The pyramid idea is probably the worse model you can have for your team.
The pyramid idea is probably the worse model you can have for your team.
ConfusedHSer wrote:
Coaches think they're the smartest people in the world, and yet most of them wreck nearly all of their athletes. If you are not training your athletes to be their best when they are in their mid 20s, you are not doing your job. 90 miles a week, dude? Seriously? What are they going to do after high school? 150? Also, all of you except one guy seriously neglects speed. THE CHEIF LIMITING FACTOR FOR ALMOST EVERY ATHLETE IS THEIR SPEED. Do you guys watch track at all? Look what Salazar has done with Rupp, a guy with mediocre speed his whole career at every level; turned him into a 3:34 guy who can close 5ks in 52. You guys are producing good runners because it's not that hard to produce good runners, simple high mileage and long intervals designed to peak for the cross country state meet. But to make great runners, you need to have a more complete outlook on training (weights, core, drills, sprints, drills) and you need to be looking at how your athlete will be doing in 8-10 years, instead of 3 years.
I'm sure I'll get flamed ruthlessly for this post, and you'll all be trying to argue that you are somehow nearly as good at developing talent as the coach of the Olympic silver medalist. Maybe if you adopted his methods, you could be. But right now, you're too set in your ways (lazy.)
ConfusedHSer, well, you are confused.
The limiting factor at the HS level is aerobic strength, it is not speed. It should be a priority for any coach of teenage runners to attack this portion of an athletes physiology first.
Your first couple of sentences are unfair, and at some point you will learn that speaking in absolutes will usually lose you a debate.
I might agree with you on your ideas about appropriate volume for HS runners, but pure mileage rarely leaves an athlete "wrecked". Racing twice a week, one workout and regular runs done at too fast a pace ... that combination will wreck just about anyone. I think you might find that this is the formula that overzealous coaches employ.