRESENT – perspiration – Which brings us to Cooper Lutkenhaus, a 16-year-old American who is being compared with Ryun’s prodigious talent, having come second in his nation’s World Championship 800 trial last week with 1:42.27, a time faster than Steve Ovett, Steve Cram or Peter Elliott ever managed.

A few unlucky predecessors have shouldered “the new Ryun” label – Marty Liquori (born 1949) and Alan Webb (born 1983) come to mind if you like googling – never with a favourable outcome.  But many experts judge Lutkenhaus to be far ahead of Ryun at the same age.

We will see in due course.  Given the differences in shoes, tracks, pacing, nutrition and recovery, I don’t think the young man is too far beyond my first running hero.  I am not calling Cooper the young middle distance runner GOAT just yet.

FUTURE – suggestion – It’s not really surprising that Jim Ryun was so good.  Let’s take a typical training week from his off-season.

Saturday: hilly 16-miler in 1:38.  Sunday: 5-mile run.  Monday: he ran three miles in the morning.  In the afternoon, after a warmup of a mile jog, then 4x120 and 4x60 sprints, he ran a mile time trial, then 3x800 and 4x400, with a warm-down of 2 miles, short sprints, weights and kicking in the pool.  The intervals between the efforts usually saw him perform callisthenics.

Tuesday, he ran four miles in the morning.  In the afternoon, after the usual extensive warmup, he ran 6 times 1500 cross country, then 6 times 800.  Same warm-down.  Wednesday: four miles in the morning.  Afternoon: 32 times 400 metres, then weights. 

Thursday: three miles in the morning.  Afternoon: warmup, 30 times 200 metres, callisthenics and warm-down.  Friday was an easy day as there was no morning workout, just a cross country race in the afternoon, which he won in course record time.

This was the autumn of 1963 – he was 16 years old!

I am not saying you’ve got to do all this to be successful.  I’m not sure it is even healthy!  I doubt whether Lutkenhaus does this much.  (We noted before that Kiwi wunderkind, Sam Ruthe, who this year become the youngest ever sub-4-minute miler, only trains 40-50km per week running, plus some swimming and biking.)  In fact, Ryun’s coach, Bob Timmons, was criticised for putting him through this.

But it is a reminder of how much training some people put in, how professional their approach is, and how, even in OUR world, where the struggle is to be the best version of me rather than the best in the world, we should regularly ask ourselves what more or what else we could do to improve.