CoachC wrote:
By your response, you're obviously subscribing to 3 or more hard workouts per week. I'm sure you were incredibly successful;)
I coached at College. You run them hard 3 times a week and you're just playing the odds of how few will end up with injuries...Vegas wins more times than they lose or there'd be no such thing as Vegas;)
Most break down or simply don't run anywhere near their potential.. I'd love to name a certain Division 1 College where the Coach had almost 2/3rds of his runners banged up and injured by the time the real races started 2 seasons ago...but I will restrain;)
There's a lot to unpack in this response
1. Not sure what I posted on this thread that gives you the impression that I'm a "go hard 3 times a week guy". Bruce Edwards certainly was, so maybe you know him personally. Sometimes 3 quality sessions in a week is appropriate, sometimes it's not.
2. I'm guessing your guys (or ladies) ran hard 2 times per week....that's fine, especially at the upper mileage levels. Less need / ability to do quality sessions if your legs are always tired from big miles....and that works for a lot of people.
3. I'm assuming that you're saying that most college coaches run a meat grinder type of program and hope for a couple of national qualifiers to emerge while the rest of the kids fall apart. OK, fine, I don't know how that validates your original point that Lester's coach is in no way responsible for his success, or how a coach that takes a handful of 4:10 guys down to 3:58 over the course of a career is any better than the coach high school coach that can get a bunch noobs into good runners year after year after year. I think what you're saying is that a bad college coach would never get his 4:10 guy to 3:58 because he'd burn 'em out. Possibly....possibly someone ultra talented and able to absorb training would end up dropping a 3:52. A bad high school coach, even at a big school with lots of talent will never get to the point where multiple kids with zero to little running experience are developing into sub 4:50, sub 16:30 guys every year. A good high school coach can do this, but will get very little recognition outside of his own area.
IMO, a good coach is a good coach at any level and is ESSENTIAL for athletes to develop to their potential.