A couple posts ago, I asked for help on a survey about transitioning from High School to College running.  It’s an attempt to answer the question of why kids success or struggle with transitioning to college. Admittedly, this question is something that strikes close to home, on two fronts.  First, I’m a college coach at…

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Here’s a selected workout that Kenenisa Bekele did around 10 days before his 2007 10k world championship win, the same race which I wrote about on an earlier blog.  (This comes from a presentation from Barry Fudge, who is a sports scientists who was doing work with Bekele during this workout) 8x (400 in 52-54,…

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As always, I try to be up front and open about what I believe in coaching runners. There are no secret workouts, it has all been done at some time during the past, what changes is how all the ingredients are put together. It forces me to be a better coach and innovate more if…

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The HS season has concluded and as promised I’m posting the workouts done by the HS kids. Below you’ll find a link to the workouts done from July to December. Easy runs/long runs and mileage aren’t included, just the main workouts. Enjoy. Feel free to ask questions, leave a critique, whatever. Over the next couple…

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So, I’ve been horrible at updating this thing. In all fairness I’ve been busy travelling all over, but it’s mostly my summer lazyness. My Canadian race series didn’t go too well. I had some allergy trouble in Vancouver/Victoria so those were pretty much useless. Although going through 1200 in 3:01-2 and then running like 53-4…

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Neuromuscular and “Speed” work: Having covered both specific work and aerobic work during the competition period, I’ll now move on to probably the most controversial and perhaps confusing part of training for cross country. Depending on the coach you listen to or the program that you follow there could be a very heavy emphasis on…

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High-End Aerobic Running: At the end of the summer we left off with some longer LT runs and a 7.5miler at about marathon pace. Having a developed aerobic system is the name of the game for cross country so we do not want to neglect high end aerobic running the season. Doing that is a…

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As you have hopefully realized by now, I believe in progression throughout the training cycle. There are no abrupt changes. Even when adding in or increasing the emphasis on a particular aspect, there is a gradual transition. This same principle applies when transitioning from the summer base phase into the in season competition phase of…

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Planning the season: Start backwards. Work the extremes. Bring it together. That pretty much sums up my training philosophy for HS kids. You aren’t trying to get every sap of talent and performance out of them. You want them to run well and be set up to continue running well in the future and become…

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Cross Country Training: How to develop a training plan: Part 1-Individualization Part 2- Base/Summer Training Part 3- Developing Specific Endurance Part 4- High End Aerobic Training Part 5- Neuromuscular/Speed Training CC training: A couple of people have asked about High School Cross Country training. At the end of their season, I’ll post the entire training…

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