Understanding the Puzzle of Coaching Distance Runners
What’s the best way to train distance runners?
It’s an answer I’ve been searching for my whole life.
After one of my runners wins a big race or sets a massive personal best I‘ve been foolish enough to think I’ve found it. And after my runners sustain an injury or drops out of a race I’ve been naive enough to think I’ll never know.
There are a lot of ways to train runners. Run high miles at low-to-moderate intensity is a popular method. Run low mileage at very high intensities, is another. Take a polarized approach. Live like a clock. Run by feel. Run by pace. Be guided solely by heart rate. Run hills, both up and down, as quick as possible. Lift weights. Don’t lift weight. Do lots of core work. Never miss a weekly long run. Run sprints. Do plyometrics. Live full time at altitude. Cross train often. Race a lot. Race sparingly.
The evolution of training methods are often a story of application rather than content.
Historically, Lydiard advocated 100 mile week of “marathon-style” base training for 6 months to set the foundation for 6 days-a-week of speed workouts for the final 12 weeks directly proceeding a racing period. Igloi had his runners doing interval training on the track twice-a-day year round.
In the modern era, Schumacher sends his athletes to altitude for long periods, they race sparingly and run a steady diet of “Jerry Miles” for the majority of their training volume. Lananna has developed multiple champions and Olympians from a year-round emphasis of fast 150s, 2-3 workouts a week, moderate training volumes, and dedicated weight training programs.
Early in my coaching career, I was obsessed with find the one “right” method, but time, experience and study has taught me this:
The roads runners have taken to the top aren’t really as important as the fact they’ve arrived.
Winning is the standard objective in athletic contests, including footraces, but how each athlete and team goes about winning is unique. It would be simpler if there were one perfect training method, and the runner who applied themselves the most diligently to it always won races and set records. But that is fantasy, and I am glad it is.
Nothing much is new in distance running training methods. Today’s revolution in distance marks can be explained in 3 words: quality, quantity, and frequency.
Top runners at all levels are covering more miles, running them faster, and doing it more often compared to the past.
But it’s not all about the work. The rest between the work matters too. Our understanding about the importance of recovery is better than ever and it is allowing runners today to better absorb their training.
Also, there are more opportunities available to run fast than ever before. And don’t forget the influence of significant advancements in foam compression rates in footwear. And let’s not be blind to performance enhancement supplements either — both legal and illegal.
All these factors add up to make now a very exciting time in distance running history.
Despite all these advancements the foundation of racing success still depends on the proper training doses, which depends entirely on the runner doing the training. This is the heart of the distance training puzzle coaches will always face: understanding the individual whom you coach. It’s an extraordinarily difficult task and the core challenge of coaching. A teacher is never too smart to learn from their pupils. In fact, much of a coach’s education is learned from working with their pupils.
To develop an understanding of human nature, behavior and relations is the ultimate education in life. Why we each respond, act, and interact as we do with others and our environment is one of life’s mysteries. Like all good mysteries it’s complex, with only small parts of the whole known at any given time.
How to train, prepare, compete, relate, respond, inspire and advance a person or a group of people is a question which keeps me coaching through the rare highs and frequent lows. And this might be the true puzzle of coaching distance runners: There are no final right answers, only best-right-now answers.
Any questions? Direct Message me on twitter.
Thx for reading. | jm