I can believe bodyweight stuff, maybe medball stuff, but the logistics of benching and trap bar deadlifting mid-workout in a college athletic system would be nearly impossible to execute. How do you fit 20 - 40 hex bars in the van?
As far as "running circuits" that mix actual running and general strength exercises, it's not new and there is some value in it this early in the season in terms of general conditioning. I personally would just focus on the running but I wouldn't call this crazy; maybe unconventional by today's standards.
The sub-6 mileage is a joke though. You have to recover in there somewhere.
You would have to do a loop starting and ending at the athletic center. You could break people up into smaller groups, I don't think there are 40 people on the men's XC team let alone that many who can do low 6:00 easy pace.
That said, I'm not seeing any runs where he's obviously stopping to lift. His long runs look to be typical long out-and-backs or one loop, and a longer elapsed time could be due to lots of things.
The daily runs capped at 6:00/mile are called “maintenance runs” (used interchangeably with “easy runs” except they’re not actually easy). Sounds like a great way for your athletes to hate running and never want to do it again after college, assuming they’re physically able after training like that for 4+ years.
A close friend of mine who has affiliations with Harvard XC just told me about their training regiment. The team follows a normal 2-workout/1 long run training schedule, but supposedly (on top of their 6min/mile easy runs), the team completes a circuit of weighted lifts (bench press, trap bar deadlift, etc.) following each running workout rep. They'll even make regular stops (once every 2-3 miles) on their weekly long runs to complete the circuit in question. Thoughts?
Discus
i believe that harvard xc has some 200+ pound athletes as a result of this practice method
I hosted a Harvard runner at my house this summer for a few days. Great guy (although has yet to pay me back for groceries), and can confirm their regular training is pretty wacky. I saw no strength circuits at all (or any form of core/stretching really), but he did eat enough eggs from my fridge to make Seth demoor proud
A close friend of mine who has affiliations with Harvard XC just told me about their training regiment. The team follows a normal 2-workout/1 long run training schedule, but supposedly (on top of their 6min/mile easy runs), the team completes a circuit of weighted lifts (bench press, trap bar deadlift, etc.) following each running workout rep. They'll even make regular stops (once every 2-3 miles) on their weekly long runs to complete the circuit in question. Thoughts?
Discus
Isn't 6:00 pace for easy runs a bit fast? Wouldn't 6:30 be more appropriate?
90s off 5k pace isn't exactly blistering. But as always you need to look at everything . It is one thing to run fast easy miles at 60mpw. It is another at 140....
Ive had tempo type days where I’ll do something like 6:00 pace working down to 5:30 pace for 2 miles 4-5 times, with 10 minutes of circuit training in between each rep. Definitely not something I’d do every day or even once a week though. It’s a good way to break things up and teach your legs to work with fatigue but you aren’t going to race phenomenally at 8k-10k training like that.
It sounds like they were easily able to transport all of the Hex Bars and heqvy weights without much issue to their last workout location.
Obviously average joes like you and me don’t know how they do this, but for a whole fleet of problem-solvers at an institution like Harvard, my guess is they probably all brain-powered a solution pretty quickly.
The only question is how many more hex bars would MIT be able to transport in an even shorter period of time 🤔
I do remember seeing one of Harvard's top seven at nationals last year (maybe Alber?) resembling a young Hercules at the end of the race. Looked like he closed in 23 for his last 200 meters.
I can confirm that Harvard sets up weight racks in the middle of their tempos and long runs where they stop to do bench press reps at 225 until failure. Their coach requires a minimum of 7 reps at 225 to be in their top 7. I’ve heard that some of their top athletes including Graham Blanks and Acer Iverson can do up to 15 reps! Impressive to say the least.
Sub-6 minute easy runs are the norm for sub-13:30 5000m runners like Blanks and Iverson. Blanks ran 13:27 pre-Hvard. Iverson ran 13:28.52 in the spring.
Graham Blanks is a runner from Athens, Georgia . Join Strava to track your activities, analyze your performance, and follow friends. Strava members can plan routes, participate in motivating challenges, and join clubs. Get st...
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