If you want to be a successful runner, you have to consider everything. It's no good just thinking about endurance and not to develop fine speed.

I have a saying 'train, don't strain.' The Americans have the saying 'no pain, no gain' and that's why they have no distance running champions. They get down to the track with a stopwatch and flog their guts out thinking that it'll make them a champion, but they'll never make a champion that way.

They have a word in Finnish called sisu, which basically means guts. It’s the strongest word in the Finnish language. You tell a Finn he doesn’t have sisu, that’s like spitting in his face.

It's just a matter of understanding what's necessary and discipline yourself to do it.

No one will burn out doing aerobic running. It is too much anaerobic running, which the American scholastic athletic system tends to put young athletes through, that burns them out.

If you want to be a successful runner, you have to consider everything. It's no good just thinking about endurance and not to develop fine speed.

The idea that you can't lose contact with the leaders has cut more throats than it has saved.