2018-2019 Off Season Training

The Goal

●     To build fitness in a way that is as relaxed and comfortable as possible

●     To work on parts of the racing skill set that we don’t work very much during the season.

●     To come to the beginning of organized practice fit, but fresh.

Zach built up to 80mpw before his 2014 season opener

The most important factor in your training

The most important factor in your off season and early season training is VOLUME of running.

Running volume may not immediately lead to faster race times, but it builds the foundation for the harder workouts that will come later.  Low intensity high volume running accomplishes a number of things

●     It increases, in a low stress way, the strength of your tendons and bones.

●     It increases the number of capillaries (blood vessels) in your muscles

●     It increases the efficiency of your heart

●     It increases the efficiency with which you run.

How much should you run? I don’t know the exact answer.  I do know this: NONE OF YOU HAVE COME CLOSE TO RUNNING TOO MANY MILES.  You may have felt soreness or tightness or small flare ups during the cross country season.  Those aches and pains are most likely due to the intensity of racing and of the hard reps we did during the actual cross country season.  Think about your training  last summer.  Very few of you had aches and pains during the summer, and if you did, they cleared up quickly.  It was when we began to add intensity that your aches and pains began, right?

The secret to being able to run those hard workouts during the season without all the little shin and calf issues that you experienced is to build up resistance to fatigue during the off season.  This is the value of high volumes of easy miles.  To be able to get more miles in safely, most of you would benefit from adding DOUBLES. I know for a fact that Gregori high runs doubles 3 days a week for the off season and much of the competitive season.  If you are going to double, consider doing it on days where you are already running kind of hard.  Start just by doing an easy shake out run on in the morning when you know you will do something fast in the afternoon.

Less important (but still important) factors for this off season

This off season, I want to switch the emphasis a little bit away from organized workouts, but I still want you doing some stuff that is a little bit hard so that you don’t lose all of the higher end fitness that you worked so hard to gain during the cross country season.  So, from the time you start running, to the time we begin to have more organized workouts, these are the things I want you to include in your training.

Fartlek Running.  Fartlek is the Swedish word for “speed play”.  During this off season, I want you to, once per week, insert some faster segments into your run.  How much should you do?  I don’t know, fartlek should be done by feel. Some general guidelines for successful fartlek

●     For you guys, run hard for segments of 2-4 minutes

●     Run fast enough so that at the end of the pick up, you feel a little fatigued but not like you are tied up or exhausted.

●     In between segments, run easily (but don’t slow to a shuffle or jog) until you feel good enough to go again.

●     Don’t exceed 15 total minutes of hard running

●     Insert these segments into a normal distance run

Ernesto, David and Martin progressed in the 2003 TVL finals to finish 1st,
3rd, and 7th in 4:31, 4:33, 4:37.

Progression Running. If you are more the type of runner that likes to grind out the distance, you can do a progression run instead of a fartlek run.  Most of you should be very experienced with these from cross country, but here’s a quick reminder, with adjustments for the off season.

●     Start the run nice and easy

●     Run a good portion of the run at a pace that is fast but comfortable

●     Pick it up for the last 10%-25% of the run to a pace that is a little faster

●     Finish the run knowing you could have continued at your finishing pace for at least a couple more miles

Top End Speed. If you want to be able to race fast, you need to be able to, you know, train fast occasionally.  The amount and type of top end speed running you do can vary with athlete and target event (400-800 runners will want to do a little more top end stuff than 3200m runners), but these following guidelines should get you off to a good start for the winter.

●     Short sprints of less than 60 meters from a standing start. Walk back to the starting line for recovery

●     Sprints up the ramp (about 35 meters).  Walk back to the start for recovery.

●     Fly-In sprints: This means you build up gradually to your top speed then try to hold that top speed for 10-30 meters.  Walk back to the start for recovery

●     Most of you should run no more than 250 total meters in any given speed session.

●     You need to be really well warmed up prior to the start

Long Runs.  If the overall goal of the off season is to build up resistance to fatigue, there is no better method to do that than by increasing the distance of your long run.  However, let’s have a word of caution about long runs. If long runs become too long, or too fast or too fatiguing during the off season, then you are doing more harm than good.  During your off season, the focus of the long run should be just cover the distance comfortably. Here are some guidelines for long runs.

●     Make the long run about 20%-25% of your weekly mileage: If you are new and just getting up to 20 miles per week, then your long run should be 4-5 miles.  If you are experienced and building up to 50-60 miles per week, then your long run could be up to 15 miles!

●     Take an easy day after your long runs.  Even if you run easily, a long run will still take a toll on your body.

●     Don’t run so long that it takes away from your ability to come back with solid mileage over the next 2-3 days.

●     Don’t run so long that you need to slow down to a ridiculously slow crawl.  For example, a young guy that’s run 12:00 for 2 miles would be better off doing 8 miles at 8:00 pace rather than 12 miles at 10:00 pace.

●     If you plant to specialize in the 400-800, you don’t need to do a long run.  Do an extra speed session or a second shorter fartlek session instead.

Strength Training. You don’t need to do a ton of this stuff.  For most of you, push ups, pull ups, core, and lunges 2-3 times per week should be fine.  If you want to get into the weight room a couple of times a week, I can make that happen also.

How do you mix these sessions together? It’s up to you! I just want to throw out a couple of guidelines though. The #1 goal is to raise your training volume any time you go too hard on a session and have to back way off the next day as a result, you’ve done too much!  You can’t do every one of these sessions every week! Pick and choose based on how you feel and what you enjoy.  Did you do fartlek last week, maybe do progression this week.  Did you run ramps last week? Run fly ins this week.  You get the picture.  Whether or not you have a great track season this spring is up to you!  Go out this winter, have fun, get fit!

State Meet Bound

Congrats to the Huskies.  Yesterday at the CIF Sac Joaquin Section Cross Country Championship, our girls placed 2nd behind a very strong team from El Dorado.  This means we'll be making our 3rd trip to the state meet in the last 4 years!!!!

Huskies once again off to Fresno!

Because making the state meet is a BIG DEAL, and because we want to be able to run our best when we get there, we always travel to Fresno the day before the race to preview the course.  Please see the attached itinerary for the trip.

State Meet Itinerary 2018

Our race does not go off until 11:00 on Saturday, so any parents or supporters wishing to drive down on the day of the meet should have plenty of time to get there.  Any supporters driving down on meet day should plan to arrive at Fresno an hour before race time, as it takes a LONG time to park and walk to the event site.  We will set up our team camp near the Valley View Picnic Shelter. This is near the BMX park.  The race will start and finish near the Mountain View Picnic Shelter. 

Woodward Park Map

Hope to see you all in Fresno for an exciting meet. 

First update of the blog in a long time

I read a great article.  I want to share it with all of you so you can get perspective on how lucky you are to be high school students in a safe town in a rich nation.

Story of an Eretrian Refugee

Athlete of the Week Updates

It's been a while since I made any posts on the main page of this site.

The season has been rolling along.  Check out a full list of our athletes of the week on our Athlete of the Week Page

This week's winners are Dario Salinas and Blanca Madrigal for their performances at the Jackie Henderson Memorial Invitational

Blanca won the JV race at Jackie Henderson

Dario was second in the Frosh Soph race at Jackie Henderson
and ran our fastest time of the day for any boy. 

Help Wanted!

2 big events coming up for HHS XC fundraising efforts.

1. September 28 - Snack bar at homecoming game.  Boosters ask that we have 12 volunteers per shift.  Coaching staff will be jumping in to help, but parents make up the backbone of snackbar workers at all of the football games for the boosters club.  Boosters then returns the favor by providing money for: Meet entries, uniforms, etc...

• The early shift starts at 5:00 PM
• The late shift starts at 7:30 PM 
• If you want to work both shifts, I won't say no :)  
• I'm posting this list as a Sign Up Sheet

1. October 13th - Hughson Supercross Invitational

• Volunteers will be needed from 7:00 AM - 12:00 Noon.  
• This is our program's signature event.  We have 36 teams slated to compete this year, by far our biggest ever.
• Coach Eddie is in charge of volunteers this year. 
• Here is the List of Jobs that we need covered. Please sign up for a job you'd like

Athletes of the Week for Week 3 - Hannah Knight and Michael Morrett

We did not award an AOW for week 2 because we had no meets or time trials.  For week 3, we decided to make up for it by naming 2.  Congrats to Michael Morrett and Hannah Knight for their improvements in our second time trial.  Both athletes are showing tremendous promise.

Read the full summary on our Athlete of the Week page

Hannah improved her time trial by 68 seconds

Michael improved his time trial by 90 seconds

Tentative travel plans for Woodbridge Invitational

Hey, team.  I've compiled a preliminary travel roster and itinerary for our trip to Southern California from September 13th - 15th. 

It should be an exciting trip with the chance for our teams to match up against some very good competition from the Western United States. 

Here is a link to the itinerary for the trip.  You will need to open it with your hughsonschools account.  I didn't want to make our specific travel details public on the web. 

Feel free to look at the meet website for more information.

Meet Coverage should be available on milesplit.com.  I don't know if they will be live streaming the meet this year, but they have done so in the past.

FAN CLOTH Fundraiser

My goal as an instructor is to build a program that will provide your student an opportunity to grow and develop not only as a student, but also as a member of the greater community. To do this to the best of my ability, our team requires additional funding so that we can provide a top-notch experience for your student.

This Fall (or other season), we will be partnering with Fan Cloth, the #1 fundraiser in the US for high school teams. Over the years, Fan Cloth has helped over 40,000 teams like ours get the funding they need by providing custom apparel for both teams and their fans to show their sense of team spirit.

Soon, your student will be bringing home the materials for this year’s Fan Cloth campaign. I strongly encourage you to read over all the materials and familiarize yourself with this awesome program. With these materials, there will be a special insert that will help you work with your student to reach our goals.

Here are a few tips that will help both you and your student throughout our fundraiser:

• ·         To make sharing as effortless as possible, Fan Cloth has a sharing tool you can use by texting your FC Catalog Number to 559-900-3222 to reach as many people as possible.
• ·         Reach out to friends, family, neighbors and co-workers to give everyone a chance to order.
• ·         Don’t forget to spread the word through social media.
• ·         Check in with your student during the campaign to make sure they always have their catalog and order form with them so that they can be actively selling to reach their incentive goals.

With your support, I’m certain we can reach our goals! Keep in mind, this will be the only chance to order custom gear with Fan Cloth this semester.

Here is a digital copy of our catalogue.  You should be receiving your paper copy by Monday. 

Sincerely,

Coach Bernard

Long Progression Run

Nationally ranked Edina HS from Minnesota doing a Long Progression Run. This is what I want groups 1,2,3 doing on Saturday this week.

Igloi Training Terminology

Way back in the stone ages, athletes from Hungary trained by a guy named Mihaly Igloi set 27 world records at distances from 1500m - 10000m.  His training would be considered unorthodox today, but back in the day, he got some great results.

One of Igloi's athletes, Laszlo Tabori immigrated to the United States where he coached a number of outstanding athletes.  One of his athletes, Bob Schul won the gold medal in the 5000m in the 1964 Olympics.  Another, Johnny Gray held the American Record at 800m for over 2 decades.

Johnny Gray went on to coach Khadevis Robinson, who explains the Igloi system a little bit in this video.

Khadevis Robinson On Igloi Paces

To Summarize

• Jog - We know what jog is, very slow, designed for recovery
• Easy - Easy effort, light bouncy steps
• Fresh - Faster than Easy, perhaps 5k-10k race pace.  Imagine there is a bar through your ankle you need to step over
• Swing - Same action of stepping over a bar, but now focus on driving off the back leg and driving the lead knee up.  Probably about mile race pace.
• Speed - This is the speed you would use in a finishing kick.  The focus should be on quickening the tempo while still maintaining the powerful stride mechanics.

Here is Bob Schul Winning Gold in 1964 He is #719.  Notice how he is in Fresh mode at first, then switches to Swing with about 600 to go then switches again to Speed with about 200 to go. 

Physicals....Get them now!

If you want to participate in high school athletics, in any sport, in any state, you need to have passed a sports physical.

IF YOU WANT TO GO TO CAMP, YOU NEED A PHYSICAL

Please make an appointment for yourself or your athlete to get a sports physical ASAP.

DO NOT WAIT UNTIL SCHOOL STARTS.

If you cannot get in to see your doctor relatively quickly, there are a few places that will take appointments for physicals.

Lutes Chiropractic in Ceres

Romeo Medical Clinic in Turlock Romeo promises same day appointments.

Hughson Chiropractic

Before you go to get your physical, you need a sports physical participation form.  These should have come home in the roundup packet, but I will bring some to practice tomorrow.

Sometimes in Training, Ya Gotta Run Fast!

Anaerobic Power

This will be the 4th in our series of physiological components needed to run good cross country races.  I've saved this one for 4th because: a) Anaerobic Power doesn't take as long to develop and b) It is less important for cross country racing.

Time to fully develop: Years, but during the season this can be very well developed in a few months.

Definition: The ability to generate ATP (energy) without oxygen.

But, Wait....Coach!  I thought you said the ability to use oxygen was the most important.

It is, but you have what you can think of as an "emergency energy reserve" for racing very fast.  Think of it like this.  You're watching a cartoon or action sci-fi movie and the hero is in a battle.  The hero has a special power that can allow him to win the battle, but it will leave him exhausted afterward and if he uses the power at the wrong time, he'll be exhausted before the end of the show and the bad guy will chop his head off, or whatever.

It's kind of like that.

To put it a little more scientifically, let's say you can run at a pace aerobically (getting all your energy from oxygen) at a level.....let's call it 40.  Now, let's say the race is being run at a pace that requires a higher energy output.....lets say 55.  Since you can only produce 40 units of energy aerobically, the other 15 units will come from anaerobic (without oxygen) sources....your emergency power. 

Your ability to use this emergency reserve is limited...you'll use it up pretty quickly.  As a matter of fact, the further you go past your aerobic capacity, the more quickly you'll use up the emergency reserve.  So, imagine again that you are running at pace that requires 55 units of energy.  Your opponent is able to produce 40 of those units aerobically and you can produce 50 of those units aerobically.  For every step you guys run, your opponent is using up more of his emergency reserve and it will be gone before the end of the race....just like he will be gone from the lead pack.

How do I train my Anaerobic Power?

It's simple, you start needing a lot of anaerobic power when you are running really fast or working really hard.  So to train anaerobically, you need to run really fast or work really hard.  In reality, any high intensity exercise that lasts between 10 and 120 seconds is excellent for developing anaerobic  power. For our purposes, we will mostly use segments between 30 and 90 seconds.

Ian Brooks, NCAA All American for 800m could produce tons of Anaerobic Power

This means that some of the training we are already doing is helping you to develop your anaerobic capacity.  You know those 200s at mile race pace that we do?  In addition to helping to develop neuromuscular efficiency, they are also helping to develop your anaerobic power.  I love to use mile race pace to develop this capacity.  The pace is fast enough to require you to use a lot of anaerobic power, but not so fast that you are unable to do a good amount of work.  

If you are a 400m or 800m runner anaerobic power will supply up to 60% of the energy you use in a race, so you better be good at producing it.  For a 5k cross country race, anaerobic power provides less than 10% of the energy needed. 

A final note

When you use your anaerobic energy sources, you build up lactic acid in your blood.  Lactic acid is one of the main factors that causes you to fatigue.  You can train your body to tolerate high levels of lactic acid and therefore use your emergency power for longer periods of time.  The ability to tolerate high levels of lactic acid is known as lactate tolerance.....but that's for the next episode.  

Summer Practice Reminder

There seems to be some confusion about practice dates....many absent today.

Please see the Summer Practice Schedule

Thank you and happy running!

Lactate Threshold

Lactate Threshold (LT) refers to the speed at which you can run without the levels of lactic acid beginning to build up in your muscles or blood.  LT has been called the single biggest determining factor in how well an athlete can run in a distance race.

Time to develop: Years

Why didn't I write about LT first? Although LT is a hugely important factor in distance running success, LT workouts are more strenuous and have the possibility of becoming WAY harder than they need to be if athletes aren't honest with themselves about their effort levels.  Plus, when young runners do easy or moderate distance runs, they improve their LT a little bit anyway.


The above chart shows the blood lactate curves for two different hypothetical runners.  Runner A has the blood lactate profile of someone who can run 5k somewhere in the mid 20:00 minute range.  Runner B has the blood lactate profile of someone who can run a 5k somewhere in the mid 16:00 minute range.  If these are high school boys, Runner A is going to be buried in the pack at the TVL Championship Meet and Runner B is a potential TVL Champion.

Bear in mind, These curves are hypothetical based on numbers that I just made up.  However, there are a couple of things I want you to notice about this graph because the numbers I made up are based on well established research on how people build up blood lactate as they run.

• Notice that for both athletes, at slower speeds, their blood lactate levels are fairly low and the levels do not increase that quickly
• As the speed increases their blood lactate approaches 4.0 millimoles per deciliter (mmol/dl)
• After 4.0 mmol/dl, both athletes' blood lactate levels begin to rise quickly.  This is the pace that is generally referred to as the athletes Lactate Threshold
• Runner A reaches his lactate threshold at a pace somewhere around 7:00 per mile while runner B reaches his LT at around 6:00 per mile. 
• At paces faster than Lactate Threshold blood lactate levels rise very sharply and the athlete fatigues quickly.

How do we train LT to be higher?

The answer is simple.....train at a pace that is near LT and teach your body to spend a lot of time in that effort zone.  

There are 3 paces that we will use that are all right in the neighborhood of your LT. As of right now, we don't have the equipment to actually measure your individual blood lactate curves, so you will have to be able to FEEL the paces rather than accurately measure the paces.  Here are the paces and how you should FEEL at those paces:

• Steady State: This pace is just below the LT.  You should be able to feel that you are running fast, but should not be feeling any discomfort (burning legs, being out of breath, etc...).  An elite marathoner can run an entire marathon at this pace.  An experienced college runner might hold this pace for an hour in a hard training run.  You all should be aiming to be able to run 30-40 minutes at this effort level.
• Threshold: This pace is the pace that makes your blood lactate levels rise to 4.0 mmol/dl.  This pace is only slightly faster than steady, but may feel quite a bit harder. A well trained runner would only be able to hold this effort level in an all out race for around an hour. For a world class runner, this might be 1/2 marathon race pace.  For a good high school runner this might equal about 45 seconds per mile slower than 5k race pace. Because the pace feels so much harder, I will only ask you to run at this pace for around 18:00-25:00 minutes.  
• Critical Velocity (CV): CV is a newer term for a pace that people have known to train at for a long time.  This pace is slightly faster than LT and will therefore cause lactate levels to rise fairly quickly.  Trying to run 20:00-30:00 minutes at CV pace would be almost as hard as a race. Because of this, we will only do CV paced training in the form of intervals. Each of these intervals will last somewhere between 4:00-6:00 and the total number of minutes at CV pace for a given workout will equal 20:00-25:00 total minutes. For an elite runner, CV pace might be somewhere between 10k race pace and 1/2 marathon race pace.  For most of you CV pace is probably equal to a pace 20 seconds per mile slower than 5k race pace. 

For help determining the pace that you should run at, use Tinman's Running Calculator .  Please note: Where Tinman uses the term tempo we will use the term steady state

For fun, compare the pace you ran on our last steady state run to the pace that you should have been at based on your PRs and figure out how far away from track season's peak you were.

Steady State Paces, 6/18/18

• Austin - 6:16
• J.P. - 6:46
• Murphy - 7:24
• Dario - 7:30
• Emily F. - 7:30
• Trace - 7:36
• Elizette - 7:54
• Jessie - 7:56
• Tanner - 8:21
• Blanca - 8:40
• Briana - 8:47
• Emely H - 8:59
• Katelyn - 9:03
• Erick - 9:30

Neuromuscular Efficiency

Hi Team.  This is part 2 of what I think will end up being a 6 part series on the essential components you need in your training and your lifestyle in order to run at your best.  Remember, I'm doing these in order of which factor takes the longest to develop.  Last week, the topic was cardiovascular development.  Runners spend the most time on cardiovascular development because it is of utmost importance to our sport AND it takes years to fully develop.

The Importance of Neuromuscular efficiency

The next factor that you need in order to fully develop as a runner is Neuromuscular efficiency.  Let's break that word down: Neuro refers to your nervous system and Muscular refers to your muscles.  Put those terms together and add efficiency to them and I hope you can understand that this factor in your performance refers to the ability of your nervous system to control your muscles to move you forward quickly while using as little energy as possible!

I'm sure you can all imagine 2 runners in a race.  Both have the same capacity to use oxygen, both want to win just as bad. But if  Athlete A has to use 2% more energy while running at the same pace as Athlete B, then in the final 800m, Athlete A will be out of gas and Athlete B will still have something left for the kick.

How Do You Develop Neuromuscular Efficiency.  

So, you've decided that you want to be more efficient in your running.  How do you get there?  There are a number of ways.  

1. You know those drills we do?  We do those for a reason.  Those drills are designed to teach a specific neural pattern that your brain will use to control your body so that it is as efficient as possible.  Those drills also have a nice warm up component to them, but mostly when we do them, what I am wanting to see is for all of you to pay attention and do them correctly.  
2. The Principle of Specificity tells us that if you want to run fast, then you need to....well, run fast! Even more important than doing drills is the practice of incorporating low intensity fast running into your workouts on a regular basis.  Most runners do some sort of Striders or Strides throughout the weeks and months of a season.  
3. The third way to become efficient at running at a specific race pace is to practice running at that race pace....Simple, right?  The key when we are trying to develop efficiency is to practice running at that pace when we are not exhausted already.  If we want to know what it feels like to run fast effortlessly, then we need to do some practice running at specific race paces when we are fresh.  Because we want to be fresh for each repetition we do, we will take a fair amount of rest in between each one.  This type of training is commonly known as Repetition Training or Reps for short.  A very basic workout to train neuromuscular efficiency during the summer may be something like

• a light warm up, including neural activation drills
• an easy run of 20-30 minutes
• a set of running drills
• 4 striders with a jog back to the starting line as a recovery
• 8 x 200m at mile goal pace with about 90 seconds of recovery
• 10 minutes of light jogging
• 5 minutes of stretching. 
• Remember, the goal of this type of training is not to exhaust yourself, it is to teach yourself to run fast at a relaxed pace

How Often Should You Do This Type Of Training?

You should work on it a little bit every day.  No, you don't need to run 200s every day and NO, you don't need to run strides every day.  But, just about every day, you should be doing something....either drills, strides, or reps.

A Word Of Caution About Strides

Strides can be as easy or difficult as you make them.  I often see athletes on an "easy day" run 10 x 100m hard sprints with very little recovery in between reps.  In my book, those aren't strides, that is a workout designed to develop speed endurance and developing speed endurance is HARD. Therefore, athletes doing hard strides on an easy day are canceling out the recovery that the easy day should have provided.  Strides shouldn't be hard, they should be relaxed and comfortable.  Remember, you're trying to teach your body to run fast while relaxed.

The Value of Easy Runs and Mileage

The factors needed to run fast when it counts

Over the next few weeks, I'd like to lay out the training principles that have guided the way that I prepare Hughson athletes to race.  I'm going to go through the factors that are the most responsible for racing performance in order from those that take the longest to develop to those that develop relatively quickly. Briefly, in order those factors are:

• Aerobic capacity (your body's ability to use oxygen to create energy)
• Neuro-muscular efficiency (the ability of your muscles and nervous system to work smoothly together to move you along the course with as little effort as possible)
• Lactate Threshold (the ability to run fast for long periods without building up lactic acid)
• Anaerobic capacity (the ability to create energy without oxygen)
• Lactate Tolerance (the ability to tolerate the lactic acid that builds up)

When you've raised each of these factors as much as you can possibly raise them for a season and are ready to race your best, we can say you are peaking.  The goal of any season is to bring these physiological factors to their maximum at the end of the season and be ready to run your best race when it counts the most. 

Aerobic Capacity: Time to develop this - years

Physiologists have long agreed that one of the most important factors in running success is the ability of your heart to deliver oxygen to your muscles and the ability for your muscles to use it.....aerobic capacity 

There are two main factors that determine aerobic capacity.  Today, I'd like to focus on the easiest one to understand: your heart.  Your heart is responsible for pumping blood around your body.  That blood contains things your muscles need to work: Oxygen and Nutrients.  The more blood your heart can deliver to your muscles, the harder they can work.   

There are only two factors that determine how much blood your heart can pump: heart rate (the number of times your heart beats per minute) and stroke volume (the amount of blood your heart pumps with each beat). Your maximum heart rate will not increase as you get in better shape.  This means that in order to train your heart, you need to make it pump more blood per beat. 

So, how do we train the heart to do this? Simple, get the heart to spend a lot of time at maximum stroke volume.  The longer you keep your heart working at a level that causes it to reach maximum stroke volume, the better your heart will adapt.

How do I know if I'm at maximum stroke volume?

Measuring stoke volume takes some serious science equipment.  Luckily for  us, studies have been done on athletes to determine when they reach maximum stroke volume.  I'd like to share one with you that I read in grad school.  The study contained 3 groups of subjects

• Group 1 were not trained athletes
• Group 2 were athletes trained for a speed/power sport (volleyball)
• Group 3 were trained endurance athletes (college cross country runners)

These athletes were put on a treadmill and ran an exercise test where their stroke volumes were measured as the speed of the treadmill got faster and faster.  Here is what the study found

• The untrained runners reached maximum stroke volume at a heart rate of about 130 beats per minute.  Their stroke volumes then actually began to get smaller as their heart rates continued to speed up.
• The athletes who were trained for volleyball also reached their highest stroke volume at about 130 beats per minute.  Their stoke volume stayed at maximum until they reached a heart rate of about 150 beats per minute.  After this, their stroke volume values also began to decrease.
• Although the cross country runners had higher stroke volumes than the other test subjects, they did not reach maximum stroke volume until their heart rates reached 150 beats per minute.  As the treadmill continued to accelerate, the athlete's stroke volume did not decrease until their heart rates were almost at maximum.

So, what does this study mean for your guys' training?

• If you are a total newbie, your heart rate only needs to reach 130 for you to get some training benefit.
• If you're coming from another sport such as football or volleyball, you will get your maximum benefit at heart rates somewhere between 130 and 150 beats per minute.
• If you are a veteran, your most effective heart rate for training will be about 150 beats per minute.

After reading this you might think, "Dang, 150 beats per minute sounds fast!  How am I going to run with my heart going that fast?" 150 BPM really isn't that fast.  Most of you probably have maximum heart rates well over 200 and when you run a 5k race your average heart rate for the whole thing is probably around 95-98% of that maximum.  So, if you want to run at 150 BPM, you really only need to be going 75% effort.  This effort level should feel pretty easy.  

Let me re-state that:  For the majority of your running, your heart rate does not need to exceed 75% of its maximum.  Beyond that level of 150 BPM, you won't get any extra training benefit for your heart.

Why shouldn't I go over 75% heart rate for most of my training?

The simple answer to this question is: TIME. If you don't get any extra training benefit for your heart by making it beat faster than 150 beats per minute, then the only way to get a stronger training stimulus is to keep your heart rate at that 150 BPM level for more TIME. If you go too fast, it cuts down the amount of time you can spend training at the most effective level.

This is the reason that almost every elite runner in the world has spent  thousands of hours throughout her life running at a pace that doesn't cause her heart rate to exceed 75% of its maximum.  Remember, developing an elite level heart takes years and the only way to do that is to patiently run as many miles as you can at a easy to moderate pace.

If all that stuff about staying below 150 BPM is true, do I ever need to run fast in training?

Yes, you do.  There are other factors to you racing fast.  But we'll discuss those another day. 

Strength and Mobility

Please see the SAM videos on our Training and Racing Videos Page.  This is a series of increasingly difficult workouts designed specifically to support the strength and mobility needs of distance runners. 

These exercises will make up the bulk of our strength training during the 2018 season. Phase 1 is very easy, Phase 5 should be pretty taxing.  Try this progression

If you are an absolute Beginner, start with Phase 1 Easy
If you are not a beginner, but not in shape, start with Phase 2 Easy
If you are experienced, start with Phase 3 Easy.

Do these sessions 3-4 times per week.  Wait until you've done a session 7 times before progressing to the next level of difficulty.

Happy Running!
Coach B

Summer Training Guidelines

Summer mileage period begins Monday, May 28th

So, you want to have a good season?  Every step you take or don't take between now and November will go toward determining your ultimate level of success.  However, we don't want to waste any steps or do anything counterproductive.  We want to come into the season in August fit and ready to train hard.  We don't want to come in already tired.  How do we do that? You ask....Well, here you go.  Follow these simple guidelines and you'll be ready to rock in the fall.

1. Total Volume Is Very Important.  If you want to run fast for extended periods of time, you need to first build a solid base.  The large volume of easy miles you do during the summer builds strength in your bones and tendons that allows them to handle more intense training later.  Some of you have been injury prone.  For you, do doubles.  Break your daily mileage into smaller chunks so that it is not an overload.  Wanna get 7 in today?  Not feeling that great in the morning?  Run 4 easy then come back with 3 in the evening.....It's that simple. How much should you run? That will differ for each person.  In general, you should aim for 10 miles per week more than your previous season.  Check last year's mileage spreadsheet listed below and use that as your guide for how much to run this season.  I would be very happy if All 7 Varsity Boys achieve at least 500 miles this summer.  Likewise, I would also be very happy if All 7 Varsity Girls achieve at least 400 miles this summer. 
2. The Speed You Run Is Not That Important.  I know, I know..... "Coach, if I want to run fast, shouldn't I, you know, Run Fast?"  The answer during the summer is "It depends".  It depends on how you feel that day.  If you're feeling good, go ahead and accelerate for the last few miles of one of your runs....call it a progression run if you like.  If you're feeling tired or sore, just get the easy miles under your belt.  This does not mean that you should go out and do all your mileage at a super easy slow as heck jog.  I just don't want you looking at your watches every half mile on an 8 mile run to see if you're on pace to run a fast enough time. 
3. What Kind Of Other Stuff Should You Be Doing? Well, you should be doing stuff that makes you a well rounded athlete....but I'm mostly going to leave that up to you.  Apart from strides and core, you have a lot of freedom to do other sports or types of cross training.  Do you like lifting weights?  Go for it!  Like Basketball? GREAT!!! hoop it up with some buddies.  The season in high school that I went from being a 19:30 type 5k guy to a 17:09 type 5k guy, I ran about 35-40 miles a week but cycled around an additional 70-100 miles a week in the hills around the bay area.  
4. Set Weekly Goals For Yourself And STICK TO THEM! Get a calendar, fill in each of the days with the mileage you ran that day.  Did you do 40 miles last week? Good job, set the goal for 45 next week.  Did you just record 3 weeks of higher mileage than you've ever done?  No problem, set the goal to have an easy week and recover.  Add up your weekly mileage starting Monday and ending Sunday and text it to me at the end of each week.

Over the next couple of days, I will be posting more information about the upcoming summer of awesome training.  Check back frequently.  

Here are your mileage totals from last season. 

Check them out so that you can set realistic goals for this season

2017 Summer Mileage 

Page 1 is last summer

Page 2 represents the season starting the week of TVL #1 Sorry, but I stopped entering mileage to the spreadsheet after TVL finals.

Here are your mileage totals from track

2017-2018 Winter and Spring Mileage

Week 1 for this period began the first week of December

Week 22 was the week of League Finals

FLASHBACK

So, I signed up for google sync and my hard drive vomited all kinds of files up to the cloud that I'd forgotten I had on there. Many of you have heard the story about how tough guy wrestler and future United States Marine, Max Ortiz was laid low with a broken scapula by 85 pound Aubrey Fisher during a hardcore game of capture the flag against Woodland High at our 2009 cross country camp.

Notice the joke about the road having "no shoulder"

In reality, that break ruined Max's season and probably kept us out of the state meet. He came back late season but was not in shape. Surprisingly, we still finished 4th in section that year.