I'm interested to know what colleges train slow but tend to race pretty well. Post the college, the average miles per week, and the average pace. (obviously there will be some variation, but i'm just looking for rough estimates here)
I'm interested to know what colleges train slow but tend to race pretty well. Post the college, the average miles per week, and the average pace. (obviously there will be some variation, but i'm just looking for rough estimates here)
Your training is your playbook. Do not share publicly or online!
Not sure. I can tell you one thing, though. My team at XXXX State University did just the opposite. We trained fast and raced slow. We had a whole team full of workout heroes. Don't even get me started about our long runs. They were more or less a survival-of-the-fittest competitions, with only an elite few surviving the pace to the end.
And they wonder why, come race day, the can hardly manage the long run pace for 5k, 8k, 10k, whatev...
The best teams train "easy" and race fast. Slow is relative.
in the SEC perhaps?
I'm old Greg wrote:
Not sure. I can tell you one thing, though. My team at XXXX State University did just the opposite. We trained fast and raced slow. We had a whole team full of workout heroes. Don't even get me started about our long runs. They were more or less a survival-of-the-fittest competitions, with only an elite few surviving the pace to the end.
And they wonder why, come race day, the can hardly manage the long run pace for 5k, 8k, 10k, whatev...
Unfortunately, that was my experience as well several decades ago. Couldn't tell the hothead coach otherwise - he knew it all - and it was all our fault ("just a bunch of focking losers").
Martin Smith preached slow running on your recovery days. 50 minutes, slow easy and relaxed was the most repeated workout by far but the quality days were high volume and long. We used to have guys that would actually run 8:00 pace on their easy days and were Big 10 champs and NCAA All Americans.
I don't know how he coaches at Oklahoma these days but at the time I ran I heard that Sam Bell at Indiana used to forbid any running slower than 6:00 pace ever and used to go out in his car at times and check up to make sure no one was slacking.
Keene state? No idea
I don't feel like searching, but there's an article I found about Portland training low and slow. They're pretty good.
coach bigfoot wrote:
I don't feel like searching, but there's an article I found about Portland training low and slow. They're pretty good.
I think this is what you're looking for:
http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=15744&PageNum=1This was a long time ago but from what I know those guys at North Central College under Al Carius did lots of slow running and competed well.
I am terribly surprised by this:"He knew if he was to make it as a collegiate runner, he would have to survive a training regimen that typically consisted of 60 to 80 miles a week, blazing 6-mile tempo runs and intense sessions of repeat miles, and 60-minute "recovery" day efforts routinely run at a 6-minute-per-mile clip. The Portland training program, as then constituted, resembled what you'll find on many campuses around the nation, and, like many others, its components developed organically from within."Who makes it to D1 level and DOESN'T know that the training will be at least that hard? While 80 mpw may be hard for some freshman, and I don't think that 6:00 pace is what you should do for your easy runs ... it ain't that far off.Since they say 60-80, and you can count on a 15 mi long run, that means 45-65 the other days. They talk about a 10 miler in 57 minutes. It seems clear that they are only running once per day.Also, in the revised training they say they are running long twice per week, so we'll say 15 and 20 miles. Then they are running 90 min at 6:30 pace so that is 13-14 miles, five other days. That is 105 just there.They don't mention 130 mile weeks. They still seem to be running once per day. That seems backward to me.
Opiate for the Masses wrote:
coach bigfoot wrote:I don't feel like searching, but there's an article I found about Portland training low and slow. They're pretty good.
I think this is what you're looking for:
http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=15744&PageNum=1
golden west college in huntington beach, with distance coach larry greer, who used to believe in running 15 miles a day, now having decided over the years less is better.
example of how his runners trained at orange coast college.
monday
a.m. 5-7 miles easy
p.m. 2 mile warmup and cooldown 5 x 1 mile with 400 rest.
tuesday
a.m. 5-7
p.m. 8-13
wednesday
a.m. 5-7
p.m. 2 warmup and cooldown 8 x 800 with 400 jog, then 6 x 200, with 100 jog
thursday
a.m. 5-7
p.m. 7-9
friday
a.m. 5-7
p.m. 7-9
saturday
race
sunday 12-20
larry greer schedule at golden west
never run 2 x a day
monday-1 mile warmup 4-5 x 800 stand around for 5 minutes after each cooldown half a mile
tuesday-3-5 miles
wednesday-1 mile warmup 4 x 600, then 4 x 200 stand around about 5 minutes between each interval no jogging or walking in between.
thursday 2-5
friday day off
saturday race
sunday walk 2-3 miles
this is how larry greers training has evolved over 35 years.
So Douglas, how does this qualify as a school who trains slow, but races fast?
FWIW, it looks like he had it totally nailed for a training program at the earlier school, but has somehow reverted to middle school training for girls at the latter one.
Has he had any men break 17 on the track?
most if not all of the kids he coached at OCC went under 17 for 5000 on the track school record is 14:19 by john gerhardt, not sure if he has had ant under 17 on the track at golden west.
not sure why he changed his training philosophy.
douglas burke wrote:
...not sure if he has had ant under 17 on the track at golden west....
Obviously a typo, but that makes for some great imagery.
"What is this? A college for ants? I don't want to hear your excuses, the runners have to be at least...3 times bigger than this!"
well UCI have the anteaters lol
well I'm not talented in the least and I ran a 25:30 8k doing most of my easy runs at 7:30 pace or slower. Wejo ran 28:06 doing most of his easy runs slower than 7:00 pace (granted, at altitude). Of course we were both running 15-20 miles a day. I'm not convinced 80mpw at 6:00 pace is the best for everyone. The cornell guys train pretty slow and aren't too shabby of a team.
Villanova men run almost everything based on heart rate which usually translates to recovery days being between 7:00 and 8:00 or slower.
The Dallas Baptist University kicks ass this way. We train on about 35-50 mpw at an average of 12 minutes per mile. Its proven to be a solid way for us to preform well. Long and slow is the way to go.