Such stories inspired yet more runners to take a chance on the Lydiard system. By 1972, it was impossible for a runner with any amount of natural talent to win on the world stage with speed-based training. At the Olympic Games in Munich, the winners of the men’s 800 meters (American Dave Wottle), 1500 meters (Finland’s Pekka Vasala), 5000 meters (Finland’s Lasse Viren), and 10,000 meters (Viren again) were all adherents of the low-intensity, high-volume way. But even then the Lydiard system had only begun to prove its might.
