"Doing the long endurance stuff seems to have given me the strength to sustain the speed. I think my body is just a lot stronger (thanks to the marathon)...  By increasing the long runs, I found that does not take anything away from the speed but increases the strength on the track." - Paula Radcliffe discussing her recent success at 5K and 10K on the track

"I think I was just trying to coast and you can't coast and try and win at the same time, you know? It'll be three years now since those wins, but the last couple of years I've just really been trying to put my miles in, get them up there to 80 miles a week, 90 miles a week and put the work in again." - Carrie Tollefson in a trackwire.com interview - click here for complete text

"The most difficult part, when you decide to make running a part of your life style, is the basic initial commitment.  Everybody says, 'I don't have the time.'   It's up to you to say, 'I do have the time.'  For me, beginning to run when I was a student was an ideal situation.  However, I've also trained as much as 130 miles per week during periods when I worked a full-time job.  It ultimately becomes second nature.  It becomes a habit, a routine part of your daily life." - Bill Rodgers (multiple Boston and NYC Marathon Champion)

"Have clear goals and keep them to yourself.  I found that talking about my goals never helped me achieve any of them. Likewise, I've heard plenty of people talk a big game then never deliver. You should set clear goals for yourself and spend your time working toward achieving them rather than broadcasting them to the world." - Mark Nenow (former 10,000m AR)

"And too there were questions: What did he eat? Did he believe in isometrics? Isotonics? Ice and heat? How about aerobics, est, ESP, STP? What did he have to say about yoga, yogurt, Yogi Berra? What was his pulse rate, his blood pressure, his time for 100-yard dash? What was the secret, they wanted to know; in a thousand different ways they wanted to know The Secret. And not one of them was prepared, truly prepared to believe that it had not so much to do with chemicals and zippy mental tricks as with that most unprofound and sometimes heart-rending process of removing, molecule by molecule, the very tough rubber that comprised the bottoms of his training shoes. The Trial of Miles, Miles of Trials. How could they be expected to understand that?" - Once a Runner by John L. Parker, Jr.

"I decided I didn't want to be manacled by regal-minded, imperious louts at the state level.   These hypocritical little constipated gnats will not manipulate me. I can't be part of that fraud, hypocrisy and bovine balderdash... I reached a point of total frustration.  I was being fettered by a bunch of feckless little impotent-minded bureaucrats. I didn't want my destiny controlled by these illegitimate frauds." - Joe Clark, the former bat-wielding principal portrayed in the movie "Lean on Me" explaining why he's resigning as director of a juvenile jail in Newark, NJ.

"The prevailing training philosophy in 1977 was 'more is better', and weekly mileage was the stuff of competition.  If Derek Clayton was quoted as running 160 miles per week, then someone else would try 175 miles per week...  This approach to training may sound harsh - and it was - but it reaped rewards.  Distance running in the U.S. improved markedly, and although there were a few casualties along the way, pure hard work generally paid dividends." - Pete Pfitzinger, two-time Olympian and exercise physiologist

"We ran twice a day, sometimes three times.  Twenty miles a day, sometimes more.  There were a couple of 170-mile weeks...  All we did was run - run, eat, and sleep." - Frank Shorter detailing his training with Jack Bacheler and Jeff Galloway prior to the 1972 Olympics (Frank won the gold medal in the marathon)    

"You must have a training routime so that what you do happens automatically.   If I got up in the morning and thought about going for a run there would often be a number of possible arguments against it.  The thing is to get out and run.   Later you can wonder whether you should have or not." - Rob de Castella, former marathon world record holder (2:08:18 PR)

"Running well is a matter of having the patience to persevere when you are tired and not expecting instant results. The only secret is that it is consistent, often monotonous, boring, hard work. And it's tiring." - Robert de Castella

"It became a matter of singular concentration, discipline, monomania.  I had to zero in on one thing; I had to make it so nothing else mattered.  I just made up my mind to work and see how good I could be.  I didn't want to quit and say for the rest of my life, 'Well, maybe I could have been.'" - Frank Shorter on his decision to train with Jack Bacheler in Florida

"...one of the best things about running is that no matter how fast you've run in the past, running fast in the future does not come easily or with any guarantees." - Weldon Johnson, 28 minute 10K runner

"Then there is just running - I love it. I would go out and just run a 30-mile trail run if it didn't make me feel like crap for a week." - Dathan Ritzenhein

"Workouts are like brushing my teeth; I don't think about them. The decision has already been made." - PattiSue Plumer

"Being able to just focus on training and getting ready for the next run has made the difference and allowed me to make the jump I did," Cox says. "There's no way I could run 170 miles a week with a job." - 2:13 marathoner Josh Cox discussing the benefits of Fila Discovery Camp

"They trained hard twice a day and would regularly run 10 miles in 50 minutes, including a 10-K section in the middle in under 29 minutes." But the rest of life is made easier. "He doesn't have to worry about going to the supermarket, the mortgage, fixing the car. He's just absolutely huge in Morocco..." - world class middle distance runner John Maycock, reflecting on his time in Morocco training with Hicham El Guerrouj

"I'd like do better than the first time [a 2:38:47 in 1998]. I reached the Willis Avenue Bridge near mile 20 and it was a whole new world of hurt I knew nothing about." - Tom Nohilly, top ranked US steeplechaser, reflecting on his first marathon attempt - the NYC Marathon in 1998

"Actually, I guess I shouldn't be so hard on myself. 2:23:11 is a very good time - a very good time for a woman that is." - Robert Johnson, reflecting on his marathon time which is the 49th best by a US male runner in 2000

"I started hammering out the miles last summer. I haven't had a day off since track season ended in June. It was tough to get used to it at first. It really builds your strength and  endurance, which is what cross-country is all about. Cross-country is just hard for a long time." - Dathan Ritzenhein (talking about his 80-90 miles per week summer)

"If one can stick to the training throughout the many long years, then will power is no longer a problem. It's raining? That doesn't matter. I am tired? That's besides the point. It's simply that I just have to." - Emil Zatopek

"I have never been a killer. I'm not an aggressive personality and if I can remember any emotion I felt during a race it was fear. The greatest stimulator of my running was fear." - Herb Elliott

"Sooner or later there comes a time when one must risk something or sit forever with ones dreams". - Kristen Ulmer

"There's just no telling how many 9:30 two milers are gonna be 29:30 10K runners after a couple years of hard training." - Mark Wetmore coach of University of Colorado

"You have to give the European a motive to train... but with the Kenyans they will train just because they love to run." - Brother Colm O'Connell (coach of St. Patrick's HS in the Rift Valley of Kenya)

"The marathon certainly seemed to help me lower my 10k times as well. When I ran 2:14 (for the marathon) in 1994, my 10k p.r. was 28:38 and I ran 28:06 the following spring." - Rod DeHaven, US Olympian in the marathon

"It's never too late to be what you might have been." - George Eliot

"No one who works a forty hour week will ever beat me." - Bill Rodgers

"Keep the post-workout beer cold. Don't worry about returning phone calls or feeding the kids. I repeat: Keep the beer cold." - Scott Tinley, world-class triathlete and beer drinker

"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent." - Calvin Coolidge

"I don't run to be regarded as anything by anybody. I don't care whether people think I'm the greatest runner ever or the greatest bum ever. I don't run for other people; I don't run for my country. I'm not very nationalistic. Derek Clayton comes first in my book." - Derek Clayton

"I train very hard, until I am sick.  Sometimes I train like a foolish man who has no mind." -Hicham el-Guerrouj

"If you want to win a race, you have to go a little beserk" - Bill Rodgers

"I'm going to go out a winner if I have to find a high school race to win my last race." - Johnny Gray

"If you start to feel good during an ultra, don't worry you will get over it" - Gene Thibeault

"The will to win means nothing if you haven't the will to prepare" - Juma Ikangaa, 1989 NYC Marathon winner

"I've always felt that long, slow distance produces long, slow runners." - Sebastian Coe

"Because that's all I have time for." - Stu Mittleman, on why he runs 20 miles a day.

"Run like hell and get the agony over with." - Clarence DeMar

"I had as many doubts as anyone else. Standing on the starting line, we're all cowards." - Alberto Salazar

"Running is a big question mark that's there each and every day. It asks you, 'Are you going to be a wimp or are you going to be strong today?'" - Peter Maher

"Somewhere in the world, someone is training when you are not. When you race him, he will win."  - Tom Fleming

"The earliest in the day I ever got drunk and smoked a cigarette was 7:30 a.m., which I did because I woke up and realized that even though I was in Key West, I still wasn't on the damn Olympic team." - Kristy Johnson 2nd place finisher at 2000 Olympic Trials Marathon