you gotta have them do hills, if they can't handle it that's their problem. your team will never get anywhere if you don't have them doing basic work like hills/intervals. tell them to quit their bellyaching. it's not like you're having them do 60+ a week or intervals every day. what you are doing is basic, necessary training and that cannot be compromised.
flash153 wrote:
I coach high school boys in Illinois. I have a goup of about 10 kids that have been going between 40 and 50 miles per week of base work for the last 10 weeks. One day a week they would do about 3.5 tempo run otherwise runs between 5 and 9 miles. This week was the first week of practice and we raised the intensity a little. Instead of 7min per mile the runs were around 6:30. All of a sudden everyone has sore legs and feet. We have kept the milage the same and still went easy the day after a long hard run. During the base period we would do easy strides twice a week. This should not be that hard. I am afraid that if I add an interval workout or hills that the guys will all be so hurt that they can not run at all. Any ideas?
they forgot what it was like to push a little bit.. thats okay to a point. if it happens in races youre going to be in some trouble.
overall i think what you are doing/have planned is great..
Do not increase the intensity of the "easy/steady" runs...keep it easy, it's recovery. If those days are easy, then adding a hill workout and/or intervals a couple days a week will be fine..but if you try to increase pace of every run as well as add two hard workouts per week your team will break down very quickly. So, keep the easy runs (5 days a week) at 7 min pace (assuming this was not too difficult for them) and add two workouts a week.
40-50 a week with one hard run and strides just 2x per week seems just about right (for the non-self-starter). If they truly have been doing their weekend runs and really doing 40 a week, then slightly harder runs can't be hurting them.
I don't think they need intervals until March 15th at least. I grew up in Michigan and ran indoor as well. WE pretty much did Hard runs 2-3 x per week, and 1-2 races a week (one indoor 1600/3200 and one road race) for most of the Winter. I can't even say I ever did strides except warming up for races.
If they have 10 weeks of base at even 40 mpw they shoudl be in better shape than this, I can't explain it.
Are you absolutely sure your kids actually did that mileage? I mean, did you see them do it? Perhaps they exaggerated their mileage then tried to meet expectations that first week of practice. I've had teammates who kept the fantasy going for a whole season. One dude was running 30 mpw and the coach thought he was doing 80 mpw. He ran well in workouts off natural ability and his XC base, but when he got dropped into the 10k at the conference meet it didn't go so well.
Probably most of them are just adjusting to the workload.
But I'll admit I have never heard of "sore feet".
I suppose you need to play it conservative.
Personally I've run for 25 years and from the get-go just accepted pain and soreness as a by-product of trying to get better.
Bear in mind that in the winter running shoes lose up to 50% of their inherent mid-sole cushioning when it dips below sub-freezing which could explain the sore feet. Also, for some reason, Illinois or Chicago at least, has brutally hard asphalt or concrete.