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Average Joe
Miler
One Coach’s Approach to one of Track’s Middle Distance Races
Winter Clinic 2003
Mike Hill
Winter Park High School
Mhill927@prodigy.net
I. Factors in Having Athletes Run the Mile
A.
Lots
of Athletes out
·
How
to do it?
·
Why
do it?
·
When
to do it?
B.
Success
Attracts!
·
What
is success?
·
Promoting
your success
·
Prolonging
your success
II. Yearlong Approach for Your Milers
·
Summer
·
Cross
Country Season (Fall)
·
Winter
·
Track
Season
III. Track Specific Approach (What works
for Winter Park)
·
Types
of Workouts (decide who should run what)
·
Progression
throughout the season
·
The
importance of Strength
·
The
importance of Speed
IV. What to do Now (and in the future)
·
Set
Realistic Goals
·
Coaching
Philosophy Continuity
V. Some of My Favorite Workouts (mostly stolen from smarter coaches)
·
Simulated
Mile/Simulated Half
·
Sweet
Heart Relays (multiple variations)
·
800
meter workouts (yearlong progression)
·
“Toughness”
(late season)
It is almost always easier to find 4 great milers when you have 50 to choose from instead of 20 - it’s simple math. The more kids you have come out, the higher the probability of finding an athlete or two. The question is, how can you get them out?
First of all, we don’t have “cuts” or tryouts at all. If you come out and are on time and give an honest effort every day, you’re on the team. We in turn try to schedule open races and/or jayvee track meets to accommodate the additional runners. I try to convince new athletes to give us 2 weeks worth of their time to start out with. If they come for 2 weeks and decide not to stay, that’s fine. I’d say less than 1% of those who come out for at least 2 weeks quit.
Secondly, we try to reward improvement across the board. I’m not talking about a kid who comes out and improves from a 10-minute mile to an 8:30, we expect all the kids who come out to be able to break 6:00 by the end of the season. That’s a lot of work to put in time wise, and you should set up a goal time for your athletes, that is a challenge, yet attainable. A reward system can be very simple to set up. We set up times in the three distance events that are determined before the first meet (after some practice time) that are attainable for each athlete. When they break that time, it gets moved to a faster time proportionate to their level of improvement. Something as simple as an ice cream bar (we call them PR bars) works wonders! J
One of the other things that we do is break down the mile times by class. This way if a freshman is running a good time (5:20 say) but overshadowed by some of the upper classmen, he has a little part of the spotlight. This list is posted in a place of prominence and the kids will really battle to be the number 1 soph or junior if they aren’t number 1 for the squad. We also have frosh/soph events built into most of our big invitational meets.
Finally, keep in mind, just because your athlete is a cross country runner doesn’t mean he has to run the 3200 or the 1600, they could drop down to the 400 or 800 and conversely just because a kid thinks he’s a sprinter, doesn’t mean they can’t run the 800 or the 1600. It’ll probably take some convincing, but I have been surprised more than once.
Only with time (usually) can you expect to build success at a particular school. I believe the number one thing that contributes to success is coaching stability. It doesn’t guarantee it, but it is a huge step in the right direction.
Funny thing about success is that it is one word that means many things to many people. Once your program (milers) start having success, then you must promote it by any and all means possible. Simple bulletin boards in a strategic place on campus are amazing tools. Pictures, times, and updates for everyone to see. You prolong this success by simply proving to the athletes exists! Show them how they improved from month to month, year to year. Keep track of stuff; young people eat that kind of thing up! Make others want to be a part of what you as a coach have to offer them.
YEARLONG
APPROACH FOR YOUR MILERS
We think of our year starting when track is over (late May) and it has four easily identifiable slots of time. Summer, Cross Country Season, Winter, Track Season. The general approach (at WPHS) is as follows: (these are broad/general terms)
· Base building period, lots of miles, strength, and strides
Cross Country
· Lots of miles, strides, racing then pacing, some phasing for races
· After a minimal break (mostly mental) another extended base building time, strides
· Endurance, Speed, the natural finish and peak time of the year
Early in the year I like to find out what the athletes think they want to run, and then find out what their strengths are. Usually, the kids like what they are good at so it’s easy to decide. During the first 3-4 weeks of our track season we have a series of time trials, 600, 1200, and 2400 meters. Based on how an athlete places (and other workouts of course) you can get a feel for who the 4/8 guys are, the 8/16 guys are, and the 16/32 group. From there I believe you most take a slow steady progression in workouts based on their “race”. For the mile, strength and speed both hold a high level of importance. Usually, each athlete has a tendency to be better at one or the other, and it is your job to encourage his strength and develop his weakness. Many coaches have opinions on 400 repeats and 800 repeats etc. and I have used several different approaches. I believe however, the importance of you body understanding what your race and goal pace are is very important. If you have a kid who CAN run 5:20 and WANTS to run 5:00 then they need to know what 80 second quarters feel like AND 75 second ones. There enlies the cross over of speed and strength. Today’s speed begets tomorrow’s strength! Some of my favorite workouts are attached to this packet.
Do whatever you can to get bodies out! By the time meets roll around, the chaff will have blown away if your workload is honest. Set realistic goals for your milers, 6:00 for new runners, 5:00 for decent veterans, sub 4:40 for strong veterans. Reward and encourage! It is of great benefit if the school’s cross country coach is also the distance coach during track season. If you have a group of athletes whose cross country coach believes with all his heart in the Lydiard approach, and then someone else has them doing 200 meter repeats as their sole preparation for the 3200 during track, there will be problems! J
Purpose – Find out approximately what an athlete can run in the mile
Example: For a 5:00 miler (75 second 400’s)
400 (72) 3:00 rest
800 (2:24) 2:00 rest
400 (72) 1:00 rest
400 (72) 1:30 rest
400 (72) done
If an athlete is capable of running 5:00 he’ll average around 3 seconds faster per lap in this workout. To find out what they can run, average their 400 laps (all 6) and add about 3 seconds to it.
200 (29) 3:00 rest
400 (60) 2:00 rest
200 (28) 1:00 rest
400 (60) walk across field to 200M mark
200 (fast) done
Purpose – Disguise a 400 repeat workout as a relay race. (It can apply to an 800 repeat workout too!)
Example: First break your group up into 2 or 3 smaller groups. Next, within each group pair up fastest with slowest, kind of like the basketball brackets (1-16, 2-15, 3-14, etc) Tell the athletes how many repeats they’ll be doing (say 8 each at just under mile race pace), the rest in when their partner is running and then offer multiple ways of “winning” from each group. Such as,
GRAND PRIZE - Finish First (combined overall times)
FIRST PLACE - Predict your team’s overall time (nearest second)
SECOND PLACE - Predict your own split average (tenth of a second)
Purpose- To get your athlete to run (or break) 2:00 in the 800
Example: This starts 10 weeks and 10 days before our Conference meet.
Week 1 5 x 200M in :30/:30 rest
Week 2 6 x 200M in :30/:30 rest
Week 3 6 x 200M in :30/:30 rest, 5:00 rest, then 2 x 200M in :30/:30 rest
Week 4 7 x 200M in :30/:30 rest
Week 5 7 x 200M in :30/:30 rest, 4:00 rest, then 2 x 200M in :30/:30 rest
Week 6 8 x 200M in :30/:30 rest
Week 7 8 x 200M in :30/:30 rest, 4:00 rest, then 2 x 200M in :30/:30 rest
Week 8 9 x 200M in :30/:30 rest
Week 9 9 x 200M in :30/:30 rest, 3:30 rest, then 2 x 200M in :30/:30 rest
Week 10 10 x 200M in :30/:30 rest
If your athlete can do week 10, they can run 2:00 or even a bit better. Essentially, whatever they can average in week 10’s workout per 200 is about what you can expect from them to average per 200M in an 800M race at that point in time.
Purpose – Prove to the athletes that they are tougher than they think. A real “rah-rah” type workout used to get focused for post season.
Example:
2400M at 3200M race pace 4:00 rest
1200M at 1 second per lap faster than 3200 race pace 2:00 rest
800M at 2 seconds per lap faster than 3200 race pace 1:00 rest
400M in as fast as they can go with what’s left in the tank
1000M at 1600M race pace 3:00 rest
600M at 2 seconds per lap faster than 3200 race pace 3:00 rest
600M at 2 seconds per lap faster than 3200 race pace 1:00 rest
400 in as fast as they can go with what’s left in the tank
Mr.
Meant To…
Mr. Meant To has a comrade,
And his name is Didn’t Do.
Have you ever met these
fellows?
Did they ever call on you?
These two fellows live together
In a house of “Never Win”
And I am told that it is
haunted,
By the Ghost of Might Have
Been!
THE
TRUE VALUE OF…
Imagine there is a bank that credits
your account each morning with $86,400.
It carries over no balance from day to day. Every evening it deletes whatever part of the balance you failed
to use during the day. What would you
do? Draw out every cent of course! Each of us actually has a bank. Its name is TIME. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it write off, as lost, whatever
you failed to invest to a good purpose.
It carries over no balance. It
allows no overdraft. Each day it opens
a new account for you. Each night it
burns the remains of the day. If you
fail to use the day’s deposits, the loss is yours. There is no going back.
There is no drawing against the “tomorrow”. You must live in the presence of today’s deposits. Invest it so as to get from it the up most
in health, happiness, and success. The
clock is running. Make the most of
today.
To realize the true value of a YEAR,
ask a student who has failed a grade.
To realize the true value of a MONTH, ask a mother who gave birth to a
premature baby. To realize the true
value of one WEEK, ask the editor of a weekly newspaper. To realize the true value of one HOUR, ask
the lovers who are waiting to meet. To
realize the true value of one MINUTE, ask the person who missed the train. To realize the true value of one SECOND, ask
the person who just avoided an accident.
To realize the true value of a MILLISECOND, ask the person who won a
silver medal in the Olympics. Treasure
every moment you have! And treasure it
more because you shared it with someone special, special enough to spend you
time. And remember time waits for no
one. YESTERDAY is history, TOMORROW is
a mystery, TODAY is a gift – that’s why it is called the PRESENT.
