I'm in my first year as a track distance coach and was hoping some of you could share your training knowledge with me. In particular I have a miler who went 4:26 indoors, an 800-1600 type who went 1:56 indoors, and a 3200 specialist who ran 15:43 last XC season. Is the best way to develop them through the sort of low mileage, high intensity system that Coe and others have espoused for years? Or is it okay to have them run more than 35 miles in a given seven day period? Thanks
Even 35 miles in a seven day period is low mileage. New runners probably should be on low miles for a while but runners need to run if they're going to get as good as they can be. You need to be careful of intensity with young runners, especially given all the racing high school kids do.
You want to get the most out of them, then depending on their age and what they've been doing, they need to be running 45-70 MPW.
How much have they been doing?
The varsity boys on my son's HS team run in the range I mentioned, and over this next summer, a couple of the seniors-to-be are planning on peaking at 90 MPW. This isn't for everyone, for for runners who have been slowly adding mileage since middle school with no injury issues, this is outstanding and will reap huge rewards. There is one guy on my son's team who is a bit more injury prone, so he tops out at about 45 MPW and does one moderate hard run each week even in a buildup phase.
35 MPW is really too little today. That's what you have an inexperienced freshman run.
I admired the fact Bob Kennedy only ran up to 35 miles a week until the age of 18 and only went up to 50 miles a week in university. I believe in a gradual approach. After all, if you're still growing, what's the point? I've seen people quit high school track clubs. I'd rather start out gradually and do singles, low intensity (no faster than 9min/mile). I'd keep the faster work for your intervals (and do your slow 10 min. cooldown). (And I wouldn't race more than once every two weeks, not more than 5K.) You never know if you're going to stay with the sport. Staying injury-free and allowing yourself to grow is more realistic in my opinion.
It was the fashion in the 1990s and early 00s. However, the current trend seems to be focus on mileage during the endurance phase and it seems to be paying off among the elites. Like you I'm interested to know what more experienced coaches think.
Most running slower than 5K date pace. A little faster than goal pace. And some bridging efforts such as progressions or tempo. Slower than date pace means easy to steady, which allows lots of miles to be run. No doubles. Forget Coe's father.
Consider the Oregon 30/40 as a workout, but slow it down.