Mick Byrne's Training at Wisconsin

In hopes of keeping this thread half-way on target. I remember watching a flotrack workout of the badgers. He said a lot of his more seasoned guys know when to do more and when to cut it early, and he seemed to leave it up to them, as a few dropped out of the workout early in that video.

I'd love to hear more about their program.

What's the story on the team this year? Have Sandvold and Kromer been hurt?

endurancesport.co wrote:

In hopes of keeping this thread half-way on target. I remember watching a flotrack workout of the badgers. He said a lot of his more seasoned guys know when to do more and when to cut it early, and he seemed to leave it up to them, as a few dropped out of the workout early in that video.

I'd love to hear more about their program.

What I've gathered from the flotrack workout and inside videos, is this:

mileage: freshmen- varies based on HS mileage but norm of 70-75, sophomores- 70-80, juniors- 80-90, seniors- 90+(some do more, some stay at 90, depends on the athlete).

Workouts: 2 a week, one of intervals and one of tempo. In XC intervals are longer and more threshold based, so long repeats mixed with stuff like 400s with 100m jog. In track, intervals are geared towards specific event.

So nothing fancy. Nothing crazy. Just get out and train smart, there are no secrets.

We all did this before GPS technology...not really revolutionary.

Far Out West wrote:

We all did this before GPS technology...not really revolutionary.

Basically no one uses a GPS watch there, kinda has to go with badger miles.

About the older guys dropping out of the workout: Mick is big on always being having one more rep/mile left in you, without actually doing it.

Here's what you guys are looking for:

http://www.running2win.com/community/view-member-running-log.asp?uk=ZDJ36NRMHZAAJUDDXFGGVWQGQUHQKPEFVPI15161JEFOWFAJGZNTEEGRUJDBUFBIGJCQJA

It's not like their campus and the area around it is full of unique, unmeasurable routes (aka huge elevation change and curving natural trails). It really wouldn't be that hard with the help of Google Earth to get pretty accurate measurements of all sorts of routes taken.

Down With The Thickness wrote:

Here's what you guys are looking for:

http://www.running2win.com/community/view-member-running-log.asp?uk=ZDJ36NRMHZAAJUDDXFGGVWQGQUHQKPEFVPI15161JEFOWFAJGZNTEEGRUJDBUFBIGJCQJA

No help, I'm afraid: I don't have a login.

friend on the team wrote:

This years Badger program really lacked talent and was Mick's best coaching job (despite the streak being broken, they didnt have a single proven cross country guy on their roster due to some redshirting which left him without Ahmed, Krause, Darling, Connor).

Mick had to hone those skills of keeping everybody that may help healthy because though he had foreigners on full scholarships, he never had more than maybe 6 guys that could help at once.

Jerry notoriously undertrained and under raced teams with the samre thinking to keep them healthy.

I think most people would not believe the simple and easy workouts and controlled mileage Wisconsin does. I don't believe Mick is nearly as good a track coach as a dozen other coaches in the NCAA at least, but he is at the very top of a couple with cross country.

This could be a dumb question, and possibly no definite answer - But what is the difference between 10k track training and 10k xc training? Why would he not be as good of a track coach as he is cross country? I know 800, mile / 1500, 3k, 3ksc, and 5k obviously too but idk it just kind of puzzles me how a coach can excele at xc or track but not the combo.

And wrecks some great runners in the process.

eieio, I said eieio wrote:

This could be a dumb question, and possibly no definite answer - But what is the difference between 10k track training and 10k xc training? Why would he not be as good of a track coach as he is cross country? I know 800, mile / 1500, 3k, 3ksc, and 5k obviously too but idk it just kind of puzzles me how a coach can excele at xc or track but not the combo.

Just theorizing, but for XC, you have to be used to varying terrain as opposed to a flat rubber track. I would also think that you need to develop 7 to 10 quality guys in the 8k and 10k to do well at regionals and nationals. Depth is more important than a single high end runner.

slopenguinrunner wrote:

eieio, I said eieio wrote:

This could be a dumb question, and possibly no definite answer - But what is the difference between 10k track training and 10k xc training? Why would he not be as good of a track coach as he is cross country? I know 800, mile / 1500, 3k, 3ksc, and 5k obviously too but idk it just kind of puzzles me how a coach can excele at xc or track but not the combo.

Just theorizing, but for XC, you have to be used to varying terrain as opposed to a flat rubber track. I would also think that you need to develop 7 to 10 quality guys in the 8k and 10k to do well at regionals and nationals. Depth is more important than a single high end runner.

Makes me think of Simon Bairu: 2-time, consecutive NCAA XC champion. And that was boss. But he didn't seem to do much in outdoor 10k during that same period.

You run more miles and do less speed work for 10k xc.

Down With The Thickness wrote:

Here's what you guys are looking for:

http://www.running2win.com/community/view-member-running-log.asp?uk=ZDJ36NRMHZAAJUDDXFGGVWQGQUHQKPEFVPI15161JEFOWFAJGZNTEEGRUJDBUFBIGJCQJA

I am on r2w and this link just redirects me to my home page...

what were you getting at?

There is a wisco walkon that logs on running2win i believe.

mikey_the _kid is a walk on from the track club who logs all his miles with details on workouts.

Coach Byrne shares why he holds All-American contenders out of regular season meets, why the Big Ten Conference Championship XC Meet is a different feeling for Wisconsin Badgers, why he chooses different line ups for championship level races, Zimmerman cross country course is a training venue at least once a week, and why the depth of the Badgers women's team will make a tight conference championship more competitive than the rankings project for this weekend.

Will they make it to Nationals? I think not!

They will win the regional.