It was mostly based on intervals and long distance. One interval workout a week and one long run, every week. Plus sometimes we'd do an interval and long run set, like today 5000 m of hard intervals, then a 40 km run the next day. We did a lot of 20 km time trials, too. In heavy training I'd be doing 1000 km a month, with at maximum 70 km in one day. -Japan Running News
Interview with 2 hr 08 min Japanese marathoner Takayuki Nishida. (note: 1000 kilometers = 621 miles so Nishida was averaging 155 miles a week with one day up to 43 miles!)
At the National Championships before the Athens Olympics I met Samuel Wanjiru. He told me, "It's supposed to rain tomorrow, so I'm just going to stay home and sleep." Japanese runners would show up wearing a cap and vest and do the workout in the rain. I think that ability to let yourself take it easy sometimes is missing in the Japanese system, but some of the talented young guys we have now are learning this lesson so I think there might be another generation of great Japanese runners coming soon. (Wanjiru is a Kenyan who trains in Japan and won the Olympic marathon in Bejing)
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