Do any of you veteran coaches ever have a problem with some of your runners going too hard/fast on distance day to the point they don't want to/can't go hard when you do speedwork? If so, what do you do or tell them? Thanks!
I show them Scott Fauble’s training logs. If he can run 7:00 easy days, they shouldn’t be running 7:00 easy days
Do they also run his mileage or his workouts? If not, why do you think this one aspect of his training should be emulated but not the others? Why Fauble? Why not Rupp, Farrah, or Lagat who ran their daily runs at 5:30 pace?
Truth is that most high schoolers can and should run their SOME of their mileage a little faster because it’s so much lower volume than someone like Fauble. they aren’t just recovering, they’re gaining fitness.
For the OP, do you distinguish between recovery, easy, and normal running days? Maybe they don’t understand that variation in daily running pace is a good thing when your body needs it.
Why not Rupp, Farrah, or Lagat who ran their daily runs at 5:30 pace?
You're silly if you think they did all their runs exactly at 5:30 pace. It differed everyday. Also I'll leave basing your training off of suspicious runners out of this. Sure they might progress down to that pace after running several miles much slower ie first few miles starting off at 7:30 pace and slowly progress down to maybe 5:30 for the last few miles. Look at many of the great east African runners, many of them do their recovery runs at a shuffle pace because they actually go hard on hard days instead of this medium intensity trap many runners fall into and if they are feeling good they'll slowly progress over the miles from as slow as 10 min pace to 6 min pace or faster.
You're silly if you think they did all their runs exactly at 5:30 pace. It differed everyday. Also I'll leave basing your training off of suspicious runners out of this. Sure they might progress down to that pace after running several miles much slower ie first few miles starting off at 7:30 pace and slowly progress down to maybe 5:30 for the last few miles. Look at many of the great east African runners, many of them do their recovery runs at a shuffle pace because they actually go hard on hard days instead of this medium intensity trap many runners fall into and if they are feeling good they'll slowly progress over the miles from as slow as 10 min pace to 6 min pace or faster.
Do any of you veteran coaches ever have a problem with some of your runners going too hard/fast on distance day to the point they don't want to/can't go hard when you do speedwork? If so, what do you do or tell them? Thanks!
Not a veteran coach by any means, just curious. Why don’t you just tell them the same thing you wrote here? Seems pretty straightforward. The only thing I can imagine, they don’t understand hitting particular paces is only important in workouts. Well: “You’re working too hard on less important stuff so you don’t have enough energy left for stuff which really matters”. Basically the same but with a dash of priorities added.
Would that be a difficult concept for HS students to understand? Or will they just get too excited and still run too fast on easy days? I don’t know, maybe let them fail in workouts and hammer the same point again, that they failed because of doing easy days too hard? Self control comes with experience.
My first year on scholarship at a junior college, almost every long run turned into a race. I remember well running a faster 10 mile time in a training run than I did in an actual race. I dealt with it by getting sick, quitting the team (or getting dropped, depends on your point of view), and training myself, with much better results.
I think it depends on who you're coaching. When my brother was in high school, he and his teammates would go out and basically race each other every.single.day. I kept telling him to slow down, that you shouldn't go fast every day, etc. Well, they ended up winning the state championships after a couple years of this.
Years later my conclusion is that racing each other brought them joy. They stuck together and ran hard year round for years in a row because they were having fun, and ultimately won their state champs as a result, despite all but one not being particularly talented. The most important thing for success is year after year consistency, not just during cross country season, but preferably at least 3 seasons a year. So you need to balance your desire to implement and idealized *adult* training plan against letting your kids have fun and use their enthusiasm.
Unless you're coaching adults. Or even college students. Then you should incentivize them to do what you say.
You're silly if you think they did all their runs exactly at 5:30 pace. It differed everyday. Also I'll leave basing your training off of suspicious runners out of this. Sure they might progress down to that pace after running several miles much slower ie first few miles starting off at 7:30 pace and slowly progress down to maybe 5:30 for the last few miles. Look at many of the great east African runners, many of them do their recovery runs at a shuffle pace because they actually go hard on hard days instead of this medium intensity trap many runners fall into and if they are feeling good they'll slowly progress over the miles from as slow as 10 min pace to 6 min pace or faster.
The old "Kenyans run their easy days at a pace that would raise their puls to a level that I reach during brisk walking and has zero training effect" myth.
I show them Scott Fauble’s training logs. If he can run 7:00 easy days, they shouldn’t be running 7:00 easy days
Do they also run his mileage or his workouts? If not, why do you think this one aspect of his training should be emulated but not the others? Why Fauble? Why not Rupp, Farrah, or Lagat who ran their daily runs at 5:30 pace?
Truth is that most high schoolers can and should run their SOME of their mileage a little faster because it’s so much lower volume than someone like Fauble. they aren’t just recovering, they’re gaining fitness.
For the OP, do you distinguish between recovery, easy, and normal running days? Maybe they don’t understand that variation in daily running pace is a good thing when your body needs it.
You listed 3 guys most people are highly suspicious of taking extra special recovery sauce.
I show them Scott Fauble’s training logs. If he can run 7:00 easy days, they shouldn’t be running 7:00 easy days
Do they also run his mileage or his workouts? If not, why do you think this one aspect of his training should be emulated but not the others? Why Fauble? Why not Rupp, Farrah, or Lagat who ran their daily runs at 5:30 pace?
Truth is that most high schoolers can and should run their SOME of their mileage a little faster because it’s so much lower volume than someone like Fauble. they aren’t just recovering, they’re gaining fitness.
For the OP, do you distinguish between recovery, easy, and normal running days? Maybe they don’t understand that variation in daily running pace is a good thing when your body needs it.
Finally someone with some sense. Most of the top programs in our state don't do this recovery pace bs. The majority of the athletes are developing aerobically and don't run significant mileage.
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