Milers in Texas
Justin Chaston: Olympic steeplechaser
The athletes that raced the mile race followed the general plan during the track season except when getting ready to compete in a major mile race. Harriers had a couple of athletes who competed in the mile. Jon Warren ran 3:59.30 is the only athlete to have run under 4 minutes for the mile and 2 hr 20 min for the marathon in a period less than 4 months. David Wittman was the other athlete who ran under 4 minutes when he recorded 3:57.47 in the same race as Jon which was the ‘PRE’ Classic in 1994.
Two different athletes. Jon was the strength runner whereas David was the speedster. Jon had recorded 8:30 for the steeplechase where David was a sub 1:50 800 meter runner and was a member of Clemson University team that won the NCAA Indoor 4×800 meter relay title.
I would put together a Distance Medley team which included David and Jon who won most of the Relay meets in Texas. Most of the coaches welcomed the Harrier athletes with open arms even although we beat their teams.
A few sessions prior to a big race. Morning runs were usually 30 minutes easy.
Sunday – Easy 1 hour
Monday – 5x 500 with 6 min rest. 400 at 57-58 then sprint last 100 meters
Tuesday – Easy 1 hour with a few strides
Wednesday – 1600 – 4.16/ 1200 – 3.09/ 800 – 2.04/ 400 – 58/ 3 min rest between
Thursday – Easy 1 hour with strides
Friday – 3(400 2MR 300) 4 min sets/ jog 10 mins- 400
Dave – 55.5 42/ 56.5 41.4/ 56.4 44.4/ 54.9
Jon – 57.1 43/ 57.2 42.1/ 57.8 46.0/ 56.5
Saturday – Easy run or rest day
Sunday – Easy 1 hour
Monday – Jon – 400-60.1/ 1200- 3:04/ 400-56.4 all with 5 min rest//
Dave – 200-24.9/ 200 jog/ 200 – 25.4/ jog 800/ 200 – 24.6/ 300 walk/ 300-37.5
Tuesday – Easy 1 hour
Wednesday – 2×200 with 30 sec rest/ Dave – 24.8/ 25.6// Jon – 28.1, 27.7
Thursday – 40 min easy with a few strides
Friday – Travel to Eugene – 30 min easy run with strides
Saturday – Mile race – David 3:57.47 and Jon – 3:59.30
At that time I had a great bunch of distance runners. David, Jon, Justin Chaston and Sean Murray who ran a 4:03 mile. Easy bunch of men to coach who helped each other achieve their goals.