Training to Be Your Best: September 2nd-8th

Last week we began to add strength work to training, and this week we prep for the season opening race.  School is also in full swing everywhere across the country.  Finding a happy medium between training and getting your schoolwork done should be a priority!

Monday- 35 minute progression run, Strength Workout A
Tuesday- 30 minutes or 4 miles of Ins and Outs
Wednesday- 35-40 minutes easy, Strength Workout B
Thursday- 3x1000@ current 5k effort with 4 minutes jogging recovery
Friday- 25-35 minutes easy, 8x strides
Saturday- Season Opening Invitational
Sunday- Off or 35-45 minutes easy

Fayetteville Manlius of Syracuse, NY is the greatest girls cross country program in history.

Legend:

Warm Up- A few minutes jogging, dynamic stretching, a few strides
Easy- A pace you can handle and have a conversation at the same time. Relaxed.
Tempo Run- A distance run at a pace of 5k race pace plus 30 seconds per mile.
Ins and Outs- Striding the straights and joggins the turns on the track
Strides- Not a sprint! Simply a short pickup of 50-100 meters at around 1-2 mile race pace. Full recovery.
Progression Run- Training done at progressive pace that increases throughout the run. Begin at an easy pace and finish at 5k race effort or so for the last few minutes.  
Fartlek- A run of varied pace for varied time which can be anywhere from an easy jog to hard sprinting.
Hills- Not all out sprints, good paced effort around 5k race effort. Can be anywhere between 100-400 meters long.
Workout A-  10-30x pushups, 10-30x prisoner squats, 10-30x lunges, 10-30x crunches, 30-60 seconds of planks on each side and the middle, and 30-60 seconds of Australian crawl.
Workout B-  20-40x step ups, 5-20x tricep pushups, 30-60 seconds of bridging, 10-20x dips, 30-60 seconds of pedestal, and 30-60 seconds of scissor kicks.

Knowledge Is Power- August 30th

Ready for your weekend reads?  Here you go:

Anita Hinriksdotter Training by Athletics Weekly- Why it matters:  This is great insight into what one of the future stars of the sport does on a weekly basis for training.  Watch for her name in the international results as she competes for Iceland.

Complexity and the Thousand Hour Rule by Malcolm Gladwell- Why it matters: This is an article in defense of Gladwells 10,000 rule.  He addresses Epstein and counters well with regards to his research.  In the battle between talent vs work, nature vs nurture, this is a fun debate to revisit.

National High School Cross Country Rankings by Dyestat-  Why it matters: This blog, while having a good bit of continuity with the international level, really focuses on the youth level.  This ranks the best youth teams in the nation according to Rob Monroe and Dyestat.

Outside the Comfort Zone by Steve Magness- Why it matters:  It's always interesting to get a perspective on different training concepts, especially from a coaches point of view.  Steve has coached several international athletes lately and here is a view at one of them.

Jackie Areson is coached by Steve Magness

Training Slower to Run Faster by Andy Friedlander- Why it matters:  Coach Clyde Hart is the most successful 400 meter coach in history and this is a look at the non-traditional training methods he employs with his athletes.

Does Cross Country Ruin Soccer Explosiveness?

Recently, perusing my favorite forums filled with trolls and half-truths, I found a wonderful thread on soccer and cross country running.  It was a great look into the psychology of coaching as well as the dynamics of cross-sport training benefits and hindrances.  The premise we will explore today is the proposed question, "does cross country ruin soccer explosiveness?" which is actually quite a complicated matter and cannot be summed in a terse response.  Athletic training is not a continuum, it is a matrix, and therefore one position in the training matrix does not discount the possibility of having attributes for other variables.  Correlation does not imply causation (i.e. cross country does not get athletes slower), and the statement made by the soccer coach described in the forum post was mainly made on either bad information or ignorance.  In the simplest terms, his statement is absurd, and for many reasons.

First I want to consider the logic of the statement before I actually move onto a physical body of evidence.  Cross country is an inanimate object, simply an idea.  An idea can't have any physical bearing, it needs people to engage the idea like athletes participating in the sport and the coach preparing a schedule of training to maximize the productive output.  The reason I broke it down like this is because, by this coaches logic, I can easily make the argument that soccer causes ACL injuries, and especially in women, which is a huge problem in the sport.  This is obviously not true.  The physical and dynamic nature of soccer lends itself for the athletes to have a high incident rate of ACL tears, but by no means can be said to have caused the problems.  

Another issue is that many soccer coaches, especially at the club level, want to focus more on actually playing the game rather than developing fundamentals and athletic ability.  Similar issues happen with club basketball and nearly all levels of youth baseball where there is a higher focus on playing games rather than practicing.  I've said before that one reason why the NBA is simply miserable to watch now is that many athletes are making it to the highest level based on stature and physical prowess, but the sport is barely worth watching during the regular season due to bad coaching and bad player development.  This stems from the club basketball culture where athletes can play up to 60 games in a three month summer period.  Including travel time, is there any room left for actually working on skills? The learn-as-you-go approach is basically an excuse for lazy coaches who really don't want to hold practices.  I mean, you can make a lot of money from hosting tournaments and making parents pay ridiculous travel expenses for your team, right?  Why be bothered with something as non-lucrative as practice?  But don't worry, I'm not going to hang out the other sports to dry without drilling my own.

One reason why there is a stigma that cross country makes athletes slower is because there are A LOT of bad coaches out there, perpetuating that reputation.  There is nothing as damaging to an athletes dynamism like doing absolutely nothing explosive/athletic in training.  Here's looking at you LSD (long slow or "steady" distance) coaches.  Welcome to 2013, we're running sub 52s for the last lap of 1500s and 5000s on the regular.  Sure, cross country isn't the same as track but make no mistake, the 5k xc course is still only 3.1 miles.  Not only do I not see a need for you to run only slow, I mean "steady," distance in the off-seasons, I can't think of a single non-marathoner on the elite or sub-elite level who does this, so why would we do this for the developmental group?  When you choose to train only slow twitch muscle fibres, well guess what, you don't have a very dynamic athlete.  They haven't developed the neuromuscular pathways to be quick or agile, so of course the cross sport relationship will be strained. I also have no doubt, without having any body of evidence to link to you, that these types of runners who play soccer will actually have a comparable injury rate as sedentary players who only train for soccer during the season.  By this training strategy I have no doubt that there is a kernel of truth to what the coach was saying to his athletes.

Now I will make a crazy and bold statement: age group soccer players that run cross country for knowledgeable, scientifically based coaches will be better than their year round soccer counterparts.  I can imagine the soccer coaches out there are fuming right now.  Good.  And before I get a host of angry emails I want to explicate why runners in such a program would be better.  These athletes will have far fewer overuse injuries.  And furthermore year round runners will have less overuse injuries than nearly any other sport which requires athletes to participate year round.  Why is that? Because runners like mine who I train this way, and runners in programs similar in nature, train their athletes as if they were in a year long athletic development program which also focuses on building a giant aerobic base (or "house" as Canova calls it).  It's like a giant off season program that builds athletes just ready to explode in whatever sport they compete in next.  It's no coincidence that distance runners in my program are usually the fastest athlete in any other sport they play.  Last year I had three baserunners/outfielders for spring programs on my varsity cross country team.  Recently, I had one of my runners vertical jump almost 30 inches.  Last years 4x400m state championship relay we ran at the state meet was composed of three distance oriented runners who would often do workouts like 3x1000m to prep for the season, and could split 50s and 51s.  Tell me these types of athletes would not be prepared for the rigors of a game like soccer.  

Now, let's not only focus on this speed narrative.  Endurance is a challenge on the pitch as well.  It is noted that many forwards can run up to 10 kilos (6.2 miles) in a single match.  Given the 90 minutes or so that a soccer game totals this actually isn't that much for even a marginally trained athlete.  To be fair, a better term is not endurance, but speed-endurance, or the ability to maintain a relatively high level of quickness for an extended duration.  Chris Wondolowski is a good example of this.  He currently is a striker in the MLS, but in high school he was a 4:15 miler on his team at De La Salle in California.  Chris has a great amount of speed as well as endurance and because of his speed endurance he can be a threat to score on the international level.  

Wondo plays soccer but has a history of middle distance success.

The convergent point of speed endurance is speed reserve and aerobic power.  Speed reserve is the differential of the current pace an athlete is running and his maximal capability at the moment.  An example is when a 1500 runner runs 60 second pace per lap for the first 1100 meters and then finishes the last lap in 50-52 seconds.  They weren't nearly at their maximal ability level for the first three-fourths of the race.  But this rapid acceleration during the "kick" phase of a run can only be accomplished in tandem with an athlete who has strong aerobic power.  Usain Bolt can ran a 400 faster than anyone who lines up to run a 1500 at the World Championships but is built solely for speed, not aerobic effort and therefore would be worthless in the last lap of a 1500 because he would most likely not even be running anymore much less able to flush the metabolic waste of high lactate-oriented running that is acquired with middle distance training. 

Now why a paragraph about solely running on an article about soccer?  Because it illustrates the point that soccer takes place over an extended period of time and requires speed reserve and aerobic power as well.  Soccer is more like middle distance running than marathoning.  You aren't going to run that 10k during a match at 12 minute pace the whole time.  You are most likely going to have periods of walking, then some jogging, then an intense burst of speed in perpetual rotation.  And what does being able to kick into the last lap have to do with play soccer? Well, of course it isn't the exact same thing, but ability to accelerate into fast sprint consistently in the later half of a soccer match has a lot to do with the bodies success in aerobic and lactate spheres.  A poorly trained athlete will be in dire straits in the second half of a match and will not be able to compete with the productive output that a well trained athlete can maintain deep into a competition. That speed reserve is the ability to go to the well and sprint at near maximal efforts when the other team cannot match the intensity.

From a scientific standpoint, the ability to reduce metabolic waste such as excess hydrogen ions is trained through extended bouts of at least moderate activity (hey, distance running does that a bit).  A well trained runner has a keen ability to be efficient while competing and engaging the anaerobic lactate system. And understand that the lactate system will definitely be in play for the strikers because the phosphocreatine system burns up quickly, and furthermore the athletes will also be running too quick to solely function in the aerobic system.  Developing the lactate system for endurance is crucial for soccer and since there is a speed demand in the sport, you better believe developing speed reserve is going to help performance in the later stages of the game when all the Usain Bolts are huffing and puffing.  

The only thing a soccer coach can hang onto now that I have shown that cross country running does not impair soccer prowess is that time spent away from soccer may hinder skill acquisition for the sport.  I would argue that American football is just as skillful, at least for the "skill" positions, and these athletes are mainly found on the basketball courts and tracks around the country in the winters and springs each year.  It doesn't seem to hurt them too much and by all accords football on every level is becoming more competitive.  And lastly, cross country lasts 3 months. So that leaves 9 months for all the soccer madness (which is probably still too much time spent doing one sport at the age group level).   

Is Less Really More?

In economics there is a concept called the Law of Diminishing Returns.  It basically states that production and output are not constants and eventually you can only yield so much before production levels drop off or even reverse.  In athletics we have the same issue.  Your body is finite, which means limited, in the amount of training it can handle effectively and each athlete is different in the level they can handle as well.  I often see the over zealous coach who thinks 3-5 hours of practice a day for his athletes is the key to success and blames the athletes when they don't perform well.  It's irrational and irresponsible to attempt to practice that much day in and day out.  Sure, during a camp scenario or various, light dispersed training periods throughout the year you may have a larger chunk of training at one time, but usually that is followed up with a day or two of easy rest/recovery for maximal gains.  Here I have listed a few reasons why you need to train less, as oppose to more:

1) Extended training can raise the level of cortisol (the main hormone that responds to stress including training stress) in your body.  While a little bit of cortisol is a good thing, extended periods of cortisol in your body can lead to becoming unhealthy.  Your body is not designed to be able to handle stress without the recovery periods (remember Matveyev's model).  If you want your athletes to be sick, tired, and weak, train them for 3 hours a day and you'll be headed there in no time.  And one last thing.  Tell your kids that like to sleep 5 hours a night that they already have increased cortisol levels without the training, much less with it.

2) The chance of injury goes up with more training.  Even dismissing how cortisol contributes to injury, just think about how your body is made up of soft tissues.  They get damaged easily.  They repair pretty quickly, but it usually takes a few days to recovery from a very hard training bout.  So basically extended training means your body never fully recovers because it is always under a state of duress.  Usually for the high school athlete, 1-2 days a week off from hard practice can really go a long way, as well as 1-2 days of light training to facilitate recovery via blood flow stimulation.

Over training can affect an athletes ability to perform at a high level.

3) Lastly, and honestly the most obvious, is attention span of the athlete.  Unless your team is social in nature (which usually means being competitive is not the prime focus) it is hard to keep young athletes focused for more than 90 minute.  Excluding announcements or any talks we might give our athletes on the teams I coach, the practices rarely exceed 90 minutes save for one day a week (long workout days might be around 100-105 minutes), and that is from the first step of the warmup to the last step to the car home.  And practice is only that long because we make sure the body is fully warmed up before a workout and spend a long time on the cooldown and stretching after.  The main body of a workout usually lasts for far shorter than that time.  By the time practice is finishing you can already tell athletes are starting to lose focus, so how would you keep kids functioning during a 5  hour practice?

Take some time to reevaluate your training.  Rather than figuring out what to add, try and figure out what you can take out.  Efficiency is key in not just economics, but training as well.

Crash and Burn the Kenyan Way?

I may ruffle some feathers here, but I felt it needed to be said.  In probably the most confusing article I have seen written by Runners World yet we are urged to consider training a crash training plan because "Kenyans do it."  The article is rife with mixed information and half truths.  First I want to make sure that everyone understands that the writer, Alex Hutchinson, is a very smart guy and has PhD. and I respect him.  I just sometimes get the feeling that articles, when they are written, need to include more background information for the audience as it is easy for us, the track nerds who know a good amount about athletics, to forget that not everyone is as couth in track and field.

The article was brought to my attention by a high school runner of mine who thought the idea of training like a Kenyan sounded interesting.  He had good intentions but I let him know not to trust just anything he reads even if the logic sounds good.  I don't want my athletes to think of crashing and burning in a workout is a good thing.  Coaches spend a good amount of time coming up with sound training plans and that can easily be ruined if the athlete is trying to race the workout.  Similarly the workout would not have the full effect if the athlete gave mediocre effort.

Well, when actually reading the article a few things popped in my head.  One is Hutchinson doesn't really describe any type of crash and burn style workouts so the title is unrepresentative of the content. He even says "crashing and burning doesn't literally mean running yourself into ruin."  Also, In his first sentence he mentions the "weekly fartlek" used by Kenyans (fartleks are based on intervals of various distances and time, but is a continuous training run), but describes a normal track session of 400s and such.  He doesn't give the impression that there is any jogging recovery as he uses the terms "interval workout" which I've always interpreted as having a standing recovery.

Another puzzling piece is that the article tells us that preconceived workouts are based on planned training rather than how you feel at the moment, but then tells us a formula on how to plan the crash and burn workout.  Also, somehow this workout that has a predetermined pace is supposed to teach us how to deal with surges in a race.  By that rationale, wouldn't all out sprints teach us how to deal with surges better?  Is an interval workout that is 5% faster than race pace helping us prepare for "surges" and how do you qualify that?  I would think a traditional fartlek would be one of the best workouts to deal with surges.

Kenyans are known as some of the worlds top distance runners.

I also am worried when I hear Americans wanting to train like Kenyans.  Surely, Kenyans on a whole are more successful than Americans on the world scene but how many Americans have trained like Kenyans and been a world player?  The majority of Americans that are doing well right now are built on a long term program that is scientifically charted out.  Many Kenyans have no choice but to go all-in with training because the risk of injury is worth it if you can come to America or Europe and make money.  There is a whole socio-economic structure that encourages crash training for Kenyans. Westerners don't have that same structure, nor need it for success.  Alex knows this because he only recommends doing this (actually non-Kenyan) workout once or twice a month.  I also want to point out that many top Kenyans also have good coaches who don't train them in a crash and burn manner such as Renato Canova.

Lastly, I don't think that predetermined workouts set any limitations on what you can do that day.  If you feel good, usually your coach will encourage you to run what you can sustain and back off if you are having a bad day.  If you are having a bad day in a crash and burn workout, do you just stop?

Hutchinson is a savvy and educated runner and scientist.  I think there were large gaps in his rationale for the crash workout, though, and a few mis-labeled terms.  All-in-all I will continue to read his articles because he presents a lot of great training information and as a Runners World writer he is a mouthpiece for the sport.  Cheers.

The Talent of Toughness

So you read the article on how speed is necessary to come out on top on the track.  I heard the collective groan from distance runners around the country.  I feel your pain.  I had a whopping PR of 57 (relay split) for the 400 in high school.  Yeah, the World Champs or Olympics is a place few will ever get to.  Actually, well over a half a million kids run distance in high school each year with numbers growing, but every four years the US can only send around twenty distance athletes per gender to the Olympics.  I'm horrible at math, but I think that means only around one in over twelve thousand will actually make it, and that's if the US maxes out the amount of runners they can send.

No fear though.  Be strong. One of the beautiful things about this sport is that despite what we perceive as limitations on ability (or in other words, talent), very few athletes ever approach their full capacities, and furthermore, the ability to take a long term approach to the sport may have some big dividends down the road.  The mental toughness to test yourself in training and willingness to all-in for an extended period of time is important.  If an athlete takes into consideration his or her strengths in advance, one can achieve a high level of success later in life, even if it only a relative level of success.

Brian Sell of Hansons-Brooks was a wildcard in the 2008 Olympic Marathon Trials.

Exhibit A is Brian Sell, a distance fanboy favorite who has the awesome story of being a 10:08 2 miler in high school but finished his career as an Olympian.  Sell, who actually had a productive college career and ran 13:59 for 5k, still didn't have the type of speed usually considered necessary to compete in the Olympics.  As a reference, the two other runners who qualified for the Olympics that day, Ryan Hall and Dathan Ritzenhein, had both run in the 13:20s in college and were two of the "Big 3" in the class of '01.  Still, while most college runners in that time range were finishing their careers, Sell kept plugging away.  Our mustachioed hero joined the Hansons Distance Project, a notoriously high mileage training group out of Michigan.  Sell cranked out 160 to 170 miles a week during his build up to the Beijing Olympics while working part time at Home Depot.  The man didn't let anything get between him and that spot on Team USA.  There were many times Brian could have quit along the way, and he could kept his training conservative or "traditional", but he never did pursue those options.  Instead, he was one of the few that got to represent the red, white, and blue.  I think he qualifies as a tough son of a gun.

The Brian Sell story is still anomalous though, because he still had a special talent.  The ability to run 170 miles a week and not crumble like a cookie.  He was strong enough to deal with the training and still run on a high level, similar to our Canadian friend, Exhibit B: Olympian Cam Levins.  Cam sent the message boards into a frenzy after posting a 190 mile week.  I've only run 80 miles in a week before and that sucked (Cam is roughly 2.38 times tougher than me using a very scientific calculation). Guess he doesn't like to lose.  Or possibly he is insane.  Or maybe he is an insane man who also doesn't like to lose.  Cameron ran good times in high school and was a 4 flat 1500 runner in Canada, but honestly that would only place you around 500th on the list of prep runners in North America.  Cam is also anomalous because of the same talent Sell has, the ability to take his good (but very average speed compared to elites) and magnify his fitness through volume.  But you can find hundred of non-Olympic guys doing high mileage and not seeing that type of success, so why dwell on it?  Especially considered the average runner wouldn't be able to handle that volume in the first place.

The purpose is to show that guys who were limited (or at least were perceived to be limited) in one aspect of their fitness found a way to get it done by approaching training in a different manner.  If speed was a hindrance, to hell with giving up.  These types of athletes don't take no for an answer.  If they can't be Tirunesh Dibaba, they will grind out fast paces in the middle of races that drop the squeamish in a heartbeat.  It's a whole different approach to the "be a sprinter" mentality that dominates much of the track scene around the world.  Most Road and cross country races, as well as some of the longer track events are won by these types of runners.  Ones that have motors and fortitude that won't quit.  To the high school or college runner with good speed but not elite speed, why not just go for it in training? The odds that you will be an Olympian are minimal anyway so why save it?  At the least you will be be able to say you firmly tested your limitations.

There are plenty runners who are reading this right now and don't fall into the category of being Dibaba nor have the strength of a Sell or a Levins and I don't want to to exclude.  Rather, I want to focus on you because if the sprinters at the 1% and the tough guys are another small percentage, you guys are the vast majority.  If the ability to run blazing last quarter miles is not an asset, nor is having superhuman injury resistance, you still aren't a dandelion in the wind.  There is a sweet spot for you and you have to find it if you want to reach your personal peak.  I would venture to say that if you know your weakness lies in your foot speed, perhaps you may want to test the limits of the volume you can handle.  Conversely, if you injure easily when you hit a certain volume threshold, perhaps that is the point you should morph that volume into as high of quality as possible.  It's all a matter of thinking outside the box as well as being okay with testing your limits.  Not everyone will want to do that, but I want to give hope to the common guys and girls out there that if their heart is truly in running and they want to get as much out of their fitness as possible, think long term, build up to as high of a training threshold as you can handle, and see what you can do!  Be tough.

As an anecdote, a friend of mine who went to high school with me is currently on the "comeback" trail with marathoning.  He was a fine high school athlete, running 10 flat for the 3200 before leaving the sport for a decade.  He has never beat out his high school track times which he set over a dozen years ago, but now he is maxing out his mileage and aiming for the 100 mile+ range.  He broke 3 hours for his first marathon ever this past spring and can definitely push for a sub 2:40 before he finally hangs up his shoes.  Guess where most of the guys who were beating him in high school are?  Not running, that's for sure.  So who was the better runner in the end?  The 2:40 marathoner in his 30s or the 9:50 2 miler from high school?  Who came closer to reaching their "peak" fitness?  Also, who was more "talented?"

There are half a million or more teenage distance runners in the country and such a small portion of them will compete for team USA that, essentially, you can take your time and focus on the long term approach.  A small select few will have what it takes to actually break through that barrier of "average" times and run in the world circuit, but for the vast majority it will be just a test of what you can be with a good base and some heart.  You'll probably never be a world beater, but maybe you could be the local guy who everyone looks for to win the Thanksgiving race.  And well, even that's pretty special.

Knowledge Is Power- August 23rd

Once again I offer you some great reads of varying length to enjoy over your weekend.  Hopefully you can take something away from them!

Tyson Gay was on Anabolic Steroids by BBC- Why it matters:  As we continue to fight the doping battle, this is a great example for young athletes to learn from.  Drugs don't pay in the end, you will get caught!  Beside, and in my opinion more importantly, our sport should be about what you can do with the body God gave you, not what a lab can do for you.

Steve Spence 38 Year Sub-5 Streak by Penn Milesplit- Why it matters:  This is why we have this sport. Imagine being dedicated to something for 4-8 years of school and then consider doing it for 38 years in a row.  The amazing ability for someone to keep up this type of work ethic should be an inspiration to all athletes out there no matter what age or ability level.

NCAA Mens XC Preview by Isaac Wood- Why it matters:  For you NCAA fans, this is a good summary of who to look to win the cross country title this coming year.  For high school runners who are showing promise, these schools may be some that you are interested in attending if you want to join a successful program in the future.

Handicapping by Tully Runners- Why it matters: While I don't like the hypothetical of betting on high school sports, Bill Meylan does a great job of explaining why Sarah Baxter can be a force against Mary Cain in the NXN race despite having a 2 mile PR about 30 seconds slower.  This is a good read for coaches to understand conditions on race day and strategy.

He Said, She Said by SpikedUpPsychedUp- Why it matters:  I was kind of torn on putting this one up because it was a bit controversial but I decided to go with it for one reason: should we treat professional athletes in our sport without reproach or should they get the same scrutiny as professional athletes in other sports?  Certainly we expect them to keep themselves clean (no doping), but with the little amount of money they make, should we cut them some slack when races go awry?

Training To Be Your Best: August 26th-September 1st

Goals: The racing season starts within the next two weeks.  It will be important to begin to find your pacing for your three mile or 5k during workouts.  Last week we did a 5k time trial, so monitor your progress and use that time trial as a rough guideline of what to run effort-wise in your workouts.  It's also time to start adding in your strength work!  Read the article and I will also add the strength routines down at the bottom.

Monday- 35-45 minutes easy, Strength Workout A
Tuesday- 12x200 @ Mile Effort with 200m easy jog recovery
Wednesday- 35-40 minutes easy, Strength Workout B
Thursday- 20 minute tempo run
Friday- 10-12x Hill Runs with equal jog recovery. Stretch after!
Saturday- 35 minutes easy, 10x strides
Sunday- Labor Day Weekend!

Strength training will be another great component of the program.

Legend:

Easy- A pace you can handle and have a conversation at the same time. Relaxed.
Tempo Run- A distance run at a pace of 5k race pace plus 30 seconds per mile.
Strides- Not a sprint! Simply a short pickup of 50-100 meters at around 1-2 mile race pace. Full recovery.
Fartlek- A run of varied pace for varied time which can be anywhere from an easy jog to hard sprinting.
Hills- Not all out sprints, good paced effort around 5k race effort. Can be anywhere between 100-400 meters long.
Workout A-  10-30x pushups, 10-30x prisoner squats, 10-30x lunges, 10-30x crunches, 30-60 seconds of planks on each side and the middle, and 30-60 seconds of Australian crawl.
Workout B-  20-40x step ups, 5-20x tricep pushups, 30-60 seconds of bridging, 10-20x dips, 30-60 seconds of pedestal, and 30-60 seconds of scissor kicks.

Your 40 Dash Is Slow Because...

You went to the Nike SPARQ combine.  Or you went to the NUC Combine.  Or you just went to your team camp.  Either way, you weren't happy with your 40 time, or you noticed the disparity between your laser time and the hand time and want to improve (only trust hand times from people who know how to time them!).

Maybe you've busted your butt at endless reps of strides down the field or resisted running and you can't figure out what you are doing wrong.  I already told you guys a good amount of why you aren't improving your speed, but I want to go a little further in depth.  Let's look at some of the reasons why your training isn't making your faster.

1) You are running too slow.  As usual, I try not to get too sciency (I try to keep the ideas simple for the blog, but ALL my training methodology is based on science), but you need to understand a bit. To maximize recruitment of fast twitch muscle fibers as well as develop neuromuscular coordination, you need to train in a fashion that challenges you specifically.  Doing intervals of 110s at 75-80% isn't optimal training, but you will have a good base to come and run the 800 for me during track.  If you are trying to get better at sprinting, sprint!  You don't play soccer to get better at basektball, nor do you cycle to get better at swimming.  You need to sprint to get better at sprinting.  Can you get residual benefits from doing strides in a speed program?  Yes, but those are for recovery and/or general conditioning workouts, not speed workouts.

2) You are doing too much.  This is one that parents have a harder time understanding than the kids. A few parents think that the only way to get better is to constantly do more.  Parents and coaches, do your kids a favor and train them smarter, not harder!  And to the athlete who wants to do two or three a days every day, you will most likely break down before you meet your potentiality.  You can only do so much with your  body before it starts to shut off.  You shouldn't even get close to that in training.  Remember our friend supercompensation!  Without the recovery period, you don't get compensated.

3)  Your training is not specific.  Agility drills are great.  For agility.  Ladder drills are great.  For footwork (if you have bad motor skills it's going to help you though).  Stretching is great.  Okay, no it isn't (to be fair, I'm only talking about static stretching because dynamic stretching works better, plus it's way cooler).  And for the love of everything good, please stop wearing weight vests when you run.  Basically, what are you training for?  Knock out these two types of workouts in your training to get where you want to be in your 40: Workouts for your drive phase and sprint form (proper sprint foot striking and turnover), and workouts for top speed.  The rest is mostly fluff.

And because I want you to succeed, here is an idea for each to get your speed up to par:

Drive Phase/Footstriking:  4-5 short hill sprints at maximum effort with 4 minutes of recovery between reps.  You cannot run fast up a hill with bad form.  Yes, you can run up a hill with bad form, but once again you cannot run fast up a hill with bad form.  You will find yourself driving your arms and amplifying your leg swing as you would in a true sprint.  You will be landing on the balls of your foot, not the heel, what you will also be doing in a maximal sprint.  If the hill takes more than 6-8 seconds to run, it's too long.

Top Speed:  4-5 flying 30s.  These are short sprints where you are already moving (jogging or striding) when you sprint for a short, all out sprint.  If you can find a very slight decline (not down a hill or levee, but rather a gradual slope like what you find on the crown on a football field) this is the best place to do this workout.  Continue to work on form.

As always, do a proper warm-up.  If you want to start competing like an elite athlete, you need to start to consider training like one.

The Baby Faced Destroyer vs the World

Tirunesh Dibaba doesn't sleep. She waits.  Tirunesh Dibaba can make a Happy Meal cry.  Tirunesh Dibaba can do a wheelie on a unicycle.  There are more fun facts, but we must move forward. Let's talk about the Baby Faced Destroyers (a nickname given to Dibaba because of her girlish looks) final 400 meters of the 10k this past weekend.  It was 59.96 seconds.  I need to reiterate that.  It was 59.96 seconds.  Maybe Dibaba was giving homage to Rudyard Kipling because that last sixty seconds or so was...unforgiving.  Tirunesh, the Ethiopian, took the lead with about 500 meters left to go and put 13 seconds on the previous race leader before the finish line.  It is safe to say Dibaba, who is five-for-five in World Championship or Olympic 10k's, is the model for which elite level track athletes, especially women, must look to exemplify.  Her, with her compatriot Meseret Defar, are rewriting the history books of womens distance running.

All is well when you can be a sprinter in a distance race.

There was a man almost fifty years ago who did something special in the city of Tokyo, Japan.  He was an American citizen as well as a fantastic distance runner. The gentleman, on cold and rainy October day, did what no American had done before nor has done since; Bob Schul won the 5000m at the Olympics.  A soaked and muddied cinder track could not hinder Schul from finishing the last 300 meters in a mercurial 38.7 seconds.  This was not the mondo tracks of today which are far faster, nor did he have the latest three ounce spikes, nor were the conditions prime for a fine performance.  Considering, the time is mind boggling.  There was also a curious man behind the scenes in the success Schul enjoyed that autumn eve.  A former Hungarian named Mihaly Igloi whose training program was rife with the stuff dreams are made of: hard, dirty work.  That work also happened to include really fast running.

David Rudisha puts his running shorts on the same way as you, one leg at a time.  Only when Rudisha wears his running shorts, he wins gold records.  David is a speedy fellow, clocking in the 400 at a modest 45.13 as well as being the only man to crack 1:41 in the 800 meters.  He is actually so fast, he set the world record in a non-rabbited race.  This race is what we like to call the Olympics and rarely are distance world records set there anymore.  Mr. Rudisha ran his first 200 meters in London in 23.4 seconds.  I'm going to let that sink in for a minute.  It is a shame David is injured at this World Champs and I still hope in the near future we get the Bolt vs Rudisha match-up, although I feel we might need to see a 450-500 meter race to make it even.

I hope you can follow the narrative.  Whether it was the 60's or the new millennium one thing has separated those at the top from those at the bottom: the ability to simply run faster than the competition when they needed to.  After you have your "duh" moment, think about it again.  When the Baby Faced Destroyer won the 10k this past weekend she did it looking like a sprinter who wandered out on the track after the rest of the field had done twenty-four laps.  I really enjoyed Hitomi Niiya's tenacity and wished strongly for her to medal after shouldering the load of work the majority of the race but it wasn't to be.  And in all honesty, I'm not sure that Niiya could run a 400 all out in 59.96 much less the last lap of a 10k.  And when Rudisha is healthy he can literally run away from the field considering very few 800 runners can run the first 200 as fast as he can (and still finish).  No one negative splits 800s on the world stage so his ability to separate (and maintain an industrious pace) on the first lap is similar to Dibaba and Schul separating on the last lap.

If you haven't figured it out by now, I moonlight as Captain Obvious.  I'm probably not telling you anything you didn't already know.  So if we rehashing middle school material here, my question is this: why don't more training programs reflect this understanding of elite level performance?  A few of the US elites have figured it out, or rather, their coaches have.  From Duane Solomon (4th in the 800 at the Olympics) who trains under Johnny "The Gray Zone" Gray (a direct coaching descendant of Schul's coach, Mihaly Igloi) to Galen Rupp (Silver medal at the Olympics in the 10k) who trains under Alberto Salazar, speed is a critical aspect of training.  The ability to run a 400 faster than the field precedes the ability to run the end of a distance race faster than the field.  That statement may seem counter intuitive, but you must consider this: How difficult would it be to train for a 4 minute mile if your fastest 400 was only a 57 versus if it was a 50?  The first guy has no realistic shot, but lets say they could both end up running a 4 minute mile.  The 57 second 400 runner has far less ability to match a fast finishing kick.  And there you have the secret to maximizing your potential on the track.  Be a better sprinter than the field!

Dibaba and other runners like her such as Mo Farah have maximized their ability to run away from the field due to great sprint mechanics at the end of a race, great training preceding the race, and a confidence in themselves that has developed a killer instinct on the track.  And to further establish the point, in many races Mo Farah lines up for on the track, he doesn't have the fastest PR.  Despite winning the World Championship in the 5000 meter today in Moscow, Farah had only the 7th fastest PR in the field.  It just goes to show you, athletes who train like the Baby Faced Destroyer have a better chance to win against nearly any field because no one can touch them at the end of the race.

Lastly, if I have left you scared that you are required a certain amount of sprinter in your or you will never be a top athlete in track, there is good news.  A lot of this no longer applies to races off the track such as marathon or cross country races.  Those are usually won by the craziest runners.  But that's another talk for a another day.

Knowledge Is Power- August 16th

Continue to keep yourself in the know on the history of athletics or some interesting training articles.  Enjoy your weekend!

Article about USATF and Shannon Rowbury by Letsrun- Why it matters:  The USATF has been under scrutiny the past few years for lame leaders, bad meet protocol, and now this.  USATF may be the leader of the sport, but do they do what is best for the sport?

Womens 1500 Recap by Milesplit- Why it matters: This was the race that Rowbury wanted to be in, but never the less the USA had a medalist in Jenny Simpson and the future of American distance running (actually by now she can be considered the present) Mary Cain was also in the final.

Ancillary Training Ideas by Jay Johnson- Why it matters: I'm a fan of adding in some strength work even for runners and a lot of that comes from Jay.  Strength work keeps you healthy and can add some benefits more than just looking more toned.  Thanks a lot Jay!

Being Average by Vern Gambetta- Why it matters:  I love Vern's blog posts.  They are short and to the point.  They get you thinking.  We see people who struggle to be average all the time.  Maybe struggling to be elite is just as hard as struggling to be average?  Just something to ponder.

NSAF Rosters for Pan-American Championships- Why it matters:  Well, despite this being the "future" athletes of our sport, I had another reason for putting it up.  Congrats to Dylan Duvio of John Curtis Christian School for making the roster!  We wish you good luck!

Training To Be Your Best: August 19th-25th

Week of August 19th-25th:

Goals: As school starts to return for runners across the country, the XC season begins to ramp up.  Figure out where you want to be in November and focus on the path to get there.  Continue to hydrate and eat properly!  

Monday- 35-45 minutes easy
Tuesday- 6x800 @ Saturday Goal Pace, 400m jog recovery
Wednesday- 35-40 minutes easy
Thursday- 35 minute fartlek.  Varied pace based on 2 mile and 5k race effort. Example is 30 seconds at 2 mile race effort, 60 seconds at easy running.
Friday- 35 minutes easy, 10x strides
Saturday- 3 Mile or 5K Time Trial
Sunday- Off or up to 3 miles easy

Legend:
Easy- A pace you can handle and have a conversation at the same time. Relaxed.
Tempo Run- A distance run at a pace of 5k race pace plus 30 seconds per mile.
Strides- Not a sprint! Simply a short pickup of 50-100 meters at around 1-2 mile race pace. Full recovery.
Fartlek- A run of varied pace for varied time which can be anywhere from an easy jog to hard sprinting.
Hills- Not all out sprints, good paced effort around 5k race effort. 

Doing a Proper Warm-Up

One thing's for sure, without warming up properly you will never be able to perform to your maximum during competition.  I don't say that because it is a "coachly" thing to say.  One of the tenets of my coaching programs is that I don't offer my athletes to do anything I haven't physically done myself before.  Between warm-up, cool-downs, and workouts, everything I have them do is what I've already done to myself as the human guinea pig.

I wasn't always so clever.  When I was a sprint coach my routine was pretty dull and a little too influenced by my distance background.  My favorite sprint coach of the time was Clyde Hart because I could identify with his training style which was high volume for sprinters (coincidentally I'm not even sure my 800 runners now do as much volume as some of his 400 runners did).  I had my guys do a lap or two easy then some static stretching and drills.  Either way, when I look back, it was bad.  Then again it was my first coaching foray and I was a certainly unaware of the full dynamics of training.  Anyway, after a season which only saw one runner break 23 seconds for 200 meters (yeah, it was that bad) I decided I needed to go out and learn more about the sport.

Well during my current coaching stint at John Curtis I began to implement a more dynamic warmup.  I had basically been brainwashed by Jay Johnson of Nike.  I figured I had nothing to lose; I was coaching a team varsity team with the average age of 12 so it wasn't like I was going to be setting world records in the fall anyway.  So for a few weeks I would go out after practice and experiment with different exercises and then attempt a workout and see how I would fare.  And I learned something pretty crazy.

So here I was, doing these warm up drills, basically getting in a workout before I even began the workout, feeling pretty tired when I toed the line, yet something miraculous happened.  I would run faster than I had for the same workouts a few weeks before, even feeling less than optimal at the start.  Thinking I might be insane, I asked Micah Simoneaux to try it as well and he offered the same results.  So I slowly started to get my team on board and teach them the warm up.  I took some stuff out, added some stuff in, etc., till I felt I had come to a good medium on what was necessary.  And at first it took such a long time that our hour long summer practices were solely doing warm-up drills!  It took a lot of refining.

The warm-up is an essential part of the training program.

Well by now I'm sure you are wondering what I had done that worked so well.  So a quick overview is this: a few minutes of easy jogging followed by a set of dynamic drills that focus on loosening the hamstrings and hip flexors, and then some strides. The jogging start is pretty standard and gets blood flow to the lower body after a long day of sitting in class.  I realized the magic was in the dynamic portion of the warm-up.  Runners develop very tight hip flexors and hamstrings and think back to the injuries your runners have had in the past and I can almost guarantee that these two muscles were either directly or partially responsible.  Make sure to loosen them up well!  And finally a couple strides were in order to prepare to run well in the workout.  And that's basically it.  Our warm-up went from an hour (okay so it only took that long because I was teaching proper form) to now it's around 15 minutes for the total deal.

As a coach, you need to think outside the box, or sometimes well within it, to maximize the performance of your team.  Either way, you need to be THINKING!  Most coaches develop a training plan or steal one out of a magazine and then shut it down mentally.  Challenge yourself to learn something new each year and then watch your team flourish.

Knowledge is Power- August 9th

So continuing with our weekly series of the best articles that you need to read, here ya go!  Also, if you have any articles you think should be posted on here, feel free to submit them. Email me at vpprotraining@gmail.com.

Meet Day Protocol by Scott Christensen- Why it matters:  Reaching your potential is in a large way influenced by what you do you to prepare, mentally and physically.  Knowing what to do with your body the day of the competition is pretty much the core of sports performance.

World Championships Predictions by Athletics Weekly- Why it matters:  The World Championships happen the year before and the year after the Olympics.  It's the height of non-Olympic track and nearly as important in the track world.

Interview with Malcolm Gladwell by Runners World- Why it matters: Malcolm Gladwell is the writer of Outliers, a book which puts for the notion that practice is what separates talent.  He is a former Canadian champion runner and is one of the brightest minds in the sport.

New Doping Punishments in 2015 by IAAF-  Why it matters:  Track and Field is the purest sport still left on the earth and it has no home for cheaters and dopers.  The new 4 year ban will be a deterrent for athletes to dope, plus it will keep dopers away from the sport longer.

Iron Deficiency by Carl Valle-  Why it matters:  Iron deficiency is a major problem in sports, especially for women distance runners.  Stagnation and chronic fatigue are two attributes of iron deficiency.  In order to combat this, we need to monitor our eating!

Training To Be Your Best: August 12th-18th

Week of August 12th-18th:

Goals: The summer months are hot and trying!  You've got a few weeks before it starts to cool off.  Continue to build up the amount of training you are doing and add in some short workouts to start to get used to the workouts you will do later in the season.

Monday- 35-40 minutes easy*
Tuesday- 20 minute tempo run**, 12x strides***
Wednesday- 35-40 minutes easy
Thursday- 10x400m @ 5k race pace, Walk 100m
Friday- 35-40 minutes easy
Saturday- 10x 400m Hills****, Walk back
Sunday- Off!

* Easy- A pace you can handle and have a conversation at the same time. Relaxed.** Tempo Run- A distance run at a pace of 5k race pace plus 30 seconds per mile.*** Strides- Not a sprint! Simply a short pickup of 50-100 meters at around 1-2 mile race pace. Full recovery.
**** Hills- Not all out sprints, good paced effort around 5k race effort.

Building the Perfect Athlete

The longer I coach in track in field the more I have respect for the amazing feats that not only my athletes achieve, but also the athletes world wide.  I've worked with distance runners, sprinters, jumpers, and throwers and have had some success with all.  Each group presents certain challenges that make coaching entertaining (as well as mentally draining).  Part of coaching is more or less trying to create a "perfect" athlete for your sport, but what does that really mean?

A few years ago I was having a conversation with a roommate about NFL players vs. world class runners like Haile Gebreselassie and Kenenisa Bekele.  His contention was that the runners were better because they had literally both pushed the limits of humanity by setting world records (by the same token this also included power lifters and other athletes who only focus on one dimension of their athleticism) and mine was that it was the NFL players because their overall athleticism superseded that of those who excelled in simply one event.  But either way it got me to thinking, who really is the best athlete, and does a perfect athlete even exist?

The answer is obviously no, by virtue of definition no athlete could ever be perfect because usually a person has to give a little in one arena to gain some in another (i.e. a soccer player has no need to put on bulk mass and upper body strength because the goal is to be quick and agile).  But if you could build a near-perfect athlete, where would you start and what would you look for?

This athlete would need to be explosive, no doubt, with quick reaction time and unrelenting speed.  A good strong frame (with necessary height) to go along with this speed would create a dynamo of power.  Agility would need to be an obvious prerequisite as many sports deal with shifty moves that can separate the contenders from the pretenders.  You would also need the endurance to outrun your competition over and over again.  This deadly combination of all things athletic would constitute the top performing human in the world.

You won't find many guys like this, mainly because top level athletes only train for their specific sports and focus on the requirements that allow them success within the sport.  But if I had to guess what this athlete would look like, I think the starting point would be Ashton Eaton.  You won't find many people who can run a 10.2 and a 4:30 mile or throw the shot put 50 feet and pole vault 17 feet.  Certainly I think guys who could be like Eaton exist within other sports.  The NFL, MLB, and NBA surely has a few.  Although none of those leagues promote the full development of a "perfect" athlete (and mainly because they don't have to).

Ashton Eaton is one of the world greatest athletes.

So how would one train to emulate the "perfect" training plan?  To physically develop themselves in a manner that exemplifies the furthest development of as many attributes as possible.  This means that the guys who only lift upper body won't qualify, nor the runners who slog miles without as much as a push-up along the way, nor could the body builders who fail to actually develop any athleticism in the gym.

To truly train to be an unconquerable stotan you must be able to lift heavy weights, sprint with ease, throw powerfully, and traverse sizeable mileage on foot with efficiency.  Is that easy?  Well of course it isn't easy.  But it isn't meant to be.  I mean, we are talking about near perfection right now.

Finally, let's come back to reality for a bit.  So not many are going to become a member of the 300 anytime soon, but there is a lesson to be had here.  Pursuit of physical and athletic excellence must be broad in scope and well planned.  You need to think about your personal limitations and how to challenge them.  Embrace parts of training you had never desired to venture before.  Quit being a one-dimensional athlete and start being a little more "perfect."

How Tough Are You?

I want to go ahead and dispel some misinformation that I have seen as of late, especially in response to works like Sports Gene.  I've seen some loathing the findings that indeed certain people are predisposed to be successful with respect to biological functions like acquiring muscle mass or running fast.  A sense of fatalism grips some people as if they just realized all their hopes and endeavors are pointless.  Well they aren't.  Perhaps many of these people just aren't mentally tough enough to rise to the challenge.

I think any good scientist will say, yes there are some people predisposed to have success with less work based on genetics, but by no means is that nearly the whole picture.  And truly it may even be a non-factor.  Physical capability is only the entry point to being a great athlete.  And much of that can be trained up even without exceptional athleticism.  Think of what the immortal Paavo "Flying Finn" Nurmi said: "Mind is everything.  Muscle, pieces of rubber.  All that I am, I am because of my mind."

At the lowest levels of sports you always have those special athletes that are vastly superior to the rest of the field.  It is obvious that those athletes have the intrinsic nature necessary to be a successful athlete in a sport.  We get that.  Each year, though, you see a few of these talented athletes fall a little closer back to earth and lose their vast advantage.  Now this could be for a couple reasons.  Maybe they lost interest in the sport.  Maybe there were circumstances that required them to leave the sport for a reason.

I tend to think it is one reason why: these athletes are not willing to put in the amount of work necessary to maintain their success.  Sure you have the issue of occasionally an athlete physically matures early and loses the advantage over their peers as they get older, but I find the early maturation excuse a little too often cited.  What I really believe is at play is that when the athletes were younger they didn't need to work hard to beat their competition.  Now that they have lost some or most of the physical advantages they would need to develop a work regimen on par with the rest of their athletic brethren.  I tend to think that is the true reason many child prodigies fall off.  They aren't willing to put in an elite level work ethic even if they have elite level talent.

Now take the athlete who was never particularly the most amazing athlete on the track or on the field.  He or she learned to work hard or suffer from mediocrity.  This athlete was always okay putting in all the hard work, sweat, blood, tears, and them some, necessary to achieve the next level.  Eventually he will catch up to that athlete who was always physically more prepared for success but never had it together between the ears.  For the average kid, the day that he caught up to the more "talented" kid it was simply business as usual.  For the one being surpassed, many different potential ways to handle the situation arise but history shows that the majority of these athletes choose not to go the way of the average athlete, by which I mean they choose not to develop an elite work ethic.

Now consider this: many athletes don't achieve the height of their athletic success until their late 20s and early 30s.  For most, that means they would have spend 10-20 years in their sport before they maximize their potential.  It takes an overwhelming amount of mental toughness and perseverance to stick with a single activity that long.  You want a short answer to if genetics is the reason why people don't achieve their maximum?  Hardly!  Most people simply don't reach their maximum because they either don't want to work hard enough to get there or they don't want to work long enough.  You'll never know exactly what you are capable of nor know how well you can compete against your peers until you give a good bit of yourself to training for an extended period of time.  If you aren't willing to do that, don't complain!

Envisioning Success

Before you read the next sentence I need you to stop, close your eyes, and think about what your goals are for the rest of the year.  You didn't cheat did you?  Okay, let's move on.  We've now got a little more than four and a half months till the year ends.  Are your goals SMART?  I've talked about goals before and you need to understand that I will continue to harp on them because they are essential to success.

Goal setting is a part of a process that, with mental and physical dedication, will eventually lead you to be in a better position than you were before you embarked on your personal quest.  In order to set more effective goals, check out the SMART protocol, and check on my goal setting post.  I want to move a little bit further along to a point where your goals are already set (like the ones you have for the rest of the year).

Between setting the goal and the end result there is the process of building the vehicle to get you to your destination.  Imagine that the goal is point A, the final result is point B.  There are many ways to get between the points, and equally as many ways to get off course.  One could ride a bike, or one could take a jet between the points.  Which do you think yields a quicker path?  Now obviously that is just an illustration and not truly how the process works, but you get the point.  You need to figure out the best course of action.  

Which path will you take?

So what can you do to make sure you are on the proper path?  Well, envision ahead of time the requirements for success, as well as potential obstacles you may have.  If I think ahead of time about issues that will certainly come up, already have an idea of how to deal with those issues in a timely manner.  If I know that fundraising for my team will be an issue, do I really want to wait till the team bank account is down to zero before I think of a fundraising event?  If I feel that at a certain part of the year my team gets stale in their training, do I really want to happen again without a well thought out response to the problem?

The ability to foresee what can inevitably derail you from the path to success should also be coupled with the ability to foresee what actions you can take to to ensure you reach your potential.  What strengths of yours will you take advantage of to see your goals achieved?  What positive aspects of yourself or your program do you know will be the deciding factor in your path to the top?  That is how you envision success.  Have goals, plan ahead, think positive, and work diligently to finish strong.

Coaches, You're Doing It Wrong

I've been heckled before.  "You only do how much mileage?,"  "Your athletes will never progress," and "My kids would never do well in your system."  All pretty standard by today.  Actually, I've kind of realized that as soon as I start having people agree with my training, I may have gone "too mainstream."  I'm just kidding about the last part, but I want to illustrate a point: I don't want to be like other coaches.

Now coaches, before you get offended understand what I mean.  I do non-traditional training.  Blame Jay Johnson, blame John Cook, and blame Boo Schexnayder for entertaining my questions on distance running.  And I also probably listen to Scott Christensen too much too.  But all of this is okay.  These are coaches who are unapologetic about success and have some fine nuggets of wisdom to drop if you listen to them.  I am glad I don't follow the traditional training programs.

What do I mean about traditional program?  I mean the programs who put the miles before the important aspects of training.  Programs that say "you will run 70 miles this week" and then proceed to have you run distance runs everyday.  In reference to those who focus solely on running 100 miles a week, a wise man once said "The magic is in the man, not the 100 miles."  That man was a guy named Bill Bowerman, one of the greatest track and field coaches in history.  Bill also said "There is no such thing as bad weather, just soft people." That quote is for another day though!

Last time I checked our body is complex.  Running is hard.  The sky is blue and Tulane should have never left the SEC.  There are essential truths in life and just because you ignore them doesn't mean they go away.  Running distance runs everyday, especially in the oppressive heat of the gulf south, is not necessarily counter-productive, but certainly not as effective as other routes.  There is a wealth of training options that coaches seem to under and over value within certain respects.

Also, when did Matveyev go out the window?  I talk to coaches who train their athletes fairly hard with fewer recovery days that you would expect.  Or the coaches who have their athletes run 50-100% more volume than the ones I work with.  I'm not training greyhounds, but we can hang with several teams we shouldn't be able to compete with.  It is perhaps that our training culture has started to slink back to the cult of quantity.

On the other hand, plenty of programs have reverted to the cult of laziness because their coaches (or in better terms, babysitters) don't care to have long practices nor push kids in fear they will quit.  Kids will quit regardless of how hard you train them.  Just saying.

The high school I coach at, John Curtis Christian School, had the #1 high school football team in the country last year.  The crazy thing about them is not only did they outwork any and every team they played last year, they probably got in 3 times the practice than those teams too.  Sure, they may have practiced a little bit longer than the teams they played, but they practiced far smarter.  Every player got numerous reps everyday.  There was no sitting around or standing at practice.  They dared to be different.  It starts with the coach who isn't worried about being traditional.

So coach, or even athlete out there reading this, take this away from the article:  Be smart with your coaching.  Don't do training that is less effective just because everyone else does it.  Traditional doesn't mean better. Dare to do what other won't, or don't be afraid to try something new.   Also, don't be afraid to work hard, but training volume isn't necessarily the dictator on what hard work is.