Most of you on here are probably too young to remember Michael Granville, much less know who he is.
Back in 1996, I traveled out to California and witnessed Mike run 1:46 in person. Went to Disneyland while I was out there, had a very memorable time. His performance was one of the most impressive ones I've seen in my lifetime to date. Today, whilst conducting online office hours here at the university; I got to thinking, why don't more people train like him?
I've spoken to Mike periodically, on and off, over the years. Our relationship has remained casual, never venturing into the business or professional realm. After many conversations with Mike, I learned that he was primarily, but not exclusively, coached by his father.
In the world of running, after you've been on the scene for over 3 decades, you begin to be introduced to the ongoing conflict of institutional coaches vs club coaches. Evidently, this always creates a conflict and an internal "power struggle", atleast psychologically. Coaches (the good ones anyways) take very great pride in being able to "design" their athletes to their own personal likings. I was never on a club team or aau because I was blessed and talented enough to compete for my school. However, once you've been in the game long enough, you see that school coaches really don't get along well with club coaches. School coaches expect their athlete to be doing THEIR training, not somebody else's training. All of the sudden, a young man performs inadequately at a big meet, and KABOOM, there's a big violent bloodbath with the school coach accusing the club coach of "messing up" his athlete.
The site owners, weldon and Ronald Johnson, know exactly what I'm talking about. They have even had to make public warning statements that they will do nothing to "screw up" your athlete hath he or she participate in their online training program. It's just to circumvent conflict and gory violence, ya know? Please allow me to get to the bread and butter of my thread.
Michael Granville did 100% of his interval training on the grass. This was his dad's philosophy and methodology. Mike NEVER trained on the track. Ever. His dad felt that the grass strengthened his lower extremities, and also further developed his core, all while in the midst of preventing injury from surface impact. I really dont have any "complaints" about Mr Granville (SR) or his training philosophy. However, let's ve honest. When we typically think of grass training, we typically think of cross country runners. Not track runners. Mike solely a track runner.
You can criticize this philosophy all you want. His record has stood for 28 years and counting. That's a long time. His training was obviously effective. So what's the bottom line here? The bottom line is that sometimes, being a coach requires thinking outside of the box. You have to occasionally get off the beaten path and embark upon an expedition that other coaches do not. If we all did the same training, we would all produce the sane results. If our physiological careers were monotonous, then our credentials on paper would resemble doldrums.
Michael Granville was special. I think I speak for coaches around the world when I say that he was and still is, to this very day, DIFFERENT. Him being unique, combined with the creativity and ingenuity of his father, has enacted a national middle distance record that has lasted for ages upon ages.
-the430miler
Owner, teXXXas tanning salons llc
Coach and ornithology professor
A university in San antonio
