UVA Big Strength Workouts

It's very heavy on the strength (even if it's an exaggeration which I suspect). Those are marathon workouts.

I'll say that is an indirect way of saying 5 or 6 times 2 mile repeat (assuming his guys are running those at 5:00 pace). I ran faster in the 5000 than some of his guys doing those workouts, and I NEVER came close to doing workouts like those. We did 2x2 mile at 10K pace...the longest tempo we did was 10 miles at 5:35 pace, which felt like a sustained grind. Definitely was not enjoyable. Could I have gone 4 more miles in that workout? Probably, but it would have far more effort than my coach would have preferred.

And explains why no Virginia men at Indoor/Outdoor track nats.

They laid a big track & field egg this season despite time trialing some fast times.

Strength? I thought this was going to be a weightlifting thread. What does trotting a long way have to do with strength?

Westside wrote:

They laid a big track & field egg this season despite time trialing some fast times.

True. Also thought it was interesting he mentioned that he had the second fastest 5k team in the NCAA (avg of top 4 guys) last year. That speaks to your time trailing comment...that said, it probably also translates to a really solid cross team.

His UNC teams were notorious for being workout heros. Look at the flotrack video of his women doing a high volume workout right before bombing at xc regionals. Also remember a mile repeat workout with his men there before they also bombed at xc regionals. It is great to have amazing workouts to brag about but maybe better to have amazing races to brag about.

Kid Canada wrote:

Pete Watson was on a podcast last week where he talked some of the workouts he's having his team do.

14 miles at 5:30 mile pace

and

5 or 6 by 10 minutes and 8 by 8 minutes (no pace mentioned...threshold?)

Is that normal for NCAA D1 schools, or is this heavy on the strength?

https://soundcloud.com/trackie-radio/trackie-radio-the-terminal-mile-epi-72-the-pete-watson-show-and-canadian-5k-road-champs

It is normal for some programs to do marathon pace work. I coach in Divsion 1 (NCAA bubble team) and we do similar workouts. So far this season we haven't done any tempos and intervals. Team has just done 8-10 mile marathon pace runs and a couple of relaxed fartleks in hills. Did some hill repeats on Tuesday. I know from talking to coaches who do similar things that it allows for your guys to feel great at the end of the season while still racing pretty fast off of strength. Some of these coaches are also quite good (NCAA qualifying teams, individual qualifiers from smaller schools, etc.) However, I will say that his volume is a little too long in my opinion. Not worth it to grind that hard.

Typically longer runs at fast paces aren't at that pace the whole time.

So, for example, a 14 mile run may start out at 7 min pace, but pick up to 5:30 or faster for 3 - 5 miles or more.

I highly doubt that they're running 14 miles at 5:30 pace at this point in the season. That would be like a 25:25 8K, which is closer to a race than a workout.

If they are and they keep that up, they'll be fried by the time conf, regionals and nats roll around.

8-10 miles at marathon pace sounds like a "tempo" run to me -- and quite sensible for September.

The 14 miles at 5:30 pace is not that big of a deal for the caliber of runners that UVA has. It's a very solid run, but well within their aerobic limit.

What's more important is how it falls in with the rest of the training. It's important to have context, because without it, a single workout is meaningless.

For example, if a week looks something like this:

M - Recovery Run - 60-65 minutes easy

T - Workout - 10-12 x 1k w/2:00 active recovery @ current 10k-15k pace

W - Recovery Run - 55-60 minutes easy

T - Recovery Run - Morning -20-30 minutes easy/Afternoon - 45-55 minutes easy

F- Workout (Tempo Effort) - 3 mile warm up and cool down/4 miles @ tempo effort

S - Recovery Run - 45-55 easy

S - 14 mile Long Run @ 5:30 pace (You're typically going to start out easy and end up averaging around 5:30 in this run, as a previous poster mentioned)

That's a solid strength week, but it's not ridiculous. The big thing that most coaches don't realize is that you literally just have to listen to the athletes' bodies and allow them to properly recover.

College athletes especially have high demands outside of running (but have the same nervous system and musculature to deal with all demands) and that has to be considered when writing a training schedule.

The two most important tidbits to racing well when it counts:

1. No big workouts matter 10-14 days from race day. They will just take away from the race (This is for most standard training systems. There are always exceptions.)

2. Don't over-taper. If you do not provide enough stimulus to the body leading up to a race, you will be flat come race day.

All of you doubting the sensibility of 14 miles at 5:30 pace must not know the magic of Keene loops.

I literally think you meant figuratively

[quote]jimjamesrunner wrote:[/

That's a solid strength week, but it's not ridiculous. The big thing that most coaches don't realize is that you literally just have to listen to the athletes' bodies and allow them to properly recover.

i have no idea but wrote:

Typically longer runs at fast paces aren't at that pace the whole time.

So, for example, a 14 mile run may start out at 7 min pace, but pick up to 5:30 or faster for 3 - 5 miles or more.

I highly doubt that they're running 14 miles at 5:30 pace at this point in the season. That would be like a 25:25 8K, which is closer to a race than a workout.

If they are and they keep that up, they'll be fried by the time conf, regionals and nats roll around.

25:25 is not 5:30 pace

27:20 is 5:30 pace

I was doing a conversion based on Purdy points.

Try to keep up.

i have no idea but wrote:

I was doing a conversion based on Purdy points.

Try to keep up.

*mic drop*

for who doesnt know - pete watson is brother of canadian marathoner rob watson, who ran 2:11 and went to worlds twice (once in thon, i think other time in steeple?). rob kept an online training log and blog, and he often ran 150-160 mile weeks, sometimes as much as 190. the watson boys love volume!!

Watson fan wrote:

for who doesnt know - pete watson is brother of canadian marathoner rob watson, who ran 2:11 and went to worlds twice (once in thon, i think other time in steeple?). rob kept an online training log and blog, and he often ran 150-160 mile weeks, sometimes as much as 190. the watson boys love volume!!

No, he did not run 2:11. 2:13, yes. It was Rob's training goals and volume that prevented him from running 2:11. Yes, he competed at Worlds in the steeple. Real runners say 'marathon'.

Seems like unnecessary work... longest race in NCAA is a 10k. That's half marathon-marathon work. Sure, some of these guys do well but could be saving their energy for better results at nationals.