Is this required or can it be successfully skipped?
Thoughts?
Ty
Is this required or can it be successfully skipped?
Thoughts?
Ty
yes
Nothing is "required." People get decent results doing a variety of things so I'm sure you could eliminate hill training and still race well, at least by your own standards. Whether you'd race better if you include hill work is not a question anyone can answer because doing one thing means you cannot know what would have happened had you done the other thing. But many people find running over hills in some form or other quite useful. Somewhere in the archives here is a story from malmo about Henry Rono and hill running. I'm not going to dig around for it but the point of the story is that Henry was a huge believer in its value. Why do you ask?
Here it is, the 1988 story that Steve Dinatale told about his bartending days at Guido's, a campus bar near the University of Oregon owned by Don Scarpelli. It is the day that Henry Rono revealed the secret to running.
As Rono sat at the bar nursing a cold one, The Dina started a conversation about Salazar and training, and he kept the beers flowing freely, figuring it was truth serum so that he could extract the secrets of running from five-time world-record holder Henry Rono. Finally, sitting on a barstool, Henry opened up, and the conversation went something like this:
"Tooooz-day... Sal-luh-zahhh.... trrraack," said Rono, shaking his head "no."
"Tourrrz-day.... Sal-luh-zahhh.... trrraack," again shaking his head no.
"Saaa-tuhh-day.... Sal-luh-zahhh.... trrraack," emphatically shaking his head no.
Dina listened intently.
"Dee Heeeeel!" shouted Rono, with his arm extended straight and pointing uphill.
The Dina figured he was privy to a rare inside glimpse into the training that made Rono a legend, leaned forward at the bar intent on finally coaxing out the name and location of the secret incline.
"Henry, what hill?" he asked earnestly in a hushed tone.
"Steve," Henry waved his arms maniacally, ..... "ANY HEEEEEEEL!"
I was kind of hoping you'd see the thread and post that story. I have it saved somewhere but am not sure anymore where "somewhere" is.
Hahaha! A good one......thanks! :)
Well.....it`s not important to run hills . I coached one of Kenya`s very best XC-juniors without special hill-training, and he was strong as a bull .
SUPERIOR COACH JS wrote:
Hahaha! A good one......thanks! :)
Well.....it`s not important to run hills . I coached one of Kenya`s very best XC-juniors without special hill-training, and he was strong as a bull .
He was born at altitude so has been running up hills his whole life.
I could coach '100' Kenyans constantly sending me requests. They have no interest in being coached and are really looking for someone to get them race invites.
You are right that some of them are just interested in getting race invites, but I have coached a lot of them not asking for races.
Just asking for the very best training program. And that`s what I give them......