Speed Development: Part 3 and 4

Jay,

This is at least a related topic to what I'm seeing on your video, so I'm going for it. At the high school level, one of the biggest issues I see is heel striking. It's fairly common among boys and rampant among girls. We do a few form drills, but it doesn't necessarily seem to carry over into lap 5 and 6 of a 3200. At that point, anything we've learned from short, quick stuff just doesn't seem to be accessible to the athlete. Any suggestions?

Alan Versaw

Great question and to be honest, it's where my knowledge is simply useless - I've not worked with that athlete as a college coach. And to be honest, I do think we need to be careful with cues - if the athlete can dorsiflex the foot in laps 5,6,7,8 but has to spend all of that mental energy thinking about it then they're probably not racing to their potential; maybe this is the athlete that you simply try to build the aerobic system with at the expense of all of this other stuff.

That said, I want to challenge everyone that reads this blog to be honest about something. When is the last time you assigned something in practice where the athlete runs at 97% (again, I don't say 100% because they tend to run tight in the neck and that slows them down) then asked them to walk for 3 min?

I'm not trying to say I know it all, but I do want to point out that

A) I'm sharing this because I think distance coaches should do it
B) I think mechanics "naturally" improve when you run as fast you can
C) From what I keep hearing, Terrance Mahon is doing this and he's smarter than I and a better coach
D) Why don't more 400m and 800m runners heal strike? Is it just a function of selection - the heal strikers get moved to the 3,200m? I don't know, but I want to make sure that as distance coaches we're honest about why this happens with 8 lappers and not 1 lappers.

I share the following post by Vern Gambetta

http://www.functionalpathtrainingblog.com/2009/05/game-fit-what-is-it.html

The point I want to highlight is "sub maximal effort with the goal to finish in the shortest time possible for a certain distance." We need to have young athletes train near their max, i.e. at 120m PR pace for 200m PR pace or even 300m PR pace (yes, I know, tons of Lactate at that distance, yet if they never run a 4x400m then how will they get the Special II training that you all learned in your USATF Level II class?)

Sorry to go on a rant and obviously Alan knows more than I about elite HS distance running - his girls go to NXN in the fall and then run a superb 4x800m mark in the spring.

...but...

Alan wants to get better. I want to get better. Steve and TFloeck want to get better*. I believe in candor and questions and passionate answers, a willingness to share what you do with the athletes you work with, as well as an explaination of why you do what you do. So it's in that spirit that I conclude by suggesting that Alan ignore the sprint drills (though do tons of hip flexor work - hurdle mobilty, but also Myrtl, Cannonball and Grant Green cool-downs.

More on this and thanks to all who have commented.

*The Rhymenocerous (see below) is not welcome any longer as he came over for dinner and sacastically said, "Thank you for diner Mrs. Johnson, that was delicious. Good night."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbbxA8a_M_s

I'll throw my two cents in.

With HS kids, I've found that you almost have to seperate their running form into two (maybe three) seperate areas. Those being, their sprint mechanics and their distance running mechanics. Of course they are connected, but I can't tell you how many kids I've had who either sprint with great mechanics and have horrible distance running mechanics, or vice versa.

Of course, the goal is to have them run with good mechanics over their race distance. But, what I've generally seen is that only when an athletes sprint mechanics and distance running mechanics are in line, then they are able to run with solid mechanics over their entire race distance.

So, I kind of come at it from that angle. Depending on the kids weakness, I'll have them do short sprint work focusing on mechanics while running to work on sprint mechanics. Or, we'll work on mechanics at slower speeds. Starting with just easy jogging and progressing to faster speeds. The best way I've found for making changes is to spend a short period of time focusing on changing mechanics. For example, during 100m strides post run spend time correcting things. Then, reinforce it with cues on runs or during workouts occasionally, but not overwhelmingly so that that is all the athlete is thinking about and it becomes too mechanical.

Coach Versaw,

We have a similar issue with our team. Our coach changed some things about our training to encourage forefoot running. We now do our cool downs and easy runs barefoot on a grass field and also do our drills barefoot as well.

I made a switch from heel-striking to forefoot running a couple of years ago. It was pretty tough to have the discipline to change my running stride and deal with the sore calves for a couple of weeks. However, the change has resulted in better performance and less injuries for me.

I hope this input helps. Please reply with any questions/critiques.

Kevin Liao
Evergreen Valley HS
San Jose, CA

*** Disclaimer: Not Jay ***

Travis -

Regarding the HS girl:
Strides (preferably barefoot so she can't help but strengthen her intrinsic/extrinsic foot muscles) would certainly be beneficial.
If I may make a recommendation, I think something even as basic as very simple drills (high knees, ABCs, etc.) and very general strength work (walking lunges, core stuff, things you don't need to go to the gym to do, etc.) would help a lot as well. In my experience at least, that's where "foot speed" starts - being proportionally strong, having good form/mechanics, etc. Unfortunately, this is one area in which many girls (especially those in HS) are really quite poor.
For at least one person I know, a summer of this stuff just 2-3x/wk made a visually noticeable difference to coaches and teammates.

Keep It Real.
- The Ivory Rhino

Ha, glad I made a video. There's a nice debate on letsrun about drills that might interest you. Most of it's junk, but some bits of good arguments there.
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=3019725

Great stuff. I really feel like more distance runners could benefit from doing pure sprint work. If done correctly, the benefits are great.

To the poster asking about sprint training, I think one thing you should take from this video is the length of the sprints done. Notice, that Jay doesn't have his athlete do long sprints, like the 200's you referenced. THere's 70m sprints in there and some 120's. If you go much longer than that, it becomes more of a speed endurance workout.

My two cents, but here's my basic sprint workout progression for HS kids. I put emphasis on pure speed training during the base or early season. Most people think of building a base in only aerobic terms, but I also think it includes building a neurmuscular or pure speed base too. So, during a base phase you build a nice foundation of the extremes (lots of easy-moderate aerobic running and some pure speed work).

-Hill Sprints (60-70m uphill, start with 5 reps, increase to 8 or so)- the steepness of the hill depends on the goal. Steeper hill for strength, more gradual hill for speed. For most kids, I like a more gradual hill. Hill sprints work great to teach kids how to maximally sprint and recruit all those FT fibers without worrying about too much injury risk.

From there we progress to sprints on the track
A sample general progression looks like this (once a week or so):
6x8-10sec hill sprints
8xHS
10xHS
6x60m flat sprints
6x10sec HS + 2x20sec HS
5x70m flat sprints, 1x100m sprint, 1x150m sprint
4x70m flat sprints, 2x150m sprints

Towards the end, we are working on converting some of that speed to speed endurance. Later on, we might even do some sprints in the middle of a hard workout to work on strength endurance (i.e. muscle recruitment under heavy fatigue).

No drills or anything like that. Emphasis on good mechanics. Will take video and break it down/correct things.

hope that makes sense/helps.

Steve -

It appears that Steve is your real name. If you know where my handle comes from, it's a pretty funny coincidence. Anyhow ...

I'm not sure Travis is talking about pure sprint work. Of course he can address this better than I can, though.

The 200s Dellinger's guys were doing were essentially at mile pace, and I'm assuming there was ample rest as it was described as a "not hard" session.

Thanks Keenan. I definitely agree and those are good suggestions for sure. I hope my friend is open to more than just doing 200's. I'm curious to see if this girl incorporates more of the whole package (drills, general strength, and also the strides), without getting too crazy, what type of improvements will occur. She has run 10:33 for 3000 meters and 18:59 for 5000 meters (the 5000 being xc last fall), but seems to have a hard time running faster than 4:58 for 1500 and 2:30 for 800.

I have actually never had my athletes do more than drills, light general strength, and basic strides over the summer as far as speed development goes, but am considering doing some longer strides, such as 200's, this summer to experiment. Not quite sure yet. I think the thing I'm afraid of is over training obviously, them getting carried away with the intensity, and moving along to quickly with the progression of our fitness and intensity putting our performance at the END of the season in jeopardy. Maybe those shouldn't be concerns....but they are.

Travis -

As far as the kind of improvements that are possible with the addition of some ancillary stuff, I'll offer results of my Experiment of One as this girl sounds a lot like me in HS. My sophomore year I just ran and did a few drills/strides before workouts and races, that was it. I ended up running 4:56 and 10:14 with no kick to speak of. My senior year we all made a commitment to doing the little things and did a ton of barefoot diagonals on the grass, barefoot drills on the grass, wall-sits, pushups, situps, pullups, etc. That year I was able to close the last 600 of my PB 3200 in 1:36, and at the time I was puzzled how that wasn't enough to beat this sophomore from Winona named Garrett Heath (makes more sense now). Sure I matured a bit physically, but I was a different runner - you could tell just watching me run, and I attribute a lot of that to the time I spent working on "non-running" things.

It is indeed unfortunate that college runners are (in general) immature and prone to self-destruction when left unsupervised. If you're a 15:00 5K guy it's hard to run 200s in 35 or whatever, feel ridiculously easy doing so, not throw up over the fence, feel great afterwards and somehow convince yourself you are doing good training. But ... but ... it's not HARD!? If only they had the patience and wisdom of those of us in our mid- to late-20s!

Trained and domesticated.
- Ivory

Jay,

I have lots of questions about these speed development workouts you do every....ten days correct? About a month ago I was having a back and forth discussion about what aspects of training for speed throughout the year can be done with different athletes. For example in the Dellinger system I know they did 200 meters or 220 yards in about 28-30 seconds every Monday, basically year round. Talking to athletes who ran for Bill D, these were not hard for them, but were like strides.

My friend has a talented high school girl who is an aerobic beast, but he is afraid her limits will be directly associated with her major lack of foot speed. He is thinking of doing something he has never done, and having her do some 200's or something along those lines over the summer. Essentially extended strides.

My questions:

Do you do this year round, if you don't, what time of year or periods in training is Sara doing these workouts?

Is she phased by this work at all the next day? Do you usually prescribe a recovery day or easier workout the next day?

Would you have athletes do something similar that are not a middle distance runners, but more true distance athletes that do the 10k, 5k or are preparing for a cross country season?

How much do you worry about mechanics? Arm carriage particularly. I've always felt there are ways to try to improve mechanics, but only so much an athlete can do before they start fighting the way they were built to run most efficiently and start getting negative returns. If that makes sense.

What concerns or thought should be put into younger athletes or athletes even with a young training age doing this type of work?

Wow. Sorry, don't want to overburden you with so many questions, but like I said I was doing a lot of thinking, consideration, discussion, and research into this type of work in the few weeks before this video and am really interested in your thoughts and opinions. THANKS. -Travis