The 2024 Cross Country season is over! 2025 has just begun!
This is the seventh day of easy running in week 3, and the fifth day in the new year!
Warm-up well,
65-70 minutes of moderate running,
cool-down well,
Our book suggestion for today is The Self-Made Olympian by Ron Daws, published in 1977
Ron Daws was an Olympic marathon in 1968 for the US. He was also a very influential coach and a huge driving force in running in the Minneapolis area in the 1960s-1990s.
Ron personally corrected racing shoes, used clothes from thrift stores to run in the winter, trained for hot races in 2-3 sweat suits, and took average talent and incredible drive to make the 1968 Olympic team.
Ron Daws was not supposed to make the Olympic team in 1968. He had sciatica so bad in 1967 around the Pan Am Games, he had to drop out. Ron build himself up and moved into fourth in the last lap of the 1968 Olympic Trials, running against a guy who had a PB of 49 seconds for 400 meters and Ron’s best was 60 seconds! Ron Daws did not let it come down to a kick, he moved away.
This is one of my favorite books, as Ron helps the runner appreciate Arthur Lydiard’s training methods. His stories are inspiring and I have to say this training book helped me understand how I needed to work harder and smarter.
You have a good shot of getting the book in the library, as it is out of print. It is a real gem!
Self Made Olympian, by Ron Daws
Racing-Do you want to race?
You have not lost any fitness since the end of cross country three weeks ago, in fact, I always had my athletes run a two-mile at the end of the season or just after recovery to see their fitness level. (My college coach, Dan Durante, timed us at 2 miles at 90 percent, then, a 200 meters close to all out).
Other book suggestions: The Self Made Olympian, A Clean Pair of Heels by Murray Halberg, Pre! by Tom Jordan.
