Cool Downs for Lincoln

Posted on August 23, 2009 by CoachJay

I owe my good friend Oscar Ponce, who is profiled in the latest issue of Running Times, an email detailing the cool down progressions I think his team is ready for. I decided to do this as a post because:

a) intelligent people can comment and help my refine these cool downs.
b) it gives me a chance to highlight what a team that has been doing GS for over a year will do in year two.
c) I want to be able to link back to this post in the future as I have a feeling a year from now I’ll get more coaches asking the same thing.

My general thoughts on cool downs are basically Mike Smith’s thoughts on cool downs.

1. You can get in work after the running and since “all work is good work” as Mike likes to say, this is an obvious way to improve work capacity.

2. By doing a longer, sometimes challenging cool down after a hard workout, the athlete may feel better the next day in training because of the work. Counter intuitive? Sort of, but that leads to…

3. A good cool down for a distance runner always focuses on blood flow and big movements, facilitating recovery. A good cool down sends an anabolic (building up) signal to the body, which helps to balance the catabolic (tearing down) that is inherent in distance running. A good cool down for female distance runners also has some anabolic work in it to up-regulate HGH and testosterone.

The three cool downs I use, in order of easiest to most challenging are:

Myrtl
Cannonball
Grant Green

You can click each of cool downs above to watch a video; at the bottom of this post are links to download the videos in iPod/iTunes compatible .m4v files.

But here’s the deal – Myrtl is way too easy for Oscar’s athletes because they’ve been doing GS daily for over a year. Myrtl might be a great thing to add in addition to the Lunge Matrix (LM) and Lateral Lunge (LL) warm-ups, but if they just got off a bus or had driven longer than 20 minutes then Myrtl is a great way to open up the hips before the warm-up run.

Cannonball is also easy, yet may be the right thing after easy days since Oscar likely has his team doing something like the pedestal or other light GS.

Grant Green is challenging, especially if it following a leg circuit like SV Leg Circuit or the Vern Gambetta Leg Circuit, but after a hard workout you can still do challenging GS work, assuming the subsequent easy/recovery days are easy.

I think I’ll leave it to the readership to ask questions at this point as I’m sure there are obvious questions I’m failing to address. But the one thing I promise you all is that I’ll video the Lionel Hampton cool down at practice ASAP. Why? It has become our default recovery cool down, the thing we do after a second run and when the athletes were in Europe it was something they did after races. Linonel Hampton isn’t a short cool down, but it’s not hard.

Here is a PDF of all of the cool downs I use (as well as the warm-ups and some other stuff).

Downloads (all .m4v files for iTunes/iPod)

Myrtl (size – 68 MB)
Cannonball (size – 70 MB)
Grant Green (size – 87 MB)

This entry was posted in For Everyone and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.
  • dracey

    Jay,
    I have heard you mention uphill strides before. What is the rational behind them? How would you implement them into a training schedule? Thanks.

  • CoachMK

    Without being too much of a wise-guy, I just wanted to make sure everyone knows Jay is not supporting the use of HGH, rather he is stating these exercises increase the natural production of HGH :)

    Also, I think it's great to work on the progression of these exercises. There's a progression to everything we do at practice and some of it is obvious, volume, intensity, etc, but we also need to remember that all the GS stuff needs to progress as well. Thanks again for all you do Jay!

    Mark

  • http://coachjayjohnson.com CoachJay

    Thanks Mark.

    HGH, just like testoterone and EPO, is a naturally occurring hormone in the human body.

    Obviously I am not suggesting people take supplemental HGH, testosterone or EPO, yet I do think everyone who takes the time to read this blog should understand that that part of the reason General Strength (GS) helps is a runner is that it starts a cascade of biochemical messages, including the up-regulation of HGH, that will eventually improve performance.

    To the biochemical experts, feel free to hop in here with links to primary research articles if you'd like. I will get a list together later this fall.

  • http://coachjayjohnson.com CoachJay

    Yes, I love doing work at a prescribed pace – often 800m and 1,500m pace – up a gentle grade, roughly 1% or 2%. Sara did a ton of this during the fall and rarely ran 800m pace or 1,500m pace on the track; the hill strides will be the first big change in Renee's training when she arrives in Boulder as is not only has both a nueromuscular and metabolic component, but for most athletes it's the best way to teach and/or reinforce good running posture. Why? The natural tendency is to lean a bit into the hill, yet if you can get the athlete to run “up tall” up the hill it will get them into a position that will eventually translate to erect running on the track. Plus, this is a great sport specific way to strengthen the posterior chain…so make sure to keep the volume and intensity moderate to low and make sure they have done some GS work to prepare the posterior chain – the cools above a enough – before you have assign the strides.

    I will discuss this in greater detail, yet I must say that you asking the question on this post is interesting given that Oscar has some ideal grades/hills near his school for this type of work.

    Dave, thanks for the question and to everyone else, you can follow Dave's team this fall in this series that Running Times is doing –

    http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=…

  • marcluko

    i've been doing these cool downs and circuits for 2 weeks now and as a high school athlete i would like to thank you for this. I can feel the difference in my hip flexors and my whole lower body. i was just curious what you would have a high school cross country boy do besides GS to get stronger. Any circuits? Bodyweight exercises? Stability Ball?

  • billzeebub

    Hi guys, slightly off topic question perhaps, but hopefully i'm not steering us too far away from the cooldown topic…..

    Q. Compressionwear (socks/leggings/stockings) and icebaths are two of the methods that we use, which aren't employed widely in the UK yet. The socks/stockings are seen as more of a fashion accessory and very few athletes outside university will have access to a purpose made ice bath.

    I used ice baths in my youth and although compression gear wasn't around back then. We never had an icemaking machine, and still don't, as weather over here is never warm enough to need one, so we employ the same methods after training that i was using 20yrs ago. We just use anything from icecream tubs to washbowls to freeze large blocks of ice, which we then break up and drop into a waist high garbage bin full of cold water………it's not perfect, but it's better than nothing and i feel it worked wonders for me.

    Do you guys encourage your athletes to use both, either or neither to assist their post workout recovery?

  • Rhymenocerous

    I don't think compression socks had been invented yet when I was trying to run fast but ice baths were frequently employed by myself and my associates. Again, n = only a handful of male distance runners aged 16-18, but we trained much more vigourously than our peers (at least the ones I'm aware of) and were rarely, if ever, injured. Was it because of the ice baths? I don't know. It's all compost.

    P.S. During the track season we had access to an ice machine in the training room and a 32-gallon trash bucket so we were able to make a proper ice bath. During cross country and the off-season I'd fill my bath tub at home with the coldest water I could get out of the tap plus four trays of cubed iced from the freezer. Obviously my methods were not ideal but I think as long as you are uncomfortable (but not in agony) for the first couple minutes before everything goes numb it is doing the job.

    ” … and besides as fly fisherman we would be waist deep in cold water all day, where immorality is faced with some real but, as it turned out, not insurmountable problems.” – Norman Maclean

  • mgooch

    Compression garments have received significant publicity in recent years. The stated benefits being generally a reduction in muscle vibration…which over time supposedly leads to reduction in fatigue (when worn during competition), as well as, increased venous return. The increase in venous return has been touted as both a benefit to competition as well as to recovery allowing blood to be returned to be re-oxygenated more quickly. Some companies (ie CWX) have also included structure in the compression which they claim has a similar benefit to kenisio-taping.

    I haven't used compression during competition but regularly wear a compression sock (with a graduated compression) following long or hard runs…and I have at times felt a difference. Now this could completely be in my head… but my legs generally feel better following runs after which I put on the compression socks. So as of right at this moment… I would say that I am starting to be a believer in the benefits of a wearing a graduated compression sock for recovery.

    Matt

  • billzeebub

    Cheers Rhymes & MattG.
    I'm going to keep the ice baths going, with the added bonus that in winter, it's cold enough here to freeze any trash buckets we fill with water :(

    I've done a fair amount of research into compression gear and i'm pretty much sold on the benefits during recovery, so i'll definately have the group continue to use it……..as for competition benefits, yes, i'm sure there are, but for every event from 400m-Marathon??

    In the UK you see athletes wearing them solely for competition, without having a clue what the benefits of doing so actually are…..like i said previously, the socks are a fashion accessory for most girls, although the lads who wear them have usually taken the time to do the research (as their peers will often take the mick out of them at first, and they need a bit of science to back up their desicion to start dressing like Paula Radcliffe).

    My question really came from me wondering how you guys use icebaths and compression in often much warmer climates than we have here. Often, the compression socks are seen by young athletes as a way of keeping warm during races, rather than understanding the recovery benefits, so i try to ensure that we use them properly, rather than just using them to look nice.

    Do many other coaches use icebaths systematically for their whole group? if not, is this seen as the athletes responsibility or do they not believe the benefits are enough to warrant icebath sessions post workout?
    Do many coaches steer the athletes towards using compression wear 'properly' for post workout recovery, rather than just for 'competition?

  • Rhymenocerous

    As I said before, the compression socks were just coming into the sport as I was going out so my experience is limited. I've worn them running under tights on really cold days in the winter (avg. low Nov-Mar is -10C where I'm from) as well as for a couple months after I blew out my soleus. Honestly, I didn't notice much of a difference but perhaps I was doing it wrong. Chris Solinsky (7:36/13:12) has taken to wearing them for sessions and races this year and feels they help with recovery. Mo Farah seems to be an advocate as well. The fact that Radcliffe has worn them for so long says a lot for me personally. Sure, the plutonium necklace is a bit of a gimmick, but she is one of the more meticulous athletes out there and, to steal a line characterizing Bob Kennedy, she probably doesn't spit without thinking how it affects her running. This is pathetic, but where I get the most use out of compression socks these days is travel. I do a 12-hr. drive a couple times a year and will wear them then as well as anytime I fly. I have certainly noticed a difference there.

    Regarding icebaths, it can be impractical to get an entire HS team in the tub after a hard session but the good coaches I've seen certainly are strong advocates during the season and then when the team decreases in size before major meets (conference, regionals, state, etc.) they are able to actually force the remaining good kids to get in the trash can for 10 mins. or so. Usually, most of these kids have been icing extracurricularly a bit during the season so it's not a foreign stimulus. I helped out with a HS team this spring and we brought a trash can and a cooler full of ice to the state meet for a couple athletes that were doubling. Though, the head coach has run professionally for 10+ years so perhaps this sort of attention to detail is not typical of most HS programs.

  • billzeebub

    Cheers Rhymes,
    that's pretty much as i suspected with the use of icebaths by teams, so thanks for that insight. I remember seeing a photo from one of this years big xc races over there, possibly NCAA or Regionals, where i believe the girls from Rice had ice bound to thier legs, post-race, by using what looked like plastic clingfilm. I pressume this is also fairly common practice by some coaches.

    Two of the guys in my group are currently on scholarships in the USA, and neither are 'allowed' to lift or do any organised plyos, GS or drills sessions. They run 1500m/mile races without doing ANY 800m/1500m paced workouts and EVERY distance run is on the roads in training, which has brought on injuries to both.
    Finding this site has been a breathe of fresh air to me and i'm so glad to hear that it's not like that at every Uni over there, as we've had a pretty negative experience with their current coach. After several years out there, both guys are running slower than they were when aged 17/18……but hey, that's what we get for believing everything the coach promised when we visited him before signing up!

    As for the socks, i'll do a little research into the benefits gained from wearing them during competition, as i've only ever read up on the recovery benefits.

    I think you'll find Paula has been wearing a Kryptonite necklace in championship races, just to give the Africans a chance ;)

  • Rhymenocerous

    Not sure how to abbreviate your name, Bill? Or can I just call you Satan?
    Anyhow, I'd be interested to hear where your lads are running in the NCAA. I have a couple guesses. If you'd like, you can email me at keenanrobbins at gmail. I do understand if you'd prefer to keep that private though.
    Their experience sounds pretty typical as it seems like many coaches read 'Run to the Top' and stopped there. In my college experience, the strength program consisted of going into the weight room at the beginning of the season and walking through a bunch of lifts with whatever strength coach drew the shortest straw and got stuck with the XC team. From that point on, the only reason for going into the weight room was to pick up PowerBars, sip some premium draught Gatorade, perhaps do a few situps, or settle some bet that came up on the run about how many pullups you could do. It didn't seem very organized and the head XC coach didn't seem to be a huge proponent of lifting – “If you're going to do squats, do four.” To be fair, as far as I know things got better down the road and a couple years later there was a regime change in the weight room and one of the strength coaches worked quite closely with our MD coach, who was (and is) much more open to non-running things that will help one run faster. It should also be said that my experience revolved around a group of 19 year-old guys who couldn't be bothered to lift for several reasons, foremost of which: the dining hall was about to close and there were several Big Lebowski scenes to review before the evening was out. Though I think being 19, being really hungry after practice with a deadline to obtain already-paid-for nourishment, and The Big Lebowski are staples of pretty much every college experience, so it wouldn't surprise me if college strength programs really suffer (or cease to exist) without a coach who is totally bought in and impresses upon his athletes the importance of such endeavours.

  • billzeebub

    Sorry, the name's a bit of a mouthfull, so just Bill, Lucifer or hotpants will do.

    Sent you a mail via gmail.com.

  • JohnRun

    What do you use your “Dirty Warm Up” for? What do you think is the ideal warm-up and/or stretching routine on easy days? Thank you!