Joe Vigil Acceleration Workouts

Those are great workouts, but like much of his book, is taken from somebody else's stuff. That is a Coe workout.

Vigil's book is great, and he is a great coach, but if you are well-read you will notice that there are pages and even chapters that are taken word for word from other people. One chapter is almost directly from an IAAF symposium by David Moorcroft's coach (Anderson?).

I had my team do workout 1 early season track and they improved their kicks drastically. It probably is better for late season, however, like you did. I'm toying with the idea of doing this type of workout on a long hill for cross. Thoughts on that idea?

"Good artists copy; great artists steal." This is a man who has been around the sport long enough, and has dedicated enough time to studying its nuances, that he has learned what works and doesn't. The fact that this is a Coe workout coming through Vigil just cements its place as something everybody should try.

Vigil never pretended to invent the wheel. At a clinic I attended he mentioned how terrible his athletes were doing when he took over and how each year he traveled to learn from the best coaches. He told us that it took him a while before he finally got it right and that he's still always learning. And in his book he mentions how it is taken from Coe.

Yep yep wrote:

I had my team do workout 1 early season track and they improved their kicks drastically. It probably is better for late season, however, like you did. I'm toying with the idea of doing this type of workout on a long hill for cross. Thoughts on that idea?

If you do it up a hill, have them run for the same time that they would if they were on the flat the first time you do it. If you have them run it again later in the season or cycle, either have them run the distances, or run a few seconds longer than the first time.

I like it, but it is a pain of workout to coach a group of kids with various abilities. Between breaking down everyone's split times for each sprint and marking out the 10m spacing in multiple lanes for about 20 distance runners, I don't know if the workout is worth the hassle.

It is a good tool to have in the toolbox, but other workouts can develop a kick and the ability to change gears. I like using all-out 30m sprints, 150m sprints where a runner goes from 400m pace to 800m pace and back to 400m pace for every 50m, and 200m or 300m sprints at 400m race pace.

Although, I think I have had better speed gains using the 200/300m sprints, but it is hard to put my finger on it. Many runners also had an extra season of training under the belt. Cannot say if it was the series of speed/sprint workouts over 5 months or the extra year of running.

Holy Smokes! I just tried to buy his book Road to the Top. Its $215 on Barnes and Noble and $81 on Amazon! I'll pass.

Try Running Warehouse.

http://www.runningwarehouse.com/Road_to_the_Top_Book/descpage-JVRTTT.html

I forget where but I thought you could buy it from him directly and he would sign it. I just can't remember my source.

In high school Dr. Joe Vigil stopped by a couple of times to visit with my coach (they were friends) and my coach was a big believer in his philosophy....we even had t-shirts with "the Vigil way" on the back. I recall doing a workout inspired by Coach Vigil which I hated.....mile repeats on the track with cones every 50m, alternating green and red. The objective was to sprint for 50m (almost all out) then coast for 50m. While this doesn't sound bad I remember hanging on for dear life, it's still one of the hardest workouts I remember doing in high school. My group did 4 x mile @ 4:50-4:55. The top guys did 4 x mile @ 4:40-4:45. I seem to recall that we only did this twice, maybe 3 times that year.