SamH wrote:
A lot of your training seems to be geared towards the longer distances (5k - marathon) however, how would you adapt your training and mileage for the middle distances . how would you train a high school 800m/1600m runner?
When I got hired at cornell, I made two pit stops as I drove from Flagg to Ithaca. I stopped in Texas to talk to John and make sure I had understood the philosophy perfectly enough to tell recruits and then I stopped in DC to talk to Olympian and 1997 WC medallist at 800 Rich Kenah
After Rich had retired from the 800, he ran a marathon an d we trained together a few times. Anyway, I said to him, "Hey I know this training works for long distance. But what's the key to mid-d?" Rich knew what I believed in for distance and said it all was basically the same thing and thought our stuff would work well.
And he was right. When I got hired at Cornell, I had people on this very site saying I'd rock the 5k/10k and suck at the mid-d as JK didn't know how to coach the mid-d. For the first 3-4 years, it was the exact opposite. We DOMINATED the mid-d at the Ivy League level. I think in year 3, we went 1-2 in the 1k and mile at conference, got 3rd at Penn Relays in the DMR, etc. A year or two later,, we broke the Ivy record in the indoor DMR with our anchor as he was hurt.
We actually pretty much sucked at xc at first. Why? We didn't have the distance recruits at the time. The coach before me was fired for not recruiting and injurying everyone on the team. Luckily, we had a few talented mid-d guys on the team.Then a few years later, we started rocking the 10,000 as we won back to back years with Sage Canaday and Zach Hine.
It was easier back then to dominate than it it is now as the Internet was just taking hold. There was still A LOT of bad training out there. Many of the mid-d guys weren't truly fit.