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| me o my |
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Oldsub4, He specifically says below this schedule "I will run that 6 miles as easy as I want which some days might be as slow as 8 min/mile pace (the other mileage is around mid 6 min/mile)." I know that training intensity doesnt necessarily equate to racing times and I wasnt suggesting that I should be faster than him because I can run some many 6 min miles. but I dont understand how a guy can run 3:56 without running faster on a regular basis as I believe this is the secret to aerobic development. Where did his aerobic base come from? If it was simply from doing this schedule and talent I think there would be dozens of American 3:56 guys. I guess my question is, how do you develop on this schedule? I dont feel that hard intervals really lend to longer term development. It seems to me elite runners out there puts an emphasis on quality if only running 70 miles per week. |
| fUrCeOsNhN |
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OldSub4, I think I recall saying you ran 1:46, but what were your prs at 1500 and the mile? Did you run any 5k's? You had to have been in close to 13:50-14:00 shape to do that 4:20...8:50 workout. I am trying to target the 1500 as well as the 800 and was wondering if it is possible to run almost as good of a 1500 as an 800 off of your training ideas/theories. Also, I just did 10X(1/3 fast, 1/3 moderate) with the first 5 fast ones at tempo, next 4 at mile pace and last 1 a bit quicker. The recovery pace was about 6:00-6:15 pace, and also rested about a minute between the mile pace ones just standing there. Might have gotten a bit carried away, but I was feeling pretty good. It was tough but I could have done at least 2 more at mile pace. Is this type of thing ok to do every once and a while during the base phase? |
| OldSub4 |
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The way I read his blog was that on Friday's he would run 6 miles super easy, but every other mile (the other 64 miles per week) he ran was either 6 minute pace, intervals, or tempo which is excellent quality. I guess we disagree on whether the intervals are the key--to me they are completely the key. It toughens up your body&mind and helps from a power/nervous system/ energy management prospective translate all the basic aerobic fitness work to the faster paces and concentrated effort over a 2-4 minute period. As I pushed down my thresholds across the spectrum I would get into better aerobic shape and create a virtuous cycle. Tough part is as always -- staying healthy; Symmonds seems to have a very mature "listen to my body" outlook and taking the occassional day off which probably is why he has stayed on his feet the past few years and developed. In college I would run the mileage and I would do a bunch of 200s. The coach I was under at the time simply didnt stress working the middle tiers/speeds. I would get into races and suck the middle 50%. I could not carry fast paces relaxed. Once I worked on the hard intervals and tempos I felt differently in races--I just wouldnt slow down as much. Look at all of the people that go train with Coach Gags and immediately drop a bunch of time in the 800/1500m. This is the special sauce....even Snell told me that he was basically doing intervals and tempos weekly but all in the context of a 10mile continuous run. I do not believe that you can just run steady 70 (or 100 mile weeks even) with some short work and perform up to your potential. Running 1:48 off of the Base training you are describing is EXCELLENT -- you should be very encouraged that there is alot more to scratch under the surface if you add in the middle tier work (4:00 to 5:00 pace intervals) consistently. |
| OldSub4 |
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1000m 2:20 in January --probably my best race ever, first lap 59. We hadnt done any speedwork at all. 1500m 3:39 mile 3:58 3000 PR in practice during a workout -- 7:58 5000 never ran it. Wish I did though.... I was definately a few steps off of the best in the country....each season I would get to a certain point and break down -- miss 3 weeks in Feb or in April and just not have the training momentum. I still have regrets about not stringing together that perfect year. 10x what distance? if you were doing a continuous workout pushing the rest I think it sounds pretty good. |
| JColeman |
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OldSub4: So judging from your response, just work on gettin higher mileage in, but i can also do some moderate things such as tempos?, or wait until i get up a bit. [BTW...i am a junior now, summer before sophomore year i hit 50 miles and had a nerve injury in my leg, missed all of xc but amde it back with 2 weeks of running to do a 2937...then in jan worked up to right around 50 again and thats when my foot hurt again...] |
| fUrCeOsNhN |
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Sorry 10X(1/3 of a mile fast, 1/3 of a mile moderate) .33 miles just because that is what I've measured the distance between two roads to be. It's flat and has a dirt/grassy trail alongside if the shins need a break. It is alongside a farm so there are cows and sheep and other farm animals so it smells a bit, but other then that it is good. 2:20 with a 59 first lap? You must have closed in 53-54. Nice. Is speed work really necessary then? I remember Mottram last year after his 8:03.5 2 mile saying that he "hadn't been on the track yet. Scary huh". Not that scary as it turned out. He didn't do shit the rest of the year(actually he had a good race in Ostrava, but thats about all), or this year in Beijing. Well maybe short hill sprints and hard base training with tempos/mileage/weights/longer hills etc is enough? |
| flow |
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hi fUrCeOsNhN, i want to get back to you but too busy till sunday eve. Will do then. cheers ps what does UCONN stand for? OldSub4 i really want to read ll of your wicked posts but again the time is an issue - new job and all. one rare thing though that i have to disagree with is the hamstring pulling action you refer to. This is not the action of the hamstring group and to accentuate it in a pulling way is to begin to invite all sorts of rear body problems like hamstring tears and calf/achilles problems. The problems may even head upward into hip/gluteal/lumbar spine depending on where the specific weakness is for each individual. The driving action comes from moving the hip joint from an posterior tilt to an anterior one and the hamstrings act as stabilisers to secure the knee joint to the hip. what do you reckon about that? |
| Pmoax19 |
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I think I finally get what you are talking about with the natural running thing, some days I just get in a really good rhythm. However I have a question regrading the block periodization. As I thought I understood it GPP was supposed so be significantly longer than any of the other phases, particularly for someone at my age and development close to twice as long as SPP. This year I was thinking 24 weeks GPP, 12 weeks spp, 4 week pre competiton and competiton combined. I think it is important to utilize strength, endurance and power year round, you kinda touched on that with your aerobic bubble but the others I belive deserve constant attention. The 12x400m hill session is as you described and I see it as kind of a fartlek. I thought that session could progres to 12x400m on a steeper hill after 8 weeks, then 12X400m on a flat grass surface after another 8 weeks. Then the SPP progression of that workout would be 8X300m on a less sloped hill for 4 weeks, 8x300m on a steep hill for 4 weeks, then 8x300m on a flat grass surface for 4 weeks. The precomp/comp progression would then be 8X300 @39 with 2 minute recovery on the track for 2 weeks followed by 6X300 @36 with 3 minute recovery on the track for 2 weeks. What's your opinion on that? No, no trouble lol. I just saw flowlikewater on another form while learning as much as I could about this topic. |
| OldSub4 |
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I think i agree with you....not a grab and pull hamstring motion but part of straightening out the hip joint quickly behind you |
| OldSub4 |
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hmmmm were all the injuries on your right leg? if so you really need to be careful about your form and slow way down at first until you feel like you are using your quads and gluts more (they dont get injured as much....foot injuries are usually from catching your footstrike instead of letting your heel hit and catching the downward force with your quad in my experience). Run 5 out of 7 days alone so you dont get dragged into someone else's pace....or run with someone who is not that fast. I would just focus on putting together a 60 mile week healthy at first. Then add in quality...you have plenty of time between now and January to sharpen up for a 3-4 week indoor season. |
| foomiler |
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flow, I can't speak for Old Sub 4, but my understanding of the issue, if you care, is that the hamstrings serve to lift the foot up from the ground, thereby breaking support & enabling the leg to rotate forward for the next step. As long as you do not actively reach for the ground, but to simply allow the lower leg to fall on its own, the hamstrings are not unhealthily strained to decelerate footstrike. Hip/lumbar/spinal problems do not occur unless you activate the hamstrings too late (too far behind the centre of gravity) when recovering the lower leg from support. From my past experiences, focusing on driving the hip forward in the manner you have described seems to actually result in hamstring injuries. This is due to, as I see it,the strength discrepancies between the hip flexors in front versus that of the hamstrings from behind. The larger iliopsoas/quads group will lead to a forceful forward swing that far outweighs the speed at which the relatively smaller hamstrings group can activate eccentrically to decelerate the lower leg during foot fall. This leads to hamstring pulls. |
| OldSub4 |
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I was always amazed that I could run fast off of no speed work....it wouldnt feel good, my legs would feel "slow" but I could just hang onto any pace and not get dropped (everyone in the training group could). The ultimate is layering on the speed work on top of that kind of base and getting to the next level. I dont feel like I ever really put it together. The ones who did ran 1:43.... One thing that I wanted to mention is that when you are talking about people who ran 1:43-1:47 you are talking about runners who are enormously naturally talented....like guys who could run 1:50-1:52 in high school off of no base and 10 weeks of drilling some interval workouts. I think everyone can run a great deal faster if they are willing to put the work in, but it is much easier to run the elite times if you are already starting off of a naturally fast engine. Of course there are always exceptions, but not many. I remember watching Bob Kennedy in HS running 4:06 off of 30 miles per week and he was chubby with baby fat on his body. The next year he did 60 miles per week and must have lost 10 pounds and won NCAAs in the fall. Later he was running 100 miles per week and lost another 10 pounds and ran 12:58. No mystery there....incredibly talented guy willing to do the work. With guys running super fast in HS now there is even less of a mystery on who is going to do well....I am still stoked about this kid from Lake Oswego High School, OR...he is the real deal if he stays healthy. Show me the skinny kid with no facial hair (ie still has some maturing to do) who runs 1:50 when he is 17 and that is the next great US 800/1500 guy |
| flow |
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well as usual i am let down by a woman and short of looking for a new one right now i'll spend some of my extra free-time doing this ;)
I'm glad as i've found this is the hardest thing to put into words, but it does go further and i for one realise further than i've managed to perceive so far in my life. One way i look at it is to see that we are all only being part of our true full selves. We only express a part of our full nature. For me training is as much attempting to grow into this full nature as developing what we already already have access to at any given time in our lives. This is as much a psychological thing as it is a physical one. Actually any mind/body studies are attempting to move from this dichotomy of mind and body and bring them into a state of oneness, where they seem to be as one. When we maximise ourselves then this is as close to we get to this oneness state. Orgasm is a oneness state where the mind is merged into the body and the body into the mind. Certain training and competition states can do similar to our state of consciousness. Anyway enough of that i think
This is where it gets confusing for me thanks to bloody Lydiard :). I was trained under the standard periodisation method as worked out and defined by the Soviets in the beginning. You can imagine thousands of athletes being coached by thousands of coaches who closely and continuously interacted with thousands of scientists and quite a few philosopher/scientists of which the founder of periodisation was. All this being done with the purpose of beating those 'Damn American's :). So in essence what the Soviets did for the rest of the world was in competition with the Americans. Without such a competition it would not have occurred. The advantage the Soviets had was their governmental state which allowed for a combined focussed effort by it's entire population. The Americans on the other hand had no advantage, instead it was advantaged by retaining more connection to a natural state. The Soviets in my opinion lost this natural state by becoming too scientific. I was lucky my coach was 'natural' enough in his thinking to feel the need to leave this 'rationalised and intellectualised' Soviet mentality for a place which allowed him to be more 'natural'.In his case Australia. It was a close call he says with alternatively going to the US. In the end the decision was not his otherwise he would now be living in the US. So as his system taught him through their massive human experiment that even periods was the best method, Lydiard literally on his own with a small experimental group discovered another way of approaching it. But now i think about it it was not so different after all. Soviet periodisation has 4 blocks but can easily be reduced to 2 with each having 2 parts. (half year periodisation as the example) Preparation: 12 weeks part A pure aerobic part B aerobic progressively blended with strength Competition: 12 weeks part A strength blended with power part B power blended with speed Active Rest 2 weeks --------------------------------------------------- Lydiardism as i know it so far Base training 12 weeks pure aerobic blended progressively with strength Non base training: 12-14 weeks part a: Hill training 4 weeks aerobic, strength, power mix part b: Track repetitions 4 weeks part strength, part power, part c: Sharpening (peaking) 4-6 weeks So in essence the base training preparation phases are half of the total time period for both the Soviets and Lydiard, the massive human experiment of the Soviets and the small human experiment of Lydiard. Pretty much same same.
as i see it and i don't mean any rudeness here, we can and have to let go of one end of the training spectrum to more fully focus on developing the other. Your argument in reverse would see the need to maintain aerobic conditioning deep into the final phase, right up to the final compeititon of that particular phase. To transfer this thinking to growing another form of life than humans, ie plants this would see the same conditions being necessary as a plant is a seedling compared to that same plant flowering and fruiting at the end of its yearly cycle (if it was an annual). The conditions (like the training conditions) differ greatly from one end to the other. The amount of sunshine is the main one i guess and the others like soil nutrients add or subtract to this. A serious grower will provide extra of certain nutrients to enhance the flowering/fruiting phase if he wishes to gain the best possible result from his plant. since in plants (as the other form of life to animals) requires these differences so i see do humans also. For me to let go of the need to keep in touch with my own speed and power requires overcoming a certain fear and it si only fear that must be let go of to allow us to focus on development more fully, and not to diminish this development by spending time and energy on other factors which are not yet relevant. We have a finite amount of the time and energy.
very nice adaption. Could i suggest that in the beginning 8 weeks forget the hill session and simply run up it a number of times during your longer running. Add more of it progressively throughout the 8 weeks until you are running up it every 3 minutes or so. It will also be necessary to work the downhill section so as to retain this correctly elevated HR. I believe the main goal of aerobic development is to continue the steady state running (and steady correct HR level) and the reason sort of goes like this: To develop any system we need to pressurise it. If we don't add pressure it won't develop. For the aerobic bubble to be expanded it has to be pressurised just like a balloon. Similarly to a balloon (which obeys the natural laws of the universe that we are also subject to) we can observe that if there is not enough pressure it will stop expanding before it's ideal size is reached. As an athlete it is on our interest to reach this optimal size. The length of time required to expand the balloon to this optimal size is also a necessary quality to observe. Also the balloon can be expanded at different rates and it is observable that too much pressure will have two potential effects. As the balloon starts to expand it will only be able to do so at a certain rate and any more pressure will not bring any faster expansion. So there is another important rule for training, there is an optimal rate of expansion. Now consider a very fragile balloon, one that has been blown up many times and has suffered a weakening of its structure. The strong balloon and the new balloon can deal with a rapid expansion. The weak and old not so much. Just the same the young and strong athlete can withstand a rapid expansion without immediate negative effect, but in doing so the balloon is stretched more than it can handle and so begins to weaken. rapid expansion many times and it may more easily pop somewhere before full expansion has occurred.The pop being the netaphor for an injury. So this means that the slower we pressurise the balloon each and every time we blow it up, the more chances we have to blow it up and the larger the balloon that can be blown up. If we relate this to the athlete then aerobic pressure needs to be applied slowly and steadily. What all of this means to me is that when Lydiard says to create pressure in the system he means what the balloon outlines. And the most important part of this for me right now (and the most recent in understanding) relates to the constantly increasing capilliarisation and the glycogen depletion aspects of long running. If the pressure is too great then it will be used to pressurise say the lungs or the heart or one part of the body more than another. If the pressure is applied slowly then it will fill up all the little corners, the nooks and crannies, the unused capillary beds. It will also enable us to deplete our glycogen stores before we have to stop because another part of the system has been over-pressured already.
damn a little trouble is always fun :) - can you tell me which forum? |
| bullseye |
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Flow, it would be good if you could post the training and the progression in fitness of the athletes you are currently coaching under this system. I am particularly interested in this as you are coaching athletes who would be traditionally labelled 400/800 runners and would not usually train this way. I am a little skeptical that they will be able to run as well over the 800 distance with this style of training but I would love to be proved wrong |
| another 800 m runner |
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Hi flow, you write some good stuff but it would be good to keep kind of stuff ================ "Actually any mind/body studies are attempting to move from this dichotomy of mind and body and bring them into a state of oneness, where they seem to be as one. When we maximise ourselves then this is as close to we get to this oneness state. Orgasm is a oneness state where the mind is merged into the body and the body into the mind. Certain training and competition states can do similar to our state of consciousness" =============== and this stuff ================= "Lydiardism as i know it so far Base training 12 weeks pure aerobic blended progressively with strength Non base training: 12-14 weeks part a: Hill training 4 weeks aerobic, strength, power mix part b: Track repetitions 4 weeks part strength, part power, part c: Sharpening (peaking) 4-6 weeks So in essence the base training preparation phases are half of the total time period for both the Soviets and Lydiard, the massive human experiment of the Soviets and the small human experiment of Lydiard. Pretty much same same. " ================= separate. You know what I mean - the useful discussion separate from the pyscho banter :) or at least explain it in terms people understand or say how to apply it practically. I am not saying that stuff has no significance but a different topic may be better place to discuss it. I am sure you lose people with the it. And they don't get to your more practical suggestions. What did Lydiard say about the "oneness state" to which you refer? :) |
| flow |
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man this has happened to me too many times grrr and it is one thing that is sure to quell enthusiasm. I'm just going to reverse you post a bit so the italics are before the explanation - only because i got confused at first. Also I’m now doing this in word for the first time ever even though I had planned to on each of those frustrating occasions.
Sweet, what drills of drills do you prefer?
i get you now - there are many ways that you work this 'tempo' zone. So can i ask you what do you mean by 'tempo'? What zone is it in? Paces relative to your maximal pace and also maximal race pace could work in defining this but also in relation to HR would work. Referencing to others definitions would be another way to define it. Can you be specific? Sorry do you mean ½ marathon pace or that pace you could best maintain for about an hour? Also with your 2 min rest what sort of rest is it?
Again would like to know your drills other than the high knees version
Sweet I love this stuff having been a decathlete. Are the split squats done in the position you would catch a split clean in? Also I like your approach in a number of ways – the warmup into the leg press for one, the multiple positions for the dead lifts as two, the adduct/abduct work as three and the focus on the abs for four. But I would like to throw a few things out there for consideration. I like to minimise leg press in favour of true squatting. This is because actual squats (back as the main one and front as the alternate) require you to stabilise through your mid-section or core as is the favoured term at present. Leg press doesn’t necessitate this and so leg strength can rapidly outgain the core section. This can be alleviated by core work as you do but still, the movements are separated and so don’t really act to develop the whole of the body as a single unit, as one. This also can be alleviated as you do with the deadlifts but is just not the same. Another point is that and abdominal work whether for stabilisation ( ie doing core work which hopefully gets to the abdominal stabilisers transversus especially) or for movement (ie contraction work which focuses on the rectus abdominus and also external obliques) does need to be counterbalanced with a high proportion (60-75% of the amount of time spent on the abs) of back work – again both stabilising and movement types. Finally I feel the abductor/adductor machine work which tends to emphasise the maximal side of ones strength whereas the same work in Pilates for example tends ot work on both the endurance aspects and the interconnectivity of the adductors and abductors both downwards into the legs and upwards through the hips into the torso. Ps the bridge I have found too often becomes a stabiliser for the shoulder girdle instead of the abdominal area. The main pressure during the bridge should center around your CofG so that fatigue is developed in both the lower abdominal area and the hips as well as the lower back. Oh and on that point the lower ab area is as important if not moreso than the upper and should be targeted directly at some point in a session
I guess I just have to refer to my above post to Pmoax tio indicate my feelings on this
There ain’t much else is there so I guess it then depends on the relative proportions of each as you go through the entire training cycle and the relative timings of each in the micro cycles(week) and macro cycles ( for me these are 3-weeks) Cheers ps so much better in word for long posts like ours ;) |
| flow |
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oh yeah sure i hear you oops. My only defense is that they are pretty much one and the same for me - what i mean is that the concepts mind/body and oneness actually do have a concrete feel as they are concrete experiencable things. But in future separate. cheers But to answer your question i have never seen Lydiard use the term oneness and i've never seen Cerutty use it directly either but it is definitely used in Buddhism for example. However, i do think both Cerutty and Lydiard were in search of this oneness and found it through their own training and lifestyle approaches. I feel it was what Lydiard was doing with all that long running - to simply get past his normal everyday human thinking mind and back to that which we all have as young children and many discover again in old age and/or during our lives. Mediation in essence is an attempt to train the mind to achieve this state. |
| fUrCeOsNhN |
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UConn stands for University of Connecticut, where I go to school. So fUrCeOsNhN is my username from last year when I was a freshman. I should change it as I am now a sophmore and have outgrown it, but UsCoOpNhN just looks even stupider then the one I have now so I guess I'll keep it. I'm not on the team right now and am pretty much coaching myself. Don't really have much of a plan laid out but try to incorporate many different forms of training and work hard every day. But I have exchanged emails with the coach I figure if I break 1:50 then he has to take me! One question I have for everyone is turnover! How do you improve it? Seb Coe had incredible turnover and he was one of the all time greats at 800m. Does hamstring strength effect turnover more or is it the quads? Hip flexors is my guess, the faster the leg is whipped through the faster overall turnover is. Also I think hip-flexor/hamstring strength ratio is important. If someone has a high ratio then they will appear to move their legs low to the ground and almost be shuffling, as the foot will come through lower(picture steve scott, maybe abescal, estevez, also the new 800m guy kaki to some extent). If someone has a lower ratio then the foot will swing up towards the hip more before being brought forward (picture most kenyans and Bekele). They will appear to float more and will probably be higher up on their toes and maybe have a longer stride but slower. |
| fUrCeOsNhN |
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Drills-lets see -High knees -butt kicks -bounding, all typical stuff also -every three strides whip a leg through with the hip flexors, then powerfully extend it using glutes+hamstrings -running with straight legs as fast as possible (stretch hips afterwards) -running on toes (focus on allowing very little of the foot to touch the ground, and not for very long) -barefoot running helps too -running with long strides on hills -high knees with high turnover (no arms) -high knees with high turnover (with arms) -butt kicks (fast), pretty much hamstring curls -some bounding, but not a huge fan -sprints are more effective then drills All drills or sprints are on balls of the feet Tempo stuff I don't use heart rates and I don't time them (yet). I just go by effort. In general, tempo effort is about 1/2 marathon effort, although as I said before if I do a workout like 10X(1/3mile fast,1/3mile moderate), with first 5@tempo,4@mile race effort,1 faster then I will just call it tempo. Pretty much anything faster then marathon pace but slower then mile pace is tempo right now. btw the 2 minute rest was just standing there, so that other workout was 1/3fast,1/3 mod,1/3fast,1/3 mod, then 2 MINUTES REST, 6 times total Weights- the split squats are a golden exercise, they crush the glutes like nothing else. I get a guaranteed great run 2-3 days afterwords provided I eat a large amount of protein after. also the deadlifts seemed to work my back enough to counteract the abs, it was very sore! (in a good way), maybe I am doing them wrong although my hamstrings were also sore. It is tough to guess what exercise caused what soreness after doing 5-6 different ones though. I know when I have done enough if the elevator down looks much more tempting then taking the stairs. Also on the ab bridges I do "scissoring" the legs, up and down, figure 8s, back and forth movements and twists. I've always felt it in the lower abs, never the shoulders. i also do side bridges and lifting the top foot using the outer thigh. if I dont do those regularly then I get hip issues...I do them in bed before going to sleep, unless I have company. Another good exercise is resting the weight on the forearms and heels and facing upwards towards the ceiling while raising each leg, this is very tough as well. I do the superman exercise as well, lying on stomach while lifting legs and arms. Some of other stuff, but those are mainly in response to specific injury concerns or specific weaknesses that are probably not interesting or relevent to others. |
| flow |
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Ok Bullseye an explanation is probably needed and will give me away a bit. As a decathlete who made it to a pretty good level i made the decision after stopping training to focus my time and energy on developing athletes, mostly teenagers. I did this because i felt i knew the elite end of the spectrum really quite well as i had coached myself for 3 years from 23 to 26. Also i had studied physical education from 19-21 and applied all of that knowledge quite directly into track and field as i went, with the extra assistance of being able to cross-compare the training system i was under. When i decided to start coaching seriously at 29 i decided to do it initially with juniors. This was because i realised that as a fairly 'natural' athlete my coach simply did not need to teach me a lot of the basics. As a result my knowledge at the time could not really help every school aged kid i came across - there were so many gaps. I wanted to fill those gaps and also to help everyone that truly wanted it - part influenced by stuff from one particular healer, Buddhism and the idea the world was in a bit of a mess i guess. Also the athletic system in Australia is controlled by all the wrong people and so there is too much of 'jobs for the boys' and for 'scientist' types over 'true coaching' types going on. Since my coach had his job as an Institute head coach ripped away from him, despite being more comprehensively successful than just about anyone else in the country, by a smooth talking charlatan i decided to not try and work within the system. So i begain coaching in schools and developed a business around that. Dealing with the schoolkids meant i had to develop a school team. Not everyone in the school teams were going to be talented and so i had to find ways to develop the less talented. As a decathlete i was favoured by schools because i cold coach any event to a level above that which was needed for school level. So i worked with technical events initially and then added sprinters to this. Things went along smoothly until: one Tuesday morning i was taking sprint training for the year 8A AFL team. We were about 5 weeks into this schedule and there were 5 guys clearly quicker than the rest over 150m. I had noticed them as potential athletes for the athletics team later in the year. Then on that fateful Tuesday morning one of them came up to me and asked if there were other training sessions on he could come to and do some running. I said sure come along Friday after school. And something began but i didn't know it yet. Week 1 with this guy was to run a few 300s followed by a few 150s. The 300s on the grass oval around the circular boundary line were run in just over 50 seconds. Next week i added a 300 and subtracted a 150. This went on until in about week 6 he was running 2x3x300m in 47 seconds off 3 and 6 minutes. A few weeks after that all were in 45. i was getting quite excited of course. He was just 14. By then the aths season was upon us and we went into the season proper and he joined in the MD sessions. The MD coach had gained ideas from Lydiard over his time but did not tell me this back then. He had coached a number of 146 and 147 athletes as well as low 340 guys. 'The boy' did two sessions of his stuff and two sessions with me focusing on running technique and speed plus one competition per week. We developed a very close bond and i found him to be probably the best student i have ever had. He picked up the mechanics quickly and had a sharp and focussed mind with little time for BS. Anyway he ran faster and faster and ended the 9 week season with PRs of 157 high and 52 something as well as 24 flat and 11.8. Then we went into it properly and i applied mt 'old' system of 400m training with modifications from the school coaches ideas such as 4x400/5min and 5x300/4min for example. By the end of our summer he had run 50.3 and 154.8. 14 years and 9 months old. I checked around the world and the next fastest time i could find for a 14 year old was 156.7 both in the UK and the US. Pretty crazy stuff. Then over Winter he did his normal thing and played AFL whilst doing a few sessions with me per week again on speed and technique and encouraged him to start long running. At the time i had only just discovered Lydiard and knew little about him. I saw the need for the long running as the base for everything else but rejected the idea od 100miles per week as Lydiard's own specific idiosyncrasy. Oh, AFL is a 4x30 min quarter game in time and requires a lot of running with a lot of sprinting inside that.'The Boy' ran each quarter far more than most. It is an excellent all round development type of game. Anyway he did not overly enjoy the longer running being just 15 and having no history of it so i didn't push it. Plus the AFL was catering to these needs quite well i thought. Yet i was starting to understand Lydiard better and better thanks to a friend and Lydiard style trainer who kept onto me, sending articles and challenging my defenses on its massive importance. He was getting through to me. Then i also came across Nobby who greatly helped continue this process of evolution. Anwyay as this is getting long by the end of the next season (06/07) he had run 150.63 and 49.23 and 11.32 again the 800m seeming well faster than any results i could find from the rest of the world. Also over that previous Winter i decided to teach him mediation one evening and he took to it like he was born for it. One 20 minute explanantion and he went straight in and discovered his mental center. NOw the mental focus increased by magnitudes and i quickly realised he was more adept at it than myself. He became his own teacher. You will probably see his name either during this Summer or at next years World Youths. One to watch for. So this actually is in contradiction to the system i have been advocating as i have only been studying middle distance for a couple of years now whereas i've been a student of track and field for 20. Also i'm still coming to understand Lydiard's complexity (actually his simplicity is really the world - its' just hard to simplify things to his level). In fact it was only a week ago that i was able to sufficiently explain the reason behind the long running to this boy(actually more of a man in mental maturity now). But as is our relationship whenever i can explain something clearly enough he takes it on. If i am still fuzzy somehow he simply waits till i'm clearer. So now he has included the Lydiardism long running ideal into his own already well developed picture of MD. But even though the way i trained him did not involve a lot of long running it did involve the AFL stuff which does involve lot of longer running/sprinting/sustained sprinting during tis gameplay. So maybe i should explain how i trained him to those times during season - during the pre-comp and comp phase. I will if you wish. One final thing is that his mechanical aspects are extremely highly refined now and this is as important as any of the energetics (fitness/conditioning) stuff. His economy (i think is the term used is as good as just about any-ones). The only other two MD runners i have begun to work with both have followed as pure a Lydiard base phase schedule as i could put together crossed with my own mechanical development training. One of them recently left me at the end of this base phase as i am now in another country working (even though his Winter XC times improved quite massively but at 19 and moving up from the 400m this was bound to happen anyway), but the second one has stayed and has been doing some amazing things (to her) During XC. At 43 she has been training for 800/1500 since her teens under a system that whilst aerobic in nature is probably evenly anaerobic. Over this first Winter with me she has run lifetime PRs over 4km by half a minute, 8kms by well over a minute and 12kms by two minutes. We have just ended the preparation phases this week and she is pretty pumped about these lifetime PRs. The season should reveal much as she is now entering the hill/strength phase, then will go through the repetition phase and into peaking. Sorry there ain't any more practical evidence of what i am saying but i really believe there will be one day. I'm only 37. |
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