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Peter Snell
Peter Snell of New Zealand was called the "Iron Man" back in his day. He was a Three time Olympic Champion at 800 meters and 1500 meters winning the '60 and '64 Olympics at 800 meters and winning the '64 Olympics at 1500 meters. He held both world records at one point and was one of the most feared competitors as he was rarely ever beaten.
He was a "Lydiard trained athlete" who would run against all the best in the world and beat them soundly with his awesome kick. Not so much did he have a great kick as he had tremendous endurance training under the tutelage of the "great coach" Arthur Lydiard. Lydiard literally changed the way distance runners trained and Snell was his prime candidate for bringing his periodization to the forefront of distance runners.
Snell was ranked number 1 Miler for a few years before stepping down and later becoming an exercise physiologist and relocating to the State of Texas. His best mile was 3:54.6 which stood for awhile and when he would show up in his Kiwi black uniform, he was one of the most feared middle distance runnners of all time. He remains one of the best ranked milers of all time based on his performance times and his competitiveness on the slower racing tracks of his time. He may well have been well under 3:50 on todays "tuned" tracks.
He ran a mid 2:20's marathon in a long practice run while he was zeroing in on his steady-state endurance building phase of his training. He simply stated that the marathon was too far for his body-type and he would run out of muscle glycogen too soon compared to the top marathoners. A very strong built power type of runner with solid speed, but tremendous muscular and cardio-vascular endurance.