Billy Mills speaking in Utah

We made it there with some adventures. One of them included a ripped tire, which fortunately did not cause an accident, and which we were able to replace in a timely manner. The other adventure was that I somehow managed to misread Jon's post and went to the Roy Elementary first. Then it occurred to me that maybe I should try the high school, located it with the help of 1-800-GOOG411, got there, asked around, and eventually found the site of the presentation.

What I gathered from the talk:

* Billy Mills emphasized humility, recognizing the source of the gift, sacrifice to develop it, and once developed giving back.
* He looked a lot younger than 71 (his real age). Maybe 55. No beer belly.
* In training he ran a lot by feel, but also used the stopwatch when there was a need. I noticed that he had a very good feel for numbers. I did not expect that of him given his background.
* He was self-coached.
* He ran 80 miles a week, high intensity, a lot of speed work.
* 4 days before his Olympic race he ran an all out 200 out of the blocks in 23.3. This gave him the confidence that he could run an all out 400 in 48 which he thought would be the top end speed he would need to possess to win the race. To me this level of precision with numbers is significant. I would expect it from a white math nerd that grew up with PhD parents, but not from an Indian from a reservation that was orphaned at the age of 12.
* He estimated his mile potential to be around 3:55-3:56 based off the fact that he could run 4:01 off 30 miles a week. I assume high intensity, but I did not have a chance to ask about the details.
* A sample workout he shared - 10 days out from the race: 5 mile warmup, then if I remember right, 5 x (800 + 300) not sure how much rest. 800s started at 2:08 and finished in 1:55. 300s were in 44. He said the significance of the workout was that early on the 300 was the hard part, but as the 800s got faster the 300 in 44 began to be a break. Incidentally, 44 was about what he ran his last 300 in the Olympic race. I suppose through workouts like that he taught himself to run the 10,000 kick pace relaxed, which is why he was able to relax and kick past the rest of the field. Also, it is significant that 45 years later he was able to remember the workout in that much detail. He gave every one of his 800 splits remembering the tenth of a second for the last two.
* He mentioned a German runner he saw on the homestretch and seeing an eagle on his uniform. An eagle had a special significance for Billy Mills. After looking at the race results, I realized that the German runner was being lapped. But Billy did not mention that in the presentation, he only mentioned the eagle.
* He trained through most of his races. He came to the Olympic Trials untapered feeling confident that tapering was not necessary to make the team. He also was content coming into the Olympics as a relative unknown.
* He talked about being scared going through 4800 in 13:28, only 1 second off his 3 mile PR. He said 3 miles, but his official split through 5 K 14:04, and I imagine an Olympic stadium would not have had a mark at 3 miles. So he probably meant 12 laps, so that puts him maybe 5 seconds off his 3 mile PR. He felt he wanted to quit at that point questioning if he could keep the pace. But instead he took the lead for a lap. And then he had the courage to hang on.