Quote of the Day — Train Little, Hard and Often
“Train little, hard and often.” — Jim Peters
Jim Peters is one of the top marathoner runners in history, but few remember him. This might be due to his poor performance record in the Olympics and Empire Games of the early 1950s, both which he DNF’d.
He was the first runner to break the 2:20 barrier in the marathon. When he retired in 1954 he held 4 out of 6 of the fastest-ever marathon times. A feat which has yet to be repeated.
Peters was an early advocate of intensive training: “The body has got to be conditioned to stand up to the stresses and strains which it is going to meet in an actual race and therefore it is useless training at 6 minutes per mile if you hope to race at 5 1/2 minutes per mile.”
He understood the SAID principle well: “I rarely ran more than 16 miles a day in training. But I did good, fast quality miles. You see, speed and stamina are yoked together. And if you do a lot of speed work, the more fast miles you can run, you’ll eventually build up the stamina to do a marathon.”
He also advocated against over training: “Your body and mind must be given ample time to recover from hard efforts.”
Although Peters is little remembered today, his wisdom on training is timeless and should never be forgotten.