Colorado distance training

Emma Coburn is Over the Hurdles

After the first injury of her career, the Olympian steeplechaser is back.

By Sarah Barker;

March 27, 2014

Emma Coburn at 2012 US Olympic Trials

Coburn won the steeplechase in 9:32.78 at the 2012 U.S. Olympic trials.

In June 2013, as Emma Coburn signed on Team New Balance's dotted line, the newly professional steepler was sidelined with a lower-back injury. But a quick review of her resume reveals why no one was worried.

First, Coburn counted up total days off due to injury during her career at the University of Colorado, when she made the 2011 world championship team and earned a 2012 Olympic berth: "Two days," she says. "I had an ingrown toenail removed." The lower-back issue was her first and only injury.

Then there's her poise. Coburn does not freak out easily. She came out of high school in Crested Butte, Colo., a basketball and volleyball player and part-time runner logging only 15 miles per week, and seamlessly joined Jenny Simpson, already a U.S. and NCAA champion, and a bunch of uber-talented women in the program. She qualified for the 2009 NCAA nationals in the steeple as a freshman, was second as a sophomore and won the title as a junior in 9:41. A few months later, she won the U.S. championships, then placed 13th at worlds in Daegu. But the cool-under-pressure grand prize? Laying down a PR of 9:23.54 at the 2012 Olympic steeplechase final while still an undergraduate, placing ninth.

Coburn finished out her NCAA eligibility in style, winning the indoor mile and her second steeple title, along with a 1500m PR (4:06.87).

"The timing was not ideal," Coburn says of her injury last summer. "But New Balance was really supportive, and my coaches are very patient." After a few months off, she started running in September and was back to 75 to 80 miles per week by fall.

Coburn is transitioning with minimal fuss to life as a pro, which she admits is easier because it feels much like her life as a college athlete. She still lives in Boulder and runs familiar routes, still works with coaches Heather Burroughs and Mark Wetmore, and still trains with Simpson, Shalaya Kipp and now Kara Goucher.

Because this year holds neither outdoor world championships nor Olympics, it takes some pressure off. Nonetheless, she has goals.

Although her 1500m speed invites talk about a switch from steeple to mid-distance, Coburn says her heart is in the seven-lap event. "I love the 1500, and it would be great to go under 4:06, but it's definitely secondary right now," she says. "As far as racing, I'm focusing on winning the U.S. championships in June. I'd like to go under 9:20 and be a better steepler on a world scale than I am right now."

ESSENTIAL WORKOUT

WHO: Emma Coburn, age 23

WHAT: A challenging 15-mile run at a pace based on heart rate. Coburn won't say what the heart rate is, only that it's different from the target her training partner, Jenny Simpson, has.

WHY: To maintain her aerobic base.

WHEN: Every Sunday throughout the year, varying only for her racing schedule.

THE DETAILS: For this run, Coburn, along with Simpson, Shalaya Kipp, and now Kara Goucher, will drive north or west of Boulder and do the workout on a dirt road. Some of the roads are fairly flat, but they're all at 8,000 feet. The run is hard from the beginning. Coburn usually maintains 6:20–6:30 pace throughout.

I have read that Wetmore tweaks the recipe but is pretty consistent. I have gotten the impression that he is Lydiard disciple. However, in regards to heart rate training, check out "Running With The Buffaloes" by Chris Lear. There is an early season AT run done with a heart rate monitor for each runner and that was for the 1998 XC season.

From what I understand the training is quite different from when RWB was written. It is not nearly as challenging as what those teams did.

RWB was a long time ago wrote:

From what I understand the training is quite different from when RWB was written. It is not nearly as challenging as what those teams did.

He certainly had to change something. In RWTB almost all runners had injuries.

RWB was a long time ago wrote:

From what I understand the training is quite different from when RWB was written. It is not nearly as challenging as what those teams did.

Honestly, it would not surprise me; I think Colorado didn't get the blue chip recruits and Foot Locker finalists at the time of RWB. Now, they get those recruits. They might not need to go as hard as RWB to get productive results. But I guess the question is how less challenging is it? I suspect the density of the training might be tweaked, but not the volume. I read that Emma Couburn went from doing 15-20 mpw in high school to being worked up gradually to 70 mpw with Wetmore.

That said, I do recall an interview with Kara Goucher and she was contrasting Salazar and Wetmore. She noted that Salazar was the type of coach that was more experimental and would readily admit if he did not know something or why something would not work in training. Wetmore was more of the type who had utter confidence in the formula. That does not sound like a coach who plans to keep Ben Saarel capped at 60-70 mpw.

Regardless, my initial point was that Wetmore has used heart rate monitors back in the 90s. It is not as an odd of a wrinkle as the OP thought it was.

He certainly had to change something. In RWTB almost all runners had injuries.

From what I recall of the book, Wetmore, in reflecting on the injuries during the season, also noted that it was similar training to other prior seasons, but those seasons didn't have the injury bug.

Anyways, that was 16 odd years ago. I cannot imagine an elite coach not adjusting over that period of time. There is always new information, research, and experiences.

I read RWB a few yers ago and was impressed with the details of Wetmore's training. Yes it did seem to consist of a pretty solid session on 6 out of 7 days (Monday always being easy) BUT ;

1) The x-country training highlighted in the book was meant to have been prepared for with a summer of mileage at a much easier pace.

2) Sessions were tailored for the individual ; pace as well as the number of reps were adjusted according to the ability and current state of fitness of the athlete. It was not the case that all the other team members were instructed to run with Goucher for as long as they possibly could!

3) These were young, relatively high standard athletes. Where is it set in stone that such beings can't tolerate a reasonably challenging workout on most days? you ought to check out some of the training that interval based athletes did in the 1950s to see what HARD daily training is!

Get this out of your head right now. The summer mileage at CU was not easy, and we used HR monitors at times. The 15-miler is the medium distance run on Wednesdays. I also see the malmo thread recommending doing 16 x 200s constantly during base training. We didn't do speed for two months but the base work in the summer was pretty damn hard work. Some fartleks and tempos, yes, but not track workouts.