Explaining the workouts and Tuesday's meet

I feel that the workouts I gave you for next week need a little more explanation.

First of all, all the workouts should be done after a warmup and followed by a cooldown. The warmup, do 5-10 minutes easy jogging, some stretching, some crunches, side crunches, and pushups. On Mondays, also do the form drills with the rest of the team. Do those after the easy jogging. The cooldown simply should be 5-10 minutes of easy jogging, with maybe some stretching as well.
If I don't write down anything specific about the warmup, just do that regular warmup.

I'd like you do the strides a little longer than what you've been doing. Do them the long way on the field instead of the short way, running about 3/4 of the way across. When you do them too short, you're having to slow down about as soon as you get to speed. You only need to do 5 of them and you still get a full rest, so these shouldn't be any harder than the short ones.

Now to explain the workout types. E simply means easy running or jogging. This is simply one continuous easy run. T is threhold pace, which is 'comfortably hard'. It is like the first mile we did in the workout Saturday. Threshold pace usually has short rests. I is interval pace, which is probably the hardest pace. It is usually about race 3200 or 1600 race pace, and you get longer rests, about the same amount of time as you spend running. R is faster paced running and is usually short, with lots of rest. You're going fast, but not getting very tired.

So Monday, do your regular warmup, do the form drills, do an easy run and then do some strides and a cooldown. Tuesday you'll do your warmup, run your races and cool down. For those people running two races, you need to be warm for both races. Usually you just need to keep moving, do some light jogging, some short strides, and things to keep yourself warm between them. You don't need to move the entire time, but don't just sit right down after a first race, and expect that you'll magically still be warmed up and ready for your second one 45 minutes later. If your races are really far apart, this gets harder, so you might cooldown and warmup again.

On Wednesday, the main group will be running 3x1200 meters (3 laps) at T pace, with a short break of 1 minute in between them. T for this group should probably be between 4:40 and 5:00 for each 1200, or between 1:33 and 1:40 per lap. The first group will be going short and easy to rest, because they're doing their T work on Thursday.

On Thursday, the main group will be running a long easy run of 5-6 miles. The higher mileage group will do one continuous run that combines easy running and threshold. First do an easy 4-5 mile and then run right onto the track and run a T pace 1600 (about 6:10-6:20). Then take an easy lap to recover and run another 1200 at T pace (about 4:35-4:45). This will probably be a little tougher than normal at the end of a long run, so be prepared. This is all to be done as one run without stopping. After that, take a short break, stretch and do an easy cooldown.

Friday's an easier day to give you some rest after doing some harder work, so take it easy. Saturday's a hard workout so you don't want to show up Saturday morning tired and sore. Saturday's workout is going to be 800s at I pace, with the same amount of rest as the time you spend running. So if you run an 800 in in 2:40, your rest before the next one is going to be about 2:40. The main group will probably be doing these in 2:50-3:00, and the first group will be doing them in about 2:35-2:45. This might change a little depending on how the race Tuesday goes.

If you have any questions on how to do these workouts, or anything else, feel free to email at mortondistanceguys@gmail.com. Also feel free to email to let me know how the workouts are going. If you're doing great, that's awesome, I'd love to hear it. If you're sore and hurt, let me know, maybe we need to cut back or adjust.

Just a reminder of what we talked about for goals on Tuesday.
4x800
Dave, Nathan Y, Joe, Mark. - Go hard, find out how fast you can go, but remember you have another race later in the day as well. Other teams may have guys running pretty fast at the start. Try to race but don't kill yourself.

800
Mark, Nathan S. - You guys should be looking at running around 2:30, if not faster. That's 1:14 to 1:16 per lap. Other guys in the race will probably be starting faster than that. If you feel good and think you can handle their speed, go for it. If not, find your pace for your goal. We don't know how fast you can run an 800 yet, so we'll find out Tuesday. It'll be a learning experience, but you'll have a good idea of your speed for next time.

1600
Dave, Nathan Y. - You guys should be ready for 5:10-5:20 right now. If you're still somewhat fresh after the 4x800, go out at 1:17-19 per lap. Other guys will be starting out fast. Don't go with that, because a first lap that's way too fast will hurt you later. You guys want to make sure your first three laps are all in that range, and you should be in good position for the last lap.
Joe, Nick, - You should be ready for about 5:30-5:40. That means 1:22-1:25 per lap. You guys will be fresh so you might surprise us and run faster than those times. Remember that a first lap that's too fast will hurt you more than one that's too slow, so don't go nuts. If you feel good halfway through the race, go for it. See if you can run faster than this pace. My gut says you'll be able to do it. Maybe not the first time you try, but you'll get it.
Nathan S. - You're the only one running the 1600 and the 800. This is a tough double because there's not much rest between. You're going to be tired and this is why we set your goal a little lower in the mile. You should be able to go under 6 minutes, even when tired. Just remember, even pace 1:25-1:29 per lap, make sure your third lap's a good one, and finish hard. I think you'll run pretty well.

I'm excited to see how you guys race this week.

Finally wrapping up the intro stuff...

Trying to serve as an advisor or coach is very difficult when you’re not able to be there every day. I work until 5 PM Monday through Friday, so I can’t make it to your regular after school practice times. I will be able to make it to most, hopefully all, of your meets, though I might be late for some. I have a few ideas of how I’m going to try and work around this problem.

I hope to be able to do our main speedwork session each week on Saturday mornings, when I would be able to be present to supervise them. This way I can make sure that we’re doing them properly and also to guage how well you’re doing them, to get an idea of how fast you can be, and how much work you can handle. This depends on the teams ability to be there for these workouts. Saturday morning practices are not mandatory, but these workouts are probably the most important of the week. It is strongly encouraged that you come. If most of the team can commit to these, this will work, but if not, it makes things more difficult.

I’m also going to rely on you for team leadership. I’m going to give you guys a plan for the workouts to do and I’m going to entrust your seniors with things like leading your warm-ups, choosing routes, and making sure everyone understands the workout. But everyone has to hold themselves accountable for doing the work they’re supposed to do. If you don’t do it, you’re shorting yourself and your teammates.

Finally, I have set up this blog (I hate that word by the way) and e-mail account to help us communicate during the week. The blog will be strictly one-way. I will post workout plans and other things I might want to communicate to you on there. If you need to communicate, I have set up an e-mail address that you can send to. Feel free to write to it with any questions, or just to share how your training is going. I will try to check it at least once a day. I will also put up links to various other running websites for those who are interested in reading or learning more, or maybe just want to watch some video of some good races such as the last Olympics. The e-mail is mortondistanceguys@gmail.com

Team Unity and working together:

This sport is different from a lot of sports because it is both team based and individual. You’re a part of a team that is trying to score as many points as possible at meets, but you’re also an individual who wants to run as fast as possible. Those two goals usually work together, but sometimes they don’t. Sometimes you may want to run a 3200 against a really good opponent to set a new personal record, but your coach knows you will score more points if you run the mile and the 800 instead. Another team aspect of running is relays, and the same types of decisions apply to relays. Don’t worry, you will get your chances to focus on the races you want, just maybe not every time out.

The other unique thing about tracks nature is that different people are running at different times. This allows you to support each other in ways other sports can’t. A quarterback can’t stand on the sidelines and cheer for his wide receiver while he catches a pass and runs the field. But you can do those things for your teammates. You can stop and cheer for your teammates if they are racing while you’re warming up for your race. If you’ve got a watch, you can tell them how fast they are going. Just don’t run along side them, that’s against the rules. You can meet your friend at the finish line with a cup of water and a congratulations at the end of a great two mile race on a scorching hot day.

I think it’s important for people to focus on the team aspect of the sport, and not just the individual. It’s important to have your individual goals, but remember that you’re all in this together. On long easy runs, if someone’s falling behind, fall back and run with them. Running a little bit slower on an easy run won’t hurt your training, and it’s no fun to run for half an hour looking at peoples backs when you’re not feeling good. Bad days happen for everyone. You can’t control them, you can’t always predict them, but you can try and help other people when they’re having them. They’ll do the same for you. If a teammate has a bad race, applaud his effort and remember the days where you just felt like garbage and couldn’t explain why.

To build this relationship and friendship as a team, I think it’s important to do your work together. Team warm-ups during practice, including jogging and stretching, should be done together. Joke around, laugh, but make sure you’re doing the same warmup routine and doing it together. On race days, since you may race at different times, it usually doesn’t make sense for the whole team to warm up together. If you warm up two hours before your race, you’ll get cold and need to do it again before your race. But form groups of people who are racing together or at similar times, and warm up together. It makes your team closer and it shows the other teams that you’re a well prepared unit who will work together to win the meet.

Pacing and strategy: racing for time vs. racing for place

The most efficient way to run a race for time is to do it evenly, running at about the same speed throughout. If you run the first half mile way too fast, you will likely get so tired that you will lose more time in the second half mile than what you gained in the first half. The reverse is true; if you go too slow the first half, you’ll probably have the energy to speed up the second, but by the end of the race you probably won’t have enough to make up all the time you lost. Running an evenly paced race is not easy though; it takes practice. It’s not easy for three reasons.

The first reason is that you don’t have a speedometer when you run! You’ll usually find out at the end of each lap if you’re going way too slow or way too fast, but until then, it’s all up to you to figure it out. It’s common to get excited at the beginning and go faster than you think you’re going. It takes patience and practice to stay calm. It’s also common to be exhausted at the end and feel like you’re still going as fast as you planned when you’re actually slowing down.

But let’s say you get really good at judging how fast you’re going. It’s still hard to know how fast you’re supposed to go! Maybe an athlete has a goal to run a 5:20 mile. So he determines that he should run 1:20 for each lap and he goes and does just that…for two laps. Then he’s toast. The third lap is a 1:25. Then he really falls apart and the last lap is a 1:35. He finishes the race in 5:40. If he’d had a better idea of how fast he was ready to go, he might have been able to run 5:30 that day.

The final reason is that there are other people in the race! When there are other people in the race, you don’t want to just run your time, you want to run your time and beat them. And they don’t play nice and run your planned speed with you. They might run way faster than you’re ready for. They might run a lot slower. Or they might change their speed a lot, surging and slowing down. These things are distracting, and make it hard to judge your speed and to decide whether to speed up, stay the same, or slow down.

There’s a difference between a race for time and a race for place. In a race for time, your goal is on that race, that one race alone, and doing it as fast as possible. A race for place usually has an eye towards other races as well. If your coach puts you in three races in one meet, because he wants you to score as many points as possible, then that is your goal for the day. It is not to set a new record. So you want to do well in the first few races, but you want to conserve enough energy that you can still do well in the third. Three second place finishes will score you twice as many points as one first place finish, a fifth, and a ninth. The other reason you might run for place is a qualifying or championship meet. At sectionals, the top two guys go to State. At State, the top guys get medals and get to call themselves State Champions. At the Mid-Illini Conference meet, the winner gets to call himself a Conference Champion and is named First Team All-Conference. These races are the ultimate season goal for a lot of runners.

So how do you do race this way? That’s a tricky thing and you have to know what your strengths as a runner are. If you have a really fast finishing kick, then your best bet is to stay behind the lead group, not forcing them to run fast. If you try and pressure them to run faster than they are running already, you’re not helping your chances of winning the race, but are tiring yourself. On the other hand, if you think the other runners have a better kick than you, then you probably want to be pretty far ahead of them by that last lap, or at least make them tired enough by the end that they won’t have as strong a kick. That probably means running a fast pace early or in the middle of the race. It’s a bit like playing poker in that you have to guess your opponents hand, or abilities, before you really know what they are. Sometimes someone will throw in a big surge in the middle of the race. They might be able to hold that speed until the end. Or they might be bluffing. You have to decide how to react, based on what you think that opponents’ abilities are compared to yours. You won’t know for sure if he was bluffing until the race ends.

Additional work

Stretching should be done but not intensely. The goal of our stretching is not to see how far past your toes you can reach (your knees, if you’re like me), or to get as flexible as possible. Our goal is simply to get our muscles loose, so that they can go through a running motion without much resistance. It doesn’t help your running any if you get so flexible you can stick your leg behind your head. In fact, some scientific evidence says that this hurts running performance. You also need to be careful because overstretching a muscle can aggravate an injury or sometimes create new ones. It’s also important to always do a light warmup of jogging for 5-10 minutes before stretching. A cold muscle is much easier to overstretch, especially in the cold weather of the early spring.

Form drills serve a few different functions. They help your legs develop some of the explosive power you will need in a race. These drills consist of things like skipping, high knees, leg crossovers, fast feet, etc. They get your legs moving fast and in different motions than normal running. Because of the new and different motions they also help to stretch your muscles in ways that regular running and stretching don’t. Since these motions are new and different, you may feel a little sore the first few times you do them, but your legs will quickly adapt. These do not need to be done every day, but once or twice a week, on a day where you will be running easily.

Strength work is done to strengthen the muscles that help your running, but don’t get strengthened much just by our regular running. Your legs already get strengthened, so I don’t think you need to be doing lots of lifting for your legs. Your arms and the various abdominal muscles that make up your ‘core’ can use some additional strengthening, however. Your arms are constantly swinging when you run, to help balance your body. The faster you run, the more they swing, and the more power they contribute to your stride. We’re not looking to spend a lot of time in the weight room building up our guns, but just trying to give our arms the strength to provide that power when it’s needed. The abdominal muscles hold your body in place while you run. If you watch some of the best runners in the world, you’ll notice that their torso is usually pretty still while their arms and legs move around it. The stronger your abs, obliques, and lower back muscles are, the longer they can keep you running well and with less energy. Our strength work will mostly consist of things like crunches, oblique crunches, leg lifts, pushups, etc.

All the different types of additional work we do should usually be done simply as part of the warmup or cooldown routine.

Our four main types of running

This section explains the four main types of running or workouts we will do. We may sometimes squeeze two of these types of workouts into one workout. The most common example of this is doing strides after an easy run.

Easy/Recovery Pace – E (example: 30-60 minutes at 7:30-8:00 mile pace)
This is running done at an easy pace. Most runners should be able to talk while running at an easy pace, though this might be difficult for new runners. The goal is simply to strengthen your body so you can do faster, harder running. When you spend a lot of time running, your body strengthens itself in two main ways.

It strengthens your joints, bones, tendons, muscles and ligaments. These tissues adapt to the stress of running and are able to handle more and more running. This is why runners who have been running for years can usually do a lot more work than new runners without getting hurt.

It also strengthens your cardiovascular system. When you run long easy runs, it increases your hearts ability to pump blood. Just like any muscle, when you work your heart, it gets bigger and stronger. Also, blood vessels grow and increase their ability to transport blood. The biggest changes you will notice are increased endurance and often a lower resting heart rate.

Threshold/Tempo Pace – T (example: 20 minutes at 6:25 pace; or 3x1mile at 6:10 with 1-2 minute recovery between)
When you run at faster paces your muscles produce something called lactate. Your muscles can use this as a fuel, but they need to practice doing that. The best way to practice that is to spend time running at what is called your lactate threshold pace. This pace is the fastest speed you can run and still burn the lactate as fuel as fast as it is produced. The more time you spend at this speed, the more efficient you get at doing this, and the faster this threshold speed becomes.

For example, at the beginning of a season, your threshold runs might be at 6:30 pace, but by the end, you might be able to run 6:10 pace at the same effort. Threshold pace can be described as ‘comfortably hard.’ For experienced runners, it should feel like you could run this pace for 20-30 minutes without too much difficulty, but the thought of running that pace for an hour probably seems pretty tough. For new runners, the thought of running for an hour at any pace probably seems insane.

Interval/V02Max Pace – I (example: 5x800 meters at 2:30 with 2:30 recovery)
V02Max refers to your muscles ability to burn oxygen as a fuel, or rather, your body’s total ability to consume oxygen. Similar to lactate threshold training, the best way to increase this is to spend a lot of time running at the speed where your body uses the most oxygen. The more time you spend there, the better your muscles get at burning oxygen and the more work your muscles can do in a minute – or in a mile race. You may not remember those last three sentences, but once you do one, you’ll remember that interval paced workouts are the ones that hurt…a lot. They are the workouts where halfway through you’re going to wonder why you’re doing this crazy sport, and by the end of the workout, your body is trying to convince your mind that it cannot go anymore.

You may think trying to spend as much time as possible at a painful speed sounds nuts, but these are the workouts that make you able to run fast for a long time. They also don’t hurt as bad as a hard race. The reason for this is because of how we spend a lot of time running this fast. We do this by taking short breaks. No one can run their fastest mile time twice in a row without stopping. But if you do a workout such as the example above, you run for over 12 minutes at a really fast pace in one workout…a pace that you couldn’t hold for more than 5 or 6 minutes straight, even in your best races. This is more time spent training hard and this is what makes you better.

Repetition/efficiency Pace – R (example: 6x300 at 52 seconds with full recovery; or strides after an easy run)
The purpose of running at this speed is to make your stride smoother and more efficient when running at the speeds you would run in a race. The more efficient you are, the less energy you spend, which also means you can go faster with the amount of energy that you have. Though other workouts are hard, they are not at as fast a speed as you might race a mile or definitely not as fast as you would race an 800. Repetition pace is usually close to the speed you would race at, but for much shorter differences. The purpose is not to learn to run fast, but to learn to run fast with good form. For this reason, your rests should be long enough that you don’t feel exhausted by doing these. When you run at race speeds, your body decides the best way to run fast. It decides exactly how high your knee should lift, how to position your foot, how much your torso leans and how to swing your arms. You probably never even realized your body did all that, but do you really think about all that when you run fast? The more you practice this, the better the body gets at deciding these things, and the more your muscles get used to that stress.

My philosophy of training:

My philosophy of training is largely based on my experience with past coaches and teammates and with several books I have read on the subject. It is very largely based on the book “The Daniels Running Formula”, by Jack Daniels, PhD. I believe it is the best single resource for distance runners that there is. I don’t necessarily follow everything in the book word for word, but most of what I know and do came from Daniels, either directly or indirectly through coaches who also believe in his program.

Ideally, one would have a period of several months, with four different phases, to prepare for a series of races. We do not have that much time, so we have to make compromises. We have only 6 weeks until the conference championships, and 7 weeks until the sectional meet. This is not enough time to do the full four phases of training, so we must compress our training into less. The first phase is simply long, slow, easy running, so those who ran over the winter have basically completed this phase.

We will do one main 5-6 week phase that will contain the bulk of the hard workouts. This will be followed by a short 1-2 week tapering phase. Tapering refers to the practice of reducing the amount of work you do before a big race. Doing a killer workout 4 days before a big race isn’t going to help you any for that race. It’s too late. The training you did in the weeks and months leading up to that race will be what made you faster. For that reason, we will cut our total amount of training the last few weeks of the season. The last few weeks workouts will focus on keeping you rested, feeling ‘sharp’, and feeling very comfortable at race pace.

One of the most important things that I learned the hard way is the importance of rest. I’m not referring just to getting a good night’s
sleep, though that is also important. After a hard workout, your muscles and various body parts are slightly damaged, which is basically why you feel sore. From that time until the next time you run, your body is attempting to repair itself, and in that repair it becomes stronger, just like a broken bone. But only if it is given time to repair fully. So we will try to avoid doing hard workouts on consecutive days. Some hard workouts may be followed by medium difficulty workouts, but after that, there will be an easy day. I also recommend taking Sundays off if you are new to running. If you have been running consistently for a while, and can do 6 days a week without a problem, then an easy run + strides on Sunday is fine. Just don’t neglect the rest your body needs just to say you ran every day.

That brings me to the final thing that has influenced my ideas on training, which is learning from my past mistakes. I did a lot of stupid things when I was younger, and have tried to learn from them, though I’m sure I still do stupid things. Often the things I’m most sure of are because I learned them from doing the hard way. Most of my injuries are traceable to the fact that I kept running hard when I should have slowed down or taken a break. I wanted to be the best, but sometimes your body needs a rest.

Introduction

I'm volunteering to help coach the distance runners on the guys track team at MHS. My work schedule doesn't allow me to be at regular practices during the week, which is why I created this site. This site is used to help me communicate workouts and advice to the guys on the team.

About myself, my running, and goals:
I am a 2001 Morton High School graduate and I ran all 4 years of high school in both cross country and track. I ran a couple years at Greenville College, a small Christian college in southern Illinois that is part of NCAA DIII. My running there was inconsistent. Sometimes I would be able to run as fast as I had in high school, other times I wouldn’t. This was mainly because of injuries that kept me from doing the amount of training I used to do. I have continued to attempt to train since, though I have much less time for it than I did when I was a student.

Two things I’ve learned are the importance of goal setting, and also a conviction that every workout should have a purpose. Having a goal gives you direction of where you want to go so you can set out a plan of what to do. Once you have a plan, every workout should be designed to fit that plan, to reach that goal. If you’re doing a workout and you or your coach can’t say why you’re doing that workout, you might need to change it. If your coach assigns you an easy four mile run, and you and your buddy decide to race it, that is probably not really working towards your goal. It’s fun to run fast sometimes, but your body also needs rest sometimes.

I believe that goals should be set high. Even though it may be disappointing, it’s a good thing when you don’t reach all your goals. The first reason is that it builds character. It’s good to learn to deal with the disappointment, because no one gets everything they want. The second reason is that it means you’re setting your goals at the right place. If you reach all your goals, then that means they were probably too easy for you. So you need to set some harder ones. How can you ever find out how fast you can actually run, if you never fail to run a certain time? Maybe you’re content with running a 4:59 or a 5:59 mile, but I’d rather find out how fast I could possibly run.

I’m helping the team this year for two reasons. The first is simply that I love the sport, and want to help young people to learn it. I love being around races, running in them, watching them, helping time, set up, etc. The second reason is that I believe my time on the MHS team was a benefit to my life, and I would like to give back to that program. I currently work full time in the IT industry and have to work until 5 PM most every Monday thru Friday. So I will not be able to attend your regular practices, though I am willing to run Saturday practices for those who are interested. I will also try to attend meets where my schedule allows.