i think he's talked about never running slower than 6:00 per mile or something, which I don't think Nico does.
It’s a little misrepresented. From what we’ve heard it sounds like he runs 6:00 pace or faster on non-recovery runs/warmups/cooldowns. Much of that is on the River in Boston/Cambridge which is flat as a pancake and of course this is sea level. Many pros run slower than this and in the 6:30-6:50 range but many also are at 5,000 ft + or running a little bit more. And many aren’t aerobic monsters like Blanks. There’s a lot of precedent for 5-10,000 running fast on easy days a la Chris Solinsky.
Um, he missed significant time due to injury in the past couple of years, due to Gibby and his training. so, he's had plenty of downtime
How does his training differ from Nico Young’s?
Blanks runs 100 miles a week in singles with a day off on Thursday. He does two workouts and a long run. The workouts are often very long, like a 45-minute "pace run" (somewhere between threshold and tempo) + 4x300m hard strides. The other days are usually 13-15 mile runs at 6:00 pace. He rarely runs slower than 6:00 pace except on certain cooldowns or shakeouts. He does a 5 mile morning shakeout one of the workout days, which is his only double of the week. The crazy daily mileage in singles is probably the most unique aspect of the system, not the 6:00 pace thing, especially since 6:00 pace on the extremely flat Charles River isn't far off from 6:30 pace on a hilly route at 7,000 feet.
Nico also runs around 100 miles a week but with doubles most days. His workout days are often split into double threshold, so instead of doing 10 miles of threshold volume in a single workout he'll do something like 20x400m in the morning and 5-6 by a mile in the evening. His easy days are probably more like 6:30-6:45 pace, but he doesn't have a day off most weeks. Of course, he is also at altitude so he gets more aerobic benefit than a runner at sea level would for a given pace.
I don't know of any other college that trains like Harvard. But Gibby produced 5 national championship titles (2 for Blanks and 3 for Maia Ramsden) in the last two years, and NCAA records for Blanks and the women's DMR team (with an insane 4:21 leg from Maia), plus he got closer than any Harvard coach in 50+ years to winning an Ivy XC men's title. It'll be interesting to see how Blanks performs when he starts living at altitude for half the year.
This post was edited 5 minutes after it was posted.
Blanks runs 100 miles a week in singles with a day off on Thursday. He does two workouts and a long run. The workouts are often very long, like a 45-minute "pace run" (somewhere between threshold and tempo) + 4x300m hard strides. The other days are usually 13-15 mile runs at 6:00 pace. He rarely runs slower than 6:00 pace except on certain cooldowns or shakeouts. He does a 5 mile morning shakeout one of the workout days, which is his only double of the week. The crazy daily mileage in singles is probably the most unique aspect of the system, not the 6:00 pace thing, especially since 6:00 pace on the extremely flat Charles River isn't far off from 6:30 pace on a hilly route at 7,000 feet.
Nico also runs around 100 miles a week but with doubles most days. His workout days are often split into double threshold, so instead of doing 10 miles of threshold volume in a single workout he'll do something like 20x400m in the morning and 5-6 by a mile in the evening. His easy days are probably more like 6:30-6:45 pace, but he doesn't have a day off most weeks. Of course, he is also at altitude so he gets more aerobic benefit than a runner at sea level would for a given pace.
I don't know of any other college that trains like Harvard. But Gibby produced 5 national championship titles (2 for Blanks and 3 for Maia Ramsden) in the last two years, and NCAA records for Blanks and the women's DMR team (with an insane 4:21 leg from Maia), plus he got closer than any Harvard coach in 50+ years to winning an Ivy XC men's title. It'll be interesting to see how Blanks performs when he starts living at altitude for half the year.
Has he, or his coach, explained why he would want to run 100 miles in singles over 6 days? It seems unpleasant to no benifit. It wouldn’t really make much difference in time to study.
he may be recharging after years of college season after season on through XC that just ended a couple months ago.
if he's now picking what he focuses on, maybe he hates indoor and did it before out of duty. i know indoor is getting more popular but plenty of successful runners largely or entirely skip it.
now, if he has an injury, then we figure that out a la monson when the transition outside comes.
Um, he missed significant time due to injury in the past couple of years, due to Gibby and his training. so, he's had plenty of downtime
Has he, or his coach, explained why he would want to run 100 miles in singles over 6 days? It seems unpleasant to no benifit. It wouldn’t really make much difference in time to study.
I don't know the full rationale, but Rojo discusses it a little bit with Graham on the podcast:
This has been gone over many times. Blanks runs recovery runs and warmups as well at 7 minute pace or slower. His easy mileage is 6 flat or faster. I'm glad that he's not competing much indoors because he got a bad injury last year that kept him out from January until May and he wasn't at full strength until July, if then. Indoor training often leads to injuries.