Ten day cycle. 60ish miles per week. Speed work year round. Training at the appropriate paces for their ability levels. Not setting limitations in terms of what they are capable of.
So I was looking around and I found the training log of one of Newbury Park's top guys from last year. I'm not going to name names but it's not too hard to find. Mileage: high 50s to low 60s. Regular runs are around 6-8 miles...
Ten day cycle. 60ish miles per week. Speed work year round. Training at the appropriate paces for their ability levels. Not setting limitations in terms of what they are capable of.
I love the idea of the 10-day cycle and working on “speed” year round, but I have a hard time believing they are all only doing 60 mpw. I mean, in season, sure, but they are probably running high volume out of season? Or are they doing morning runs & warmups/cooldowns they are not counting? Seems too good to be true. However, a 10-day cycle is superior to the standard 7-day cycle. It’s novel, but it shouldn’t be.
They are essentially training like good collegiate runners. Every kid is different but, I feel that most high school athletes are capable of more training than they do. High school coaches are too fearful of injuries or so enamored of group dynamics and team chemistry that they block talented kids from flourishing.
The year round focus on quality and consistency (no one at Newbury Park takes 2-3 months off after XC to "recover" or play basketball) pays big dividends.
Why is 60 mpw so hard to believe? If the long run is around 12-14 miles that means they’re averaging almost 8 on the other days. From what you hear/read the AM practices etc is often supplementary stuff (drills, strength, core). They’re training to run well at the mile through 5K, you don’t need to run 80 mpw+ and be adding in doubles to thrive at these distances.
They are essentially training like good collegiate runners. Every kid is different but, I feel that most high school athletes are capable of more training than they do. High school coaches are too fearful of injuries or so enamored of group dynamics and team chemistry that they block talented kids from flourishing.
The year round focus on quality and consistency (no one at Newbury Park takes 2-3 months off after XC to "recover" or play basketball) pays big dividends.
What Brosnan is doing is no doubt having a big influence on other top h.s. coaches. The complaints that some level that they're doing college level workouts and it's somehow unfair is ridiculous. Let's look at other sports. For example, soccer. Kids who are talented and dream of playing professionally forego playing with their h.s. teams to instead play in academies run by professional teams in Major League Soccer, or even in some instances move abroad to train in the best European academies.
If Brosnan is successful in cultivating a culture where kids love running and want to take it to the next level, why not? Nobody is forced to commit to this level of training, and I'm sure there are kids who don't want it to be as consuming as it appears to be. But I listen to Lex and Leo Young talk about giving up activities to do this and they seem to be OK with it.
Ten day cycle. 60ish miles per week. Speed work year round. Training at the appropriate paces for their ability levels. Not setting limitations in terms of what they are capable of.
I love the idea of the 10-day cycle and working on “speed” year round, but I have a hard time believing they are all only doing 60 mpw. I mean, in season, sure, but they are probably running high volume out of season? Or are they doing morning runs & warmups/cooldowns they are not counting? Seems too good to be true. However, a 10-day cycle is superior to the standard 7-day cycle. It’s novel, but it shouldn’t be.
Whenever people ask “what are they doing?” and one of the things they want to know is “how many miles a week?” it shows how little they know about training.
Newbury Park trains to run fast middle distance times. They don’t train to hit some arbitrary mileage total every seven days.
Any coach in the world can tell kids to run 40, 50, 60, 80, whatever miles per week. It means jack butt about how fast they can run a race.
I have always loved running but did not have talent. But let's say I did show some talent in junior h.s. and saw what Brosnan was doing. And let's say I lived 15 miles away from NPHS. I would ask my mom to take me there because I knew it would give me the best running opportunity. Mom (and dad) would be concerned about academics. Although I wouldn't describe NPHS as the most elite h.s., it's a decent one that offers an IB as well as many AP classes, so mom and dad would probably be OK. And the commute? Parents do it all the time to avoid their crappy neighborhood h.s., so hopefully mom and dad would be on board. I have a feeling that these conversations will continue to happen as long as Brosnan is there.
Ten day cycle. 60ish miles per week. Speed work year round. Training at the appropriate paces for their ability levels. Not setting limitations in terms of what they are capable of.
Seriously, NP has about the most open program anywhere. They actually tell you exactly what they do, and former athletes from the program and others with firsthand knowledge confirm this (e.g. that they really do run 60ish miles per week, not some crazy volume). There's absolutely nothing to indicate anything secret, sinister or illegal, unless you consider very fast running itself to be secret, sinister or illegal. It's fair enough to say the program has been lucky with the Youngs and Sahlmans, but clearly it's been a perfect confluence of many events/situations that has resulted in this, not any one by itself.
I love the idea of the 10-day cycle and working on “speed” year round, but I have a hard time believing they are all only doing 60 mpw. I mean, in season, sure, but they are probably running high volume out of season? Or are they doing morning runs & warmups/cooldowns they are not counting? Seems too good to be true. However, a 10-day cycle is superior to the standard 7-day cycle. It’s novel, but it shouldn’t be.
Whenever people ask “what are they doing?” and one of the things they want to know is “how many miles a week?” it shows how little they know about training.
Newbury Park trains to run fast middle distance times. They don’t train to hit some arbitrary mileage total every seven days.
Any coach in the world can tell kids to run 40, 50, 60, 80, whatever miles per week. It means jack butt about how fast they can run a race.
Yes.
Most track athletes' careers end at 23-24. Even guys who are really good in HS, few will end up running long after college. Why not train hard when you're 17-18? This idea that we need to preserve high school athletes for when they're 35 years old is dumb.
Brosnan seems a strong personality. And many are quick to attribute all of this success to simply having two familes with freak genetics, but he clearly knows what he is doing... Look at the non Young/Sahlman results from the past three springs:
Jace Aschbrenner 8:44
Daniel Appleford 8:56
Nicholas Goldstein 4:14/9:00
Dev Doshi 9:09
Hector Martinez 9:10
Aaron Cantu 4:17/9:19
Thomas McDonnell 9:27
Christian Simone 4:14
Every program in the country would love to have these results over the last three springs (one of which was a COVID loss, and one of which is barely begun). And this doesn't include five of the top distance runners in history added on top.
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