First, thanks to dmiller and longislander for their rebuttals. You've saved me some time!
LI Runner wrote:
I simply touched the nerve of some control freaks when I said that the athlete should take a bit of his own destiny into his hands, if he feels it is the right thing to do. Contrary to you ropinion, the athlete has the right to make that decision for himself, and he has every right to seek competing advice from other people. If the coach don't like that, thats too bad for the coach.
No, it is too bad for the athlete. Yes, I believe the coach structures the complete training program and it is the athlete's responsibility to follow it to the letter. I have no problems with athletes asking questions, or seeking information from outside sources. I do have a problem with an athlete who takes his training into his own hands outside of the coach's prescribed plan. The athlete definitely has the right to do what he wants, but he cannot be on the team if his actions do not coincide with the coach's plan. If that makes me a "control freak," so be it.
LI Runner wrote:
(1) Name one legitimate reason that workout will benefit that person on race day?
or answer this second question.
(2) In what way would it harm the overall training plan by simply "swapping days", doing the harder workout a few days earlier, and just substituting in an easier workout closer to race day? Either way, the person is still doing the hard workout.... just not so close to race day.
These questions cannot be answered without knowledge of the complete training plan that has been designed for this athlete. You have no clue what they were doing earlier in the week, or next week. You have no clue what the overall seasonal plan is, or the annual plan. You don't even have a clue as to how fast they were doing this particular workout. In summary, you are clueless.
LI Runner wrote:
Your anecdotal story about how you made your guys do 10 x 800's 2 days before a race does not explain in the least why you thought that was a wise idea. You put the word "REASON" in bold letters... but you failed to actually give the scientific or logical reason for doing it. All you did was say, "this is what I did.." but failed to get to the explaining part.
First I will suggest that you get your eyes examined because nothing was in bold letters in that post. After you do that, I recommend a reading comprehension course because you apparently missed my reasoning behind my timing for that workout (though curiously you clearly saw the word "Reason"). It had nothing to do with "I know best" and everything to do with either preparing for a meaningless tune-up meet or keeping our eyes on our ultimate goal of racing well in November. We're aiming for November. My guess is you won't be there.