Hobbs Kessler, Mason Ferlic training logs under Ron Warhurst

I think another overlooked guy Ron trained was Timmy Broe, Who ran 13:11.xx for 5K 20 years ago, and 8:14 for Steeple. If not hurt as often, Ron has told me he would have run even faster.

First of all, thanks a lot for the effort!

Surprisingly low mileage, I am not sure if such type of training would work for the majority of runners out there. A lot of talent involved for sure.

Mason here. Never posted on LetsRun before (well, not under my real name ;) ). Since someone took the effort to scrape an entire year's worth of training from my Strava I figured I owed some comments and clarification for those interested. Impressed with the level of detail and the google sheet is probably 80% correct from what I can tell. I just let my Garmin watch upload to Strava so take the accuracy of the data with a grain of salt... I don't mind sharing details since nothing we do is secret, the magic is in the execution and adaptability to the day.

There is one thing that annoys me with Letsrun workout critics, and it's the obsession with the rest between intervals. Anyone that knows Warhurst knows that there is no "set" rest period. "jog down the hill", "jog a lap", "jog 4-5min". Rarely is the length/duration of the rest a focus. For anything on the track, the rest between intervals is generally specified as a distance i.e. 50m, 100, 200, 300, 400, etc. jog or whatever according to the intensity. As the workout progresses the jog may naturally get slower and if its a speed day its basically a shuffle. I find it easier to manage the effort of the workout this way and we adapt accordingly all the time. This may seem like a small detail but is crucial for understanding Ron's training philosophy. Also, the sheet doesn't have splits which is kinda crucial for understanding the purpose of the day.

If you didn't see it, Nick Willis (on his twitter) said that Kessler is doing only 1/2 the volume that Willis did as a freshman at UofM. He also said that Kessler's recovery days are 8-9 min/mile pace. Sounds like he has tremendous room for improvement just with increased training volume.

king999 wrote:

Brian Diemer?

Olympic medlaiist Steepler.

I think a lot of people forget how successful Kevin Sullivan was, 3:31.71 and 13:19 when that was really really good, was as well as a long and successful career for Nate Brannen 3:34 3:52.x mile, 7:47 3K

I believe they were both XC All Americans as well as John Mortimer who ran 7th at Trials in steeple.

Craig Forys ran 8:24 Steeple and 13:34

Forys went on to become an multiple All-American at the University of Michigan where he won the Big Ten steeplechase in 2012, placed 2nd in the steeplechase at the 2012 NCAA Championships, and he was eighth in the steeplechase at the 2012 Olympic Trials.

Kevin Sullivan was a stud.. He was overshadowed a lot as El Gerouh messed the spelling up!! lol Noah Ngeny they were running 3:26 for 1500m and 3:43 for the mile so 3:31 didn’t look as good. But Sullivan was a beast especially in college but also was 5th in Sydney in 2000

What an interesting take. I do find myself obsessed with rest periods because I guess i learned about reps/intervals JDaniels style which is to say you can change what the workout is training by the rest/effort. If you dont recover more for a fast rep...it aint going to be a fast rep? Wouldnt your intervals vs fast reps have very different rest? Or maybe thats just it, you are saying there is a difference, but its more by feel, with the purpose of the workout kept in mind!

Great post!

Hopefully you can answer a few basic and boring questions.

(1) How do you define recovery pace? Medium+ fast to get aerobic stimuli or mainly as easy recovery runs for workout days?

(2) How do you hit the correct intensity on workout days without lactate meters and HR?

(3) And most of all, how is Ron's peaking philosophy? Decrease milage a lot?

Thanks for sharing, I am glad this is the only thing that annoys you about these forums .... I have plenty :)

Seriously, thank you for the insight nd best of luck with the remainder of the season and trials!

Thank you for doing this. Just a dumb question on the Harvard, Ridgeway etc. How long are these hills?

CollegeCoach1993 wrote:

Thank you for doing this. Just a dumb question on the Harvard, Ridgeway etc. How long are these hills?

I believe Harvard is 70 M. Someone may know better than I.

Tim Broe was a beast with tons of raw talent who would've run a lot faster if not for his injury. As someone who has been coached by Broe I will say that his training philosophy is basically the same as that of Warhurst. Lots of hills, sometimes combined with track work, and generally lots of variation in the distances of the reps you run. Intuitive coaching too- "keep it simple, stupid". It works.

bobinvirginia wrote:

The funny thing (and I'm really dating myself), in the 80's and early 90's, Warhurst's reputation was that he could train distance runners but not mid-distance runners. Chris Brewster (NCAA runner up in the 10k), John Scherer (2 time NCAA 10km champion), Brad Barquist (10 km Olympian), Bill Donakowski, Gerard Donakowski, Mike McGuire, Greg Meyer (one of the best marathon runners in the 80's),Todd Snyder, Mike Wisniewski, etc. were all successful distance runners under Warhurst. That's not including the steeplechase with Diemer and Heikkinen.

Early in his coaching career, his success at the mid-distance was not notable compared to the distance events. This all changed with Kevin Sullivan...after his success, Michigan became "known" as a mid-distance school and had great success especially with foreign (mostly Canadian) runners---Brannen, Willis, Webb, Ellerton, Woods, etc.

They were a mid-d powerhouse once Sully came on the scene. 2005 they took the DMR, 4xmile, and 4x800 at Penn.

bigmig19 wrote:

CollegeCoach1993 wrote:

Thank you for doing this. Just a dumb question on the Harvard, Ridgeway etc. How long are these hills?

I believe Harvard is 70 M. Someone may know better than I.

Both Harvard and Ridgeway are about 200 meters - Harvard may be a touch longer but the big difference is that it is way steeper than Ridgeway.

Thank you- just occurred to me I could have googled- getting old

These are the hills in question, if anyone wants to find something similair in their own city:

Looks like harvard is around ~250m with 11.0% grade

Ridgeway seems to be more like ~210m with 7.7% grade.

https://www.strava.com/segments/9209418

https://www.strava.com/segments/13988093

UPDATE -- Just updated the sheet with splits from workouts, per Mason's suggestion

Arb hill is also one that gets run a handful of times, it's about 1k, or just under:

https://www.strava.com/segments/1166537

yungrunner wrote:

Arb hill is also one that gets run a handful of times, it's about 1k, or just under:

https://www.strava.com/segments/1166537

Also to note; The hill at Green (which turns into Keech) - just a stone's throw west of the Ferry Field Track.

Start at the corner of Hoover and Green - end at top of the hill at Main.

400m just about dead on with up to a 9% grade almost all in the last 230m.

Close enough to the track that you can do some decent hills and then be back at the start line at the track within a couple on minutes.

yungrunner wrote:

UPDATE -- Just updated the sheet with splits from workouts, per Mason's suggestion

Love!