In light of Woody’s recent move from Bowerman and both his post race interview and podcast with letsrun I thought it would be interesting to start a thread on Schumacher’s training. In the interviews Woody states that the workouts are geared toward the top guys on Bowerman and he had to adapt them himself through shorter reps, less volume, etc. How is it that Bowerman has trained so many world class runners despite the lack of specificity for their athletes? Is it just that Schumacher gets the best talent in the US to work with and they will succeed no matter the training?
I’m curious because this training paradigm is very different from what has been popularized by the Norwegians. The most extreme example of individualized training is triathletes Gustav Iden and Kristian Blumenfelt where their coach uses extensive physiologic testing and tailors workouts specifically to areas each athlete needs to develop. The results of this are clear a gold medal, and multiple Ironman and half Ironman world championships. With a more individualized approach would we have more US distance medals?