Train Like Steve Prefontaine
Steve Prefontaine was a legendary distance runner in the late 1960s early 70s. He dominated NCAA championships in cross country and track at the University of Oregon and held American records from the 2,000 to the 10,000. Below are some sample workouts taken from Tom Jordan’s biography, “PRE.” Prefontaine raced in the era when U.S. races were measured in yards but international races in meters. Where applicable, I’ve replaced yards with meters in the workouts.
Two-mile Race Sim: in high school, Pre went after the HS 2-mile record of 8:48.4. A key leadup workout was 4x800 between 2:07-2:10 with a 100m jog in between reps. The cumulative 800 times came to 8:36. On race day, the first lap was slow, but Pre still broke the record with an 8:41.5.
Olympic 5K Tune-up: Pre took 4th in the 1972 Olympic 5,000 meters. A big track workout was 4x1200 and 3x mile with each rep faster. Pre’s 1200m times were 3:12, 3:09, 3:06, and 3:00. Rest periods and mile times were not reprinted in Jordan’s book, but Kenny Moore reported elsewhere that each 1200 was followed by 400m jog recoveries. Moore said at least one of the miles was a 3:59. Pre ran 13:28 in the Olympics, which is 4:20 mile pace. That means his 1200m workout started around 5K race pace and worked down to his near-best mile pace.
Road work: Pre ran steady road work at 6:00/mile pace or faster, usually starting at 6:00 a.m. Long runs were rarely more than 12 miles. All fast running was reserved for the track. Pre never contested major road races and preferred to avoid hills on road runs.
Early season 2x mile: Before travelling overseas for the European summer track circuit, Pre ran 2x mile with an easy jog (5-10 minutes) in between. Times were 4:08 for rep 1 and 4:02.8 for rep 2, which means he was running near his 2,000m PR pace.
UPDATE: Kenny Moore, Pre’s teammate, described the final workout Pre did in the buildup to the Munich Olympic 5,000:
2x 2400m: The mile-and-a-half reps were done in 6:30 with an 800 jog in between. The pace dropped every 800 within the rep, for splits of 2:20, 2:10, 2:00. Pre threw up after the first set but came back and completed the second.
