Thanksgiving race, off to Portland, and should we trust Pro coaches just because they’re pro’s?
This will be a kind of update post on everything.
HS runners: It was a crazy end of the season. At state, as a team they got 2nd which was a nice improvement. Coming in, getting 3rd was pretty much what we’d expected so moving up one place, the best placing in school history, was a pretty big accomplishment. Individually, the top guy, Ryan had his first and only off day all season. I think the pace/heat got to him.
Then the following week I was home for the Nike South meet. The course was almost completely mud so it made for an interesting race. Team wise, we were slightly off and got 4th. It was mostly due to the fact that some of the guys are not good mud runners, and when the depth isn’t the best, that hurts. They all ran tough though and did the best they could on the day. Unfortunately, as a team they are in the same spot as last year, having to hope for some at large bid to nationals. Individually, Ryan ran an incredible race to win and upset the #2 ranked runner in the nation. Ryan was in the zone and it was one of the most impressive races I’ve ever seen. So, ryan is off to portland for sure as an individual, and I’ll be making the long trip out there to watch him. An article on him is here
My racing- A couple days later on thanksgiving I ran the Run Thru the Woods 5 miler. I made it 3 for 3 for the fall road racing with a win over the 5+mi course. There was solid competition and I ended up winning in 24:36, about 10sec ahead of Adam Davis. The course, as always, was long, and they directed us to go the wrong way so who knows how much that added on. If we use the 3rd place finishers (Sean Wade), Garmin GPS data it comes out to about a 23:55-24:00 for 5mi. I felt really good during the race and it felt pretty relaxed. We went out pretty conservative in about 5min and stayed that way until the last 2mi. I threw in random surges to see how everyone was doing throughout but didn’t really start moving until the last bit. Again, using the GPS data, my last mile was about 4:28-30ish, so a nice close.
That’s probably it for my fall racing. We’re gearing up for indoors now and to take a shot at qualifying for USA indoors in New Mexico. For now, I’m back in Va. after a great thanksgiving, then off to Portland next week to stay with Alan in the altitude house and watch Ryan tear it up at nationals.
As some have asked, I will post the HS guys training once Ryan’s finished up with his season.
Do the Pro’s know best?
I’m doing some research on periodization of training for my thesis and in doing so came across some research done in regards to figuring out what strength and conditioning coaches did in pro sports. Now, I know that you can not grasp a program in just a survey, but it does provide some interesting info.
In 2001, 26 of NFL strength coaches responded to a survey. Of those 26, 8 did not follow a periodized training program…Are you kidding me?? (most of the non-periodized program followed the crazy HIT training…)
Compare that to the MLB in 2005, 18 of 21 coaches followed a periodized strength program.
Lastly, in the NHL in 2004, 21 of 23 coaches followed a periodized strength training program.
Congradulations to you and Ryan. Good job. Glad your racing is going well also. Thanks.