80/20 Running: Run Stronger and Race Faster by Training Slower

by Matt Fitzgerald

Eighteen months later, Rodgers won the Boston Marathon with an American record time of 2:09:55. Under Squires’ guidance, “Boston Billy” went on to claim three more Boston Marathon victories, lowering his American record to 2:09:27 in the 1979 race. He won the New York City Marathon four times as well. Table 2.1 offers a seven-day sample of Bill Rodgers’ training from two weeks before his first win in Boston. He ran 128 miles in those seven days. It is impossible to accurately judge intensity from the information Rodgers recorded, but my best guess is that the distances emphasized in boldface were run at or above the ventilatory threshold. If so, then Rodgers completed 104 of his 128 miles for the week—or 81 percent—at low intensity. He did not know it, but he was following the 80/20 Rule.