Paul Cummings - Contributions

Contributions

In the late 1980s, Cummings, along with fellow Utah world class runners Ed Eyestone and Paul Pilkington started a summer high school high altitude running camp in Park City, Utah which ran for 15 years and helped hundreds of high school runners from across the country reach their potential.

In 1990, Cummings created a running video entitled "Running Theory: From Mile to Marathon" that expounded on "Consistency Training" which is an adaptation to Arthur Lydiard's four step "Phase Training". The four components of consistency training include: upper body strength training, endurance training, 70% effort training, and anaerobic capacity training.

Cummings explored the outer reaches of human endurance in his road race and marathon training, approaching the legendary endurance strategies of Gerry Lindgren. He ran up to 240 miles in one week, training three times a day with runs of 13 miles in the morning, 14 in the afternoon, and another 13 in the evening for six days. He rested on Sundays.

Cummings was inducted into the Brigham Young University Athletics Hall of Fame in 1986. He was posthumously inducted into the Utah Sports Hall of Fame in 2003.