Trainingschedule of an Olympic Gold Medallist

In the Polish Magazine Bieganie (translated: Running) was a nice historic fact. The 1908 Olympic Marathon winner Johnny Hayes trained as follows:

• every day a 3 mile run
• a longer run was followed by resting the first day en just a walk the second day and a 3 mile run on the third
• this was completed with long marches

As an example of one of these marches....during the Games in London they were bored waiting for the day of teh marathon. The team went on a 30 mile march. An extreme example of a LSD ( Long Slow Distance) run.

He won the marathon in 2:55. Not realy a time for medals nowadays but I would be very proud with a time near the three hours.

If you want to learn more on the history of teh 1908 marathon and the tale behind the marathon distance of 42 kilometer and 195 meters I refer to a nice article on Times online. For example: Hayes wasn't the first to finish but got the gold medall anyway. Why? read on....