Real Low Mileage performers.

malmo wrote:

[quote]Jim Spivey wrote:

Indian Relay, 8 laps on the field. Ran Indian file, and when the whistle blew, you moved to the front. This was for 5 minutes, and I wrote "surge" to the front.

then, 4-man relay, for a total of 8 laps. I had three others on my team, and was in competition with 6 or 7 other teams. I can remember working hard to move my team up, and slapping hands with my partner.

Then, they broke us up into 2-man teams, and Peter paired me with Seb. I am sure I was scared. The workout was getting long, and I had my watch going from the beginning. I looked down, and we were well past an hour of runnning by now.

Off we all went, I was in the lead group.

Classic! Reminds me of high school. Who says that training can't be fun? Not only can it be, it should be![/quote

-------------------------------------------------------------

It must have been the era. We ran Indian relays weekly in junior high and high school in the 1970s and 80s. I rather enjoyed doing them anywhere but on the track. I thought of it as "centipede" running becasue the leader could change directions and the tail of the line would swerve away from the leader and the return to a straight line. It was fun. The Monday before our state meet we'd run 5 miles in which the last 4 miles were Indian running. The idea was to run steadily at a medium to strong pace, but change speeds and learn to run relaxed behind someone. I always thought it helped because reacting to changes was key to being a competitive racer. Tinman

For mid-season (current)

I cannot stress enough that you need to keep running your once a week long run (45-90 m's) each week. Race in the high school invitational on Saturday and then on Sunday, go out and run slow. This will keep up your vo2 base. Speed work and faster intervals/quick tempo runs build lactic acid tolerance, but take away from your base vo2 number.

At this point of the season, you are starting to go from longer intervals with short recovery, to medium length intervals. The rest will start to increase 4-5 weeks out from when you want to peak. You could be running 1000's, 800's, 600's and 400's. Even repeat 200's or 250's, but keep the rest short to force you to keep the pace slower.

One workout that is good at this time of the year: 2x2 miles or 2x1.5 miles at good pace, with 5 m's jog between.

js

Jim

whats your current email address? If you don't mind recieving emails.

thanks for such insight, you should write a book.

Hey Jim I would just like to say that I really like your insight, but before last season I was running around 60-65 miles a week before coming into the season, but I was doing a lot of hard workouts ranging from about 2-3 a week the whole summer! I quickly found out that I was peeking at the wrong time running 27:12(8k) the first meet out and not running any faster the rest of the year. I was completely burnt out even though my coach had me taper down early and I ran a 27:57 at nationals which was a definate disappointment considering my ultimate goal was to run under 27:00.

So this summer I did no speed work at all running a long run every sunday doing 75 miles a week(probably should have got in more but had a little nagging injury before the summer during track). I ran a 28:15 with little to no speed work, do you think I have a good chance at running a sub 26:30 performance.

If you are training for middle distance races, why would you need to jog around for miles and miles at a slow pace?

Condor wrote:

If you are training for middle distance races, why would you need to jog around for miles and miles at a slow pace?

Renato Canova has 1:43/3:31 guys that will run 3hrs at 6min/km (9min/mi). It's active recovery.

i found the old quote:

I want to remember that Kenyans have a very high mileage BEFORE BEGINNING THEIR OFFICIAL ACTIVITY. They run (no more so much today, because there are more schools and also in Kenya some car for bringing guys to school...) from when are 4-5 years old a lot of miles, that build their aerobic resistance. For example, speaking about Kwalia, he went to a school (from 6 to 16 years) 8 km far from his house, coming back in the late morning for eating at home. SO, EVERY DAY WERE ABOUT 32 KM !

Therefore, his clear that they don't need more long basic training, but specific workouts. However, they use very long run at slow pace for regenerating their energies and "washing" their muscles from lactate, running in very elastic way, like american sprinters.

An example : when I trained Kenneth Kimwetich (1'43"03 on 800m and 2'13"56 on 1000m, able running in about 46" and probably 3'45" but not faster 1500m), the day after specific workouts (I use 3-4 times a SPECIAL BLOCK during the main season, for preparing specific high intensity endurance : f.e., 6 x 1000m in 2'33" / 2'36" with 4 min recovery in the morning, 500 (1'03") / 400 (49") / 300 (35") / 200 (22"5)with 6-7 min recovery in the afternoon) he used to go running in the forrest disappearing for about 3 hours. When I asked him where he were going, he answering "To run 3 hours", at a pace of 6' per km, that for us is very difficult to use because we become bored.

So, I explained him (and also to the other athletes, like David Lelei (3'31" in 1500m) and Christopher Koskei himself (winner of steeple in Seville and older brother of Cherono) that, following our methodology, could be better to run only 1 hr for regenerating. But, when they went with my suggestions, the day after were not able to run well ; instead, after their 3 hours, they were able to do every type of lactic work. So, I decided that they could use what preferred for recovering hard training.

You must think that running in a wonderful ambience like a forrest is something extremely pleasant, and of sure has nothing to do with running among cars on a road like in Italy, for example. In the forrest, everybody ENJOY RUNNING.

So, it's not a discrepancy to hear Konchellah saying that HE WANTS TO GO FOR LONG RUN (regeneration), BUT DOESN'T LIKE LONG FAST RUN !

Another thing that you must know is that the groups of training are mixed. For ex., in Iten the old group in 1999 was with Kimwetich (1'43"), Lelei (3'31"), Koskei (8'05" in steeple), Moses Kigen (3'32"), Moiben (2:10 in Marathon), Jackson Koech (62' HM) and some other young. During the first period of preparation, they ran together long run (only difference, the duration, from 15 km for Kimwetich to 30 km for Moiben) and fartlek (classic 1 min fast / 1 min slow, where slow is really jogging). This fact is one of the reasons because their preparation never was very good, and only thru the races they were able to reach a high level of shape.

On of the reasons of current improvements of our athletes is that now Bungei, Mutua, Yiampoy, Shaheen, Kwalia, Kemboi, Nyamu, John Korir, Paul Kosgei, Robert Rono and all the young guys winners of medals in Youth Championships (Esho and Kiplangat, Choge, Ronald Kipchumba and Justus Kiprono) learnt to use more individual and targetted training during winter season, so are able to improve their qualities during a period in the past dedicated to rest or jogging without any specific goal.

Jim, Are you coaching now? College, Highschool, assistant, elite? If not what are you doing for work?

ASICS is keeping him very busy. He's responsible for something like, over 90 accounts (he works with schools who have kit deals w/ ASICS).

Thanks El Cid.

Actually, up to 101 programs as of today. Great stuff - really enjoy helping mostly colleges, and a few high schools. Life is good. When a coach places an order, I am able to tell them if the product they ordered is available, and if not, when it will come in. We work through retailers of the coach's choice, which helps with returns and billing.

Coaching my adult club (est. 1990) here in Wheaton, Illinois, and the Nashville club is still going. The group ran 3-4 x mile tonight (400) at DMP pace, so a base building slower type workout. Trying to get the group to run slower than they normally run was hard.

js

Jim, hey, this is a great thread. We had a nice turnout at JSRC Nashville on Wednesday night for the 3-4 x 1600m. Sue Anne is back. Sherri's knee is improving. My ankle is getting better. Overall, we did a good job of staying on the right pace. Dan, Sherri, and I hit the same splits on all three reps like clockwork. Marc would have been running the 4th 1600m by himself, so John ran with him. I had finished with 3 reps, but I decided to reward myself for staying on pace by running with them for the first three laps. It felt surprisingly easy. My pace for 1200m worked out to a 5:39 mile, which would have won my age group in the TN Senior Olympics two months ago. These workouts really work! Thanks, Coach.

gc,

Marc sent me an e-mail w/ his times.... think he gets a D for running too fast, but A for his mind set after the workout. I am sure he is riding high in the court room today, knocking the opposing lawyers away with ease. 6:15 was the pace I had recommended, and although he started with that pace, 5:37 for the last mile is a bit fast... yet, I am sure rewarding. Looks like you were part of the possee that ran this pace. You probably feel pretty smug today as well!

You both had better be mentally focused and thinking positive about crushing some 5k times in the upcoming weeks.

js

he also ran as much as three times a day for thirty minutes- low milegs eworks inf the mileage is low and intense- you have to work hard- whether u work hard in short spurts or long aerobic lovemaking pace- it's gotta be hard.

bump

While training around family and work responsibilities, for example goal a masters athlete who is currently a 15 min 5k performer with goal of breaking his PR of 1430 in spring, are effort days run by time or by effort to get used to running relaxed and faster. Or do you start at say 45 second / per 200m. pace and then cut down monthly until peaking at 33-35 per 200m. pace which is 1430ish. From Jim's comments, it does not appear he comes back in base building and starts running sub 4 pace workouts. How would this look on a monthly cycle? Thanks.

When running repeat :45 or :40 second intervals, the purpose is not get to far away from running too fast. I beleive the body can get stale, if you run the same pace all the time. Think about when it is 40 degrees outside right now - it feels cold. 30 days from now, when it is in the 20's, 40 will feel warmer. In January, when we get a low 40's day, it will feel warm. The body is great to adapt, and training falls here as well.

When I was coaching at the U. of Chicago, my volunteer assistant coach, Dan McGinn, ran for Stanford in the 90's under Coach Lanana. Dan showed me what they did over the summer months. He would have the teams (men and women) run 10x200 one week, 10x250 the next and 10x300 the next, and then repeat the cycle throughout the summer. Untimed, these were to be run on soft surfaces or grass.

Mike Durkin had me run between 14 and 20 of these often in my winter build up phase. Almost every week, I would run 20x on Wednesday or Thursday, with 50-60 second recovery between each. Adding this up, you are running close to 40 200's with the recovery, or 5 miles. Initially, Mike would have me run all at a relaxed pace. I am sure I would run at 37-40 seconds per 200, thus running more than a 200. After 4-5 weeks, he would start changing the paces, for example: 4f, 2g, 4f, 2g, 4f, 2g, 2f would be an early workout, running the fresh (f) pace in 37-40 pace, and the goods (g) at under 5 minute pace... guessing around 34-36 pace. Towards February, when the Millrose Games and other indoor track meets were coming up, this would change to 4f, 3g, 2f, 3g, 3f, 3g, 2f - more goods in a row. Also, the length of the intevals shortened - I would now run 20x:35 (1) or 20x:40 (1), or with a watch that would beep at different times, :37 seconds. Remember, I was running these with a gore-tex like ASICS jacket on, hat and gloves and pants. Temps would be in the 20's normally. It was difficult to look at your watch, as the jacket covered it. By setting your watch to beep at 35 and then 1:00 later, you would know when to start and stop. In the 1987-1991, I remember running with my other coach, Ken Popejoy (two sons currently running at Notre Dame and Illinois), and we would both set our watches to beep at 1 minute and 40 seconds. I would press start when we began, and when we finished the first interval at 40 seconds, his would start his watch. Thus, whenever my watch sounded, we would start, and when his sounded, we sould jog slow for the minute. Yes - we both liked the sound of his watch more than mine on those cold days.

The key is to make the pulse go up and down. Keep it in a narrow range. Running for 35 seconds, at 4:40 pace, is not going to raise your pulse in the +190 range. Keeping it in the 155-180 range, you are working on multi-tier training, and building strength. Yes, when I would run faster, I was working on lactic acid tolerance, and getting ready to race - but that was only for 4 weeks (january).

This was and is, one of my favorite workouts. Even the adults I coach will say this is their favorite non-track workout. You are only thinking about the watch, and when the beep sounds, not how you feel. It can be raining or cold, but your focus is on the watch. It is one of those workouts that if run correctly, you find yourself taking a nap after the workout.

js

10.17.06

Swedish 5000 record holder and European XC champion Sara Wedlund never ran longer than 5-7 km on her distance runs.

I'm interested in what happened in the beginning of your carreer as a runner. You stated a while back on the thread that you ran a 5:45 for the mile in gym class your sophmore year. You later went on to run 4:31 for the mile in your sophmore year. What kind of training was it that brought about such a dramatic drop in only one year?[quote]steffo wrote: