WHY YOU SHOULD SOMETIMES GO ALL-OUT IN TRAINING My favorite running book is John L. Parker’s Once a Runner. In one scene, Cassidy’s coach prescribes a seemingly impossible workout of 60 × 400m, performed in three sets of 20 repeats. Parker does a marvelous job of taking the reader along for the mental and physical…
THE LOST ART OF RECOVERING BETWEEN TRAINING CYCLES I see a bad habit forming in many runners: the lack of a recovery cycle after their big races or racing seasons. Today, far too many are simply finishing one race (often a marathon) and immediately starting to train for the next one. You can get away…
THE MOST UNDERRATED ‘TALENT’ FOR DISTANCE RUNNING SUCCESS IS DURABILITY I always thought I was talented. I won my state championship in the mile. I ran 53 seconds for 400m and my VO2 max was tested at more than 76 ml/kg/min (quite high). I was also driven, loved training and was competitive. And even at…
WHILE DIFFERENT IN STYLE, THE BEST SHARE SIMILAR CHARACTERISTICS Our sport has had several truly great coaches over the last few decades. Each has his or her own style — some militaristic, others more Zen, all caring deeply about their athletes. Their training programs, while all sound, are as varied as their personalities. I’ve been…
THE FUN CONTINUES WITH TWO GREAT WORKOUTS Last month, I wrote about two of my favorite “quarter” (one lap of the track) workouts: Stamina Quarters and Speed Quarters. Here I detail my other two favorite quarter workouts: Sprint Quarters and Combo Quarters. SPRINT QUARTERS The sprint zone is, well, your sprinting pace. For most runners,…
WHY I CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF THEM–AND NEITHER SHOULD YOU. Since high school, I’ve loved running quarters. There’s just something beautiful about running one lap of the track fast, taking a recovery break, then doing it again. I’ve certainly lost count of how many times I’ve run quarters, but they’ll always be one of my…
A PERFECT MIDSUMMER WORKOUT The Mile Cut-Down is one of the best workouts you can do this time of the year. No matter if you’re in the middle of your summer 5K to half marathon road race season, coming back after a break from a spring/early summer peak race or beginning your buildup for your…