Low-milage BASE training

Even low mileage king Bernard Lagat says that it's good to have a decent mileage base before going into heavy training.

It depends on how he has gotten injured. If he has gotten injured DURING track and XC seasons then most likely his weakness is actually the faster running that he plans on doing. If he has been getting injured when just running mileage, then his plan is good.

i-oamerg-98y wrote:

It depends on how he has gotten injured. If he has gotten injured DURING track and XC seasons then most likely his weakness is actually the faster running that he plans on doing. If he has been getting injured when just running mileage, then his plan is good.

He gets injured because he always runs hard. He never has easy days. He would run too many back to back hard workouts in the middle of a 70 mile week and then he'd get injured.

western wrote:

i-oamerg-98y wrote:

It depends on how he has gotten injured. If he has gotten injured DURING track and XC seasons then most likely his weakness is actually the faster running that he plans on doing. If he has been getting injured when just running mileage, then his plan is good.

He gets injured because he always runs hard. He never has easy days. He would run too many back to back hard workouts in the middle of a 70 mile week and then he'd get injured.

Then I think your answer is right there. This is not going to be effective for him, he would be better off with just 1 or 2 quality days a week and higher mileage.

It seems he would benefit from running lots of miles around 7:00 minute pace for base training.

Sounds like 99% of HS runners.

Coach Martin from Adams State College 2009

Part 1

http://www.flotrack.org/coverage/236090-2009-USTFCCCA-Annual-Convention/video/231670-Training-With-Damon-Martin-of-Adams-State

Part 3

http://www.flotrack.org/coverage/236090-2009-USTFCCCA-Annual-Convention/video/232892-Training-With-Damon-Martin-of-Adams-State-part-3

Easy pace of 6:00? Long run pace of 6:30?

Of course he's going to get injured. He should save himself some time and trouble and just have you smash his legs with a sledgehammer.

One thing that came slowly to me as a coach is that not every day needs to "count" for something. As in, I want the kids to do some easy running because we ran a hard workout yesterday, I need to not assign pace. I used to do that and would always get frustrated till I realized some kids just need to run a lot slower than others on recovery days. Giving assigned paces on days between workouts can do more harm than good. If it's a distance day, run off of feel.

This is possible for sure, if he is a true responder to low mileage/high quality. There are some out there. Actually I know a young lad running never more than 30miles/week - 3k:sub 8:40, 5k: sub 15:30 easily.

It might be better to start the base phase a little bit slower and with longer intervals at first, otherwise he might peak too early. 200s/400s: 4-6 weeks prior race day.

Wednesday and Friday: 8 miles, but definitely slower than 6:00 pace, this is too fast on easy days.