Training the Whole Athlete
by Chaz Caiado
I have only been coaching for around three and a half years now but in that time I have been lucky to work with coaches and athletes from a wide variety of events and training philosophies. Between coaching sprinters and jumpers at my alma mater, Archbishop Shaw, and aiding coach Micah Simoneaux for a season of cross country at the same school, to my experiences coaching distance runners and a couple young throwers and jumpers alongside coach Preston Curtis at John Curtis Christian school, I have come across a good bit of interesting training observations and coaching advice. I have spent some summer mornings watching the St. Thomas Aquinas cross country team prepare for their season, and I have also piqued the mind of several other top coaches including Mike Cambre who trained Pat Gavin, as well as listened to the talks of Pete Boudreaux and Ryan Gallagher at coaching clinics. The more you listen, the more you understand how deep training an athlete holistically can be.
Some coaches prefer one training method to another and I have personally witnessed what I feel works and doesn't work for athletes here in Louisiana. I have tried mileage based training and high quality based training, and I feel neither fully address the needs of the athlete. In order to help spread more information to the coaching ranks of Louisiana I present to you my own opinions on training the distance runner properly and maximizing the potential of an athlete. At the very end I will present sample schedules that coaches or individual athletes can use as guides to reaching the heights of their ability level using all ideas and workouts which have been actually used by athletes I've coached or used by myself.
To train the whole athlete is exactly what it sounds like, training an athlete in all aspects of his running, but this concept can be adapted to any of the demands of the sport the athlete is involved in. In this case we are talking about distance runners so lets look at what the distance runner needs to be successful: endurance (obviously), coordination, foot speed, strength, flexibility, and rest. When a coach approaches training to touch on all these aspects, he will produce athletes that will run at a high level.
The endurance runner has his corner stone of fitness built into his/her ability to perform at a high level for a longer time than his competition. Here in LA both boys and girls must compete at 3 miles for the state meet which for the average runner will take around 17-18 minutes for boys and 21-23 minutes for girls. Therefore, the first goal of endurance training is the ability for the athlete to complete the distance, soon followed by the goal of racing the distance, not just surviving it. The first goal is usually accomplished within 2-3 weeks depending on ability level, athletic history, etc. The next step is psychological. If you can complete the distance, you can race the distance, but the athlete must mentally prepare for the competition by learning how to be aggressive and giving an honest effort into pushing their body to its maximum. If you have an overly passive athlete, challenge them to move out from their comfort zone to see what they are capable of.
Coordination is important for the distance runner. Proper running mechanics is a big determinant in high school racing and mastering it can take some time for the young runner. Practicing arm carriage and arm swing will help the runner understand what they should feel during proper running mechanics. This can be done simply by sitting down and having the athlete pump the arms back and forth. Keeping the head forward and chin down will help the athlete keep their focus on the race as well as teach them to maintain good mechanics and not exert too much energy in unnecessary directions.
Foot speed is often overlooked by coaches, but this is a huge factor in distance running. We aren't talking about sprinter foot speed, and for most distance runners not even 400 meter sprint speed, but all athletes need to be challenged on their speed to help make them quicker runners. The best way to incorporate some speed work is doing 4-6 strides after runs, when the legs are already tired, to teach the body to move quickly even when it has already exerted itself during a full run. These don't even have to be terribly fast. Paces as quick as mile race pace for a 50-100 meter stride is usually more than enough to get the athlete pushing hard, especially in the cross country season when speed work is usually put to the side for more mileage.
Strength, while probably the least necessary of the items on the list, still has a place. Some coaches prefer to run more than add strength to their routine, but I find that five minutes of strength 2-3 times a week can pay dividends and rarely take away from runs. Many runners worry about putting on extra weight with strength training but you must assure your athletes that a little strength can go a long way. A good routine to follow is a burnout set (one set till you cannot complete the exercise again) twice a week of push ups, crunches, prisoner squats, dips on a bench, and finish it off with a standard plank. The core strength picked up from even a small routine like this will help the athlete maintain form during the competition.
Flexibility is the main cog in injury prevention. It almost always come down to an athlete being too tight when an injury crops up and stretches are almost always advised by a physical therapist. I prefer some leg swings and some sort of trunk rotation before exercise to loosen up the muscles deep in the hip girdle and lower back, and then some static stretching for hamstrings and glutes after the run will help as well. Also, stretch the calves at least once a day. Tight calves can cause issues ranging from heel soreness, shin splits, and reduction of ankle flexibility.
The last but not least part of training the distance runner holistically is rest. For young athletes, a normal distance run might be as hard as workout for them, and even more experienced runners will break down without ample relaxation after a tough session. Monitor your athletes and make sure they take enough easy/off days as necessary. Some athletes will be able to pound most days of the week without recourse, while others may need three days to recover from a hard workout.
So if you put all those ideas together you will most likely have a fit, fast team ready to race in the fall, or even spring. But how do they all tie in? I decided to write up a sample seasonal schedule to give you an idea of what you can do as a coach or athlete to train for cross country. I often found that most coaches got their training advice from successful coaches in New England or other parts of the world where they didn't have to deal with Louisiana heat which made it very difficult to follow their training to a T. I have tinkered with different training methods and have come up with a solid fall training guide for runners to adhere to. Here are a couple sample schedules to give you an idea of how to keep your athletes ready to go. Once again, these are all plans that I have actually used, and with a degree of success, either coaching adult individuals or at the respective schools I have coached at.
Early Season/Base:
Monday- Long intervals. Some teams do mile repeats this day. I find mile repeats are difficult to do in the heat, so I've done 3-4x2-3 minutes at race pace with a standing recovery (until the weather changes)
Tuesday- Easy jogging and strides.
Wednesday- Tempo run day. Depending on athlete, 2-3 miles at 3 mile race pace plus 20-30 seconds per mile.
Thursday- Easy day. Focus on stretching, recovery, and prepping for the weekend race (if there is one)
Friday- Pre-Meet or speed day. Easy jogging plus strides. Keep the strides relaxed, don't race them.
Saturday- Off or early season competition for advanced runners.
Sunday- Off or easy jog.
One thing you'll notice is that there is no long run in this training. Many coaches will disagree, but I find a long run in the summer in LA might mean the next two days of training will be difficult to achieve any quality, so if you plan on doing a long run, do it on a day that you can recover the following day by either taking off or doing some easy training. For those worried about mileage, you'd be surprised that some of the countries best teams, including some that qualified for NXN, only ran 30 mpw for the majority of the year.
Mid-Late Season:
Monday- Medium intervals. The weather should be changing and this is a perfect time to do a fartlek style interval session. Increase the number while decreasing the pace (should be working on goal race pace for the championship meets). A sample workout would be 6x500 @ goal race pace with a 100m very easy jog recovery or 8-10x300 with a very easy 100m jog recovery.
Tuesday- Easy jogging, same as before.
Wednesday- Tempo run day. The athletes should move towards all completing 3 miles instead of 2, and pace should be around 20 seconds per mile slower than race pace.
Thursday- Easy day, same as before
Friday- Pre-Meet, same as before.
Saturday- Cross Country Meet
Sunday- Off
The goal of this part of the season is to use the two workouts and the race to hone in on sound racing tactics and gain a sense of race pace.
The Peak:
Monday- Short intervals. 200s, 300s, and 400s. These are run faster than race pace with a short recovery. An 18 minute 3 miler might run 8x400 in 1:25 with 35-45 seconds standing recovery.
Tuesday- Same as before, more focus on the recovery and checking to make sure legs are feeling fresh.
Wednesday- Tempo runs are dropped in favor of a harder effort. Think 3x4 minutes at race pace with either 3 minutes standing recovery or 4 minutes jogging recovery or a time trial.
Thursday- Same as before.
Friday- Pre-Meet
Saturday- Late Season Meet
Sunday- Off
The peak should be timed right and should have a continuation of intensity up until the last week. Give yourself 3 weeks at least, 4 weeks at most for the peaking process to work under a training schedule like this. Don't abandon all workouts the week before the big meets though. Do your last good workout about 3-4 days before your final competition.
For the top athletes, a training program like this can hit around 40 miles a week during the early season period which is optimal for most high school athletes. It can be tweaked and beginner runners can run as low as 15-20 miles a week while they gain fitness. Once again, not all coaches will agree with a training schedule like this, but I encourage coaches to try it out and see for themselves how effective a simple program such as this can be.