Q:

I coach a very small team in XC and distance track. My kids do not feel as if 1 workout a week is enough (if they have a meet), or 2 workouts if no meet. They have a difficult time going easy the other days (long run day included!).

Is there a way to convince them that 4 easy days is best for them?

Could they do any other workouts on easy days that wouldn’t exhaust them?

They are overachievers and have been very successful – but have hit a plateau recently. They also play multiple sports – so they are always doubling – XC before school – volleyball after. Soccer/Basketball until March – so running is secondary until March – state is early May – so they feel like they need to ‘catch up’ and do more workouts once they can focus on track.

HELP!

A:

This is a great question that I get often. 

Tell them that the best runners in the world take it easy every other day. It’s how I trained when I set an American Record, it’s how everyone I know achieved their success.   

When you do a workout or long run, your body gets torn down. At that time, you are actually slower because your body has been damaged. If you recover properly, that’s when your body makes an advancement in fitness. If you do not recover properly, you will plateau and eventually start regressing. 

At my first overseas competition, I was stunned at how slowly the Kenyan and Ethiopian runners warmed up and cooled down. They must have been jogging 9 minute pace! They understood how their bodies worked. 

One thing they can do at the end of an easy run is a good set of core and hurdle drills to work on strength and mobility. 

I hope this helps! It takes discipline to do things right, including the hard workouts and the easy ones. 

Ann

Q:

My question is, you refer to “Core and Drills” as part of a few workouts. Do you have specific exercises you like for core and drill? I would appreciate your ideas. Thank you.

A:

There are tons of variations of these types of exercises. Let your captains get creative. This should be a team-building activity, where the captains lead the group in a set of 4-5 core exercises and 4-5 drills, lasting about 20-25 min.

• Push-ups (the best core exercise there is!)
• Plank holds
• Toe touches (lay on back with legs straight up; use core to reach up to touch toes)
• Oblique planks (lay on side and hoist yourself up on one forearm)
• Superman crunch (lay on stomach with arms extended overhead; raise arms & legs off the ground)
• Let the captains find others to try!

For Drills, here are a few ideas with links to demonstrate:

• Walking lunges (slowly with an emphasis on form and stretching); try backwards too!
• Karaoke/Carioca – Google “Karaoke drill” or “Carioca drill” to see examples
• “A” skip – like a regular skip except with an emphasis on high knees
• “B” skip – an extension of the “A” skip. Video
• Bounding – focus on pushing off (exaggerated “A” skip): Video
• Straight Leg drill: Video

Good luck!

Q:

Do you suggest any specific diet plans to follow? I have a hard time eating red meat and chicken but love fish.

A:

I’m not a nutritionist, so I shouldn’t give you full blown nutrition advice. To be honest, it’s more important that you try really hard to maintain a healthy relationship with food than it is that you follow a certain diet. While eating healthy is good for you (and for everyone!), it is easy for a Type A person (like me and many distance runners, maybe yourself!) to fall into an obsessiveness with food and what you’re eating and how much. Especially in our sport.

Focus on what your body needs to repair and stay healthy and robust – a variety of nutrients! Eat real food with real nutrients – fruits, veggies, meats (fatty and lean!), seeds, nuts, beans, dairy unless it makes your stomach hurt. Carbs and grains are OK! You need the energy. Sweet potatoes are superfoods! Change it up so you get a lot of different nutrients. Hydrate well every day. Shalane Flanagan’s cookbook Run Fast Eat Slow has some really fun recipes to try.

If you feel subconscious about how your body looks, ask your coach if your team can have the option to wear looser shorts and tank top jerseys instead of the skin tight uniforms. I even did this in college at Nebraska (see below), so I could “run free” and not worry about sucking in my stomach.

Embed from Getty Images

Honestly, if I could go back to my high school self, I would say to her: “You are training so hard and you are doing so awesome! You’re amazing and I’m so proud of you! Stop stressing about your diet and think about food as your fuel and your power. Enjoy the fact that there are many wonderful things to eat, and please have birthday cake when it’s someone’s birthday, and eat a couple of Mom’s cookies when she makes them!”

This is a very important part of your success: now and in the future; in running and in life. If you can fight this mental battle and learn to be friends with food and your body, you will have a more successful and happier career, and that is what you deserve. So while I can’t give you specific nutrition advice, I can plead with you to look at the big picture. This is something that can affect your mentality towards running and towards life. Look at having a healthy mindset as just important as your training. 

This is a huge issue in our sport, and it has been for decades. We can change it one teammate at a time. If YOU have a healthy relationship with food, you can set a good example for your teammates. Together, you can change things for your generation and the generations that follow. 

Q:

I run cross country (5K), and at a couple meets last season, I ran and felt well the first 2 miles but then hit a wall and could barely keep my legs moving. I felt totally gassed with no energy left. Have you seen this problem before and what could it be?

A:

It sounds to me like you need to try eating something small closer to race time. I struggled with the same issue in college and found that it helped a lot if I ate a banana about 30 minutes before start time. This was in addition to the oatmeal, toast, coffee and water I’d have about 3-3.5 hours before start time.

I would suggest experimenting before hard workouts and races to find the right timing and the right fuel for you. Everyone is a little different. Good lucK!

Q: Here is my problem.  I have a lot of football boys who aren’t fast enough to be sprinters and who are adamant about not wanting to be “distance” runners. They are tough enough to run the mile and 800 but don’t want to sacrifice the strength and mass for football.  As a football guy I don’t blame them.  So I really need some expert advice on how to get them ready to run the 800 or mile and maybe the 4×400 relay but not make them train, in football talk, to be “slow.” 

A: Now that’s a good challenge. What a myth it is that middle distance runners are slow. In fact, they are the best at running fast while fatigued, which is what really matters anyway.

I would ensure that you let them run fast every single track workout; but put the speed reps at the end of a tough distance workout, or at least after some distance reps, so that their legs are not fresh. My college coach used to end every workout for the mid-distance and distance runners with fast 200’s or 400’s. It really built up our ability to close well in races. Also, this will let them race each other and remove any notion that they’re training to be slow 🙂

Here are some examples that do this but at the same time keep the overall volume down:

1. 2×8, 2×4, 2×2, 2×1:
   • 2 x 800m at 1-2 seconds per lap slower than mile pace, with a 3 minute rest between.
   • 3 min rest
   • 2 x 400 fast (800 race pace) with 2 min rest between
   • 2 min rest
   • 2 x 200 all out with 2 min rest
   • 2 min rest
   • 2 x 100 all out with 2 min rest
2. Quarters followed by 3×1:
   • 6-8 x 400m with 1 min rest at mile pace (if they aren’t hitting pace, stop them at 6. One day they’ll be able to do 8. They have to pace it right from the 1st one)
   • 5 min rest (they will be tired!)
   • 3 x 100m all out with 1 min rest
3. Time Trials followed by 4×1:
   • 800m time trial (all out like a race)
   • 5 min rest
   • 400m all out
   • 5 min rest
   • 4 x 100 all out with 1 min rest between
4. Hills: Take them to a hill if you can, preferably one that takes 20-30 seconds to run up. Have them run up the hill hard 15 times and jog back down to the start each time. To keep the intensity up, each athlete takes turns leading, and pushes the pace when it’s his/her turn. This is a great group workout where they can bond and push each other.
5. Descending ladder:
   • 800m at 1-2 seconds per lap slower than mile race pace
   • 2 min rest
   • 600m at mile race pace
   • 2 min rest
   • 400m at 800m race pace
   • 2 min rest
   • 200m all out
   • 2 min rest
   • 100m all out
6. If they’re ready for more, start #5 with a 1000m to add more volume.
7. 8 x 200m with 2 min rest. Run them fast! Let them race each other.

Q: I am a cross country and track runner currently in my junior year of high school. Should I take a break form running after every season, and if so, for how long? I currently just finished my cross country season, and my body is pretty beat up. Additionally, I was wondering your thought on doing double days in the winter and spring track season to put in extra miles; is that a good idea?

A: You should absolutely give your body a break. You should take at least a week off from running altogether. Then spend a week doing 2-4 mile light jogs, maybe 4 times that week. If you still are feeling pretty beat up, do another light week just like that. Eat plenty of food and drink lots of water, and even do some yoga or get a massage if you can. You should feel ready to go in a few weeks.

Doubles: I’m not opposed to doubles (running twice a day), but it’s only necessary if you’re doing 55 or more miles per week, and you’re running out of space to get more miles in. The key is to add mileage at no more than 10% each week. So if you run 40 miles one week, the next week shouldn’t be any more than 44 miles. A sample progression of weekly mileage increase, with a “down” (light) week every 4th week:

1. 30
2. 33
3. 37
4. 20-25 (down week)
5. 41
6. 45
7. 49
8. 20-25 (down week)
9. 54
10. 59
11. 65
12. 20-25 (down week)

As you increase your mileage by 10% each week, add 1 mile to your long run, and get your other additional miles from a second run one day (once you get to 55 miles or more), and/or by doing a 2 mile warm up and cool down on workout days instead of a 1 mile warm up and cool down. You can also add a mile here and there by extending the length or your workouts that week – for example, you can increase your tempo run from 3 to 4 miles.

Good luck!

Q:

We are going to start optional winter practices in January, but we will only meet 3 days per week. I am wondering what a realistic weekly mileage expectation is when kids are only running 3 days? I understand increasing weekly mileage by no more than 10% per week, however I am not sure where to start kids, some of whom have never run before.  

A:

Let’s make the most of the 3 days you meet with the kids and encourage them to run some easy mileage on their own on the other days of the week.

For the 3 days you have them together, focus on these workouts:

1. Hill workout
2. Tempo run
3. Longer easy run

Hill Workout:

1 mi warmup jog (or 10 minutes)

25 minutes of running uphill hard and jogging down(For kids who are new to running, start them at 15 minutes)

1 mi cooldown jog (or 10 minutes)

NOTES: Grass hills are great, maybe if you can take them to (or they can run to) a hilly park, but road or sidewalk hills work too – you just have to watch out for traffic. A hilly park is ideal because it’s safe and hopefully there is more than one hill to choose from, so they don’t get too bored. Make sure to include the warm up and cool down, as it’s important for injury prevention AND adds easy mileage, Make this fun! Put them in groups based on fitness level, and tell them to take turns leading up the hill.

Tempo Run:

1 mi warmup jog (or 10 minutes)

3 mile tempo run at Tempo Pace OR 20 minutes at “tempo run effort”

1 mi cooldown jog (or 10 minutes)

NOTES: In the workout plans we offer, we talk about how to determine athletes’ Tempo Pace. You might not get to do this until track season, so just explain to them that “tempo run effort” is about 85% of full-on race effort. And then let them run. If they end up racing each other, it’s OK. The point is that they’re running hard for about 20 minutes without stopping! I pretty much raced all of my tempo runs in high school.

NOTES PART 2: For kids who are brand new to running, the Tempo Run is very difficult. You could group those kids together and instead have them do a “fartlek” (German for speed play), where they run at a sustained pace (not all out) for 3 minutes, then jog for 2 minutes, and repeat 4 times. This will help them work up to being able to do a tempo run

Long Run:

For kids who have never run before, they can start at 30 minutes. Tell them they can run slow, they just need to keep going. Don’t tell them it’s OK to walk (they’ll walk if they have to anyway) – tell them the goal is to keep running for 30 minutes. This is part of being a distance runner – mentally dealing with the long slow distance run!

For kids who have run before (let’s say, finishing a 5K is no problem for them), you can start at 45 minutes. Each group can increase by 10% each week.

I would START practice on this day with everyone doing some core work together – pushups, crunches and holding plank. I would also challenge the kids to do core every night before going to bed on their own, working up to 50 pushups, 50 crunches and 1 minute of plan – and then setting a new goal after that!

I hope this was helpful. Good luck!