Hello all,
Recently i was hired to be the distance coach for a local college's outdoor track program. Although i personally believe i have a strong understanding of distance training and coaching theory, i've come to a little bump in the road.
Our college's outdoor season starts March 1st, very soon after the end of the indoor season. It's a DIII school, and i know some of the athletes will be fresh off of indoor and others may not have run at all, or haven't run since cross country. I do know however, that they'll need a decent base underneath them, yet they'll need to be prepared for the competitive season.
My best idea so far is for the first 4-6 weeks put them through a mild "base phase", not insane mileage/minutes because it'd make no sense, but solid, reasonable running. As the 4-6 weeks wind down, add more intensity while moving away from the high miles, and after that time period, transition them fully into a more specific period/competitive period. The team runs 5 days a week, with one day of cross training. Running another day is optional (i'm only the asst. so i can't change policy), and they'll race one of those days on selective weeks.
The only thing that worries me is that if i put them through too long of a "base" phase, will they have adequate time to peak?