Link of the Day: THE MICHIGAN — A Workout So Nice They Only Named It Once
I recently posted a Workout of the Day on The Michigan. It might be the hardest workout I’ve done or seen.
Today’s link comes from my college teammate, former pro miler and founded of Lope Magazine, Liam Boylan-Pett.
This is a great piece. After reading it you’ll realize either:
1) you’re not working hard enough,
or
2) the reason you never became a professional runner is you weren’t working hard enough.
Enjoy. | jm
THE MICHIGAN — A workout so nice they only named it once
It is cliché to start a running story with Steve Prefontaine, but that is exactly where The Michigan begins.
Ron Warhurst was about one year into his coaching stint at the University of Michigan when he met famed Oregon Coach Bill Dellinger for the first time when walking through an airport. It was only a few weeks after Pre died, and as coaches are wont to do, they, as Warhurst puts it, “were B.S.’ing” and talking about workouts.
Before he died, Pre had done this workout in Eugene that piqued Warhurst’s interest. “We ran him a 1200 on the track,” Dellinger told him. “Then he went out to the trail and ran two or three miles at five-minute pace.” Then, Dellinger explained, Pre came back to the track for another 1200-meter rep.
It was genius, Warhurst thought. “You’re busting your ass on the track,” Warhurst says looking back on the conversation today. “Then you go do some pace work. Then you bust your ass again.” He couldn’t get the workout out of his mind, and the seed was planted.
The story passed down through the Michigan track team is that Warhurst jotted the notes that would bore The Michigan onto a beer-soaked napkin. And, according to Warhurst, it’s not far from the truth. All you have to do is ask him.
When he talks about creating the workout today, he speaks quickly, giggling at times when he remembers how he conceived the thing. He’s 75 now, so he says some of the details may be a little off, but he remembers sitting down, having a few beers, and devising The Michigan…
***
It wasn’t long after his chat with Dellinger in the Summer of 1975, and Warhurst could not stop thinking about Pre’s workout. It reminded him of a cross-country race. But he thought he could make the workout even more suited for a race over hill and dale.
Ron Warhurst, University of Michigan (Courtesy Michigan Athletics)
“OK,” he thought to himself, visualizing how a race begins. “Everybody goes out like a bat out of hell. Then they settle into a pace.” A mad dash to get to the front of the pack with the other contenders. “So,” he decided, “we’ll start with a mile on the track.”
Then, to mimic that “settling in,” he would have the team do a tempo run off the track. He’d send them out around Michigan’s football stadium, he thought to himself and laughed. The climb up South Main Street is no joke—this was going to be hard.
But no cross race stays on pace, Warhurst knew. Eventually, someone would test the field to find out who the players were. “They’re gonna make a break,” he thought. “So, now we’ll do a 1200 on the track, and you gotta run your ass off.” Warhurst scribbled notes. He tried thinking like a runner who felt good. That was the mindset he wanted to be in as he created this thing.
After the 1200 rep, the pretenders would gone. Time to settle in again, he thought. One more tempo loop around the Big House. They would only be about seven kilometers into the workout at that point, and this was a 10-kilometer race he’s trying to get ready for. Someone would try to break the field one more time before the final sprint. So, Warhurst decided, let’s do an 800 on the track. He cussed at himself that the workout still wasn’t long enough, so he added one more tempo loop.
But a race does not end with a tempo. It ends with a sprint. So Warhurst prescribed one more 400.
“A.U.G.,” he thought for the final rep.
All. You. Got.
…..finishing reading Liam’s fantastic piece on the Lope Magazine website here.
Also, I highly encourage you to become a subscriber to Lope Magazine, they’re producing work at an elite level which captures the heart and soul of the running culture all too well.