With all the runners I have coached, assisted or guided my underlying philosophy has been the same. (Even with myself however I am getting a third party to guide me and they have the same philosophy) Build the base , get it solid and then fine tune it or to continue the analogy, start to add the parts that will super charge it... I spend time with the athlete building a mileage base and a tempo base. Getting them to be comfortable at a slightly faster rate than they would normally run at.
You can't go out and start churning out quality sessions or quality times in races without first putting the time in to make sure that your body can cope with it. Sure you can smash out a blinder session and maybe even churn out one brilliant ball tearing race but then you have to recover. A runner (person) with the better base (more days, weeks, months and even years ) under their belt will recover a lot quicker and repeat the performance over someone who does not or has not put in the same time.
The longer I run for and the longer I am on the planet the more simpler I see running as an action. It is possible to add small elements of hard efforts while you build a good base without having to put in structured sessions of 400s, hill repeats or the like.
For instance during the longer runs, which build endurance and strength in the legs to go the long haul it is possible to work the hills a little harder while you are running. Make a conscious effort to lift and drive up the hills. This has two benefits that I see straight off the cuff. The first is that is does not take much to make the hill harder by increasing your pace and holding it over the hill. This will raise the heart rate, increase lactic and basically hurt (be the wombat)secondly if you keep doing this you train yourself to lift on a hill. This in time can become a subconscious effort, your body just does it because that's what you do on the hill. When you come to racing even the smallest increase on a hill can have devastating affects on your opposition. This is also a time when you will naturally want to slow down so make again simply by making an effort to maintain the same pace while climbing the hill requires you to make an effort and focus on the drive and climb. Remember to run over the hill and not just to the top.
The second way to incorporate a harder element is to increase the speed at which you run for short periods during your other runs. Again this could even be during a long run. As a young wombat this is something I would often do. When I lived at home with my parents I would always wind it up over the last mile and a half. I even ran a commentary in my head and sometimes aloud, where I was pushing the likes of Salazar, Deek and Seko (guns during my time) to the line in the closing stages of the Olympic games. ( I always won). The act of just running does not have to be boring. I never find it so. Run faster for three or four lamp posts, Chase down a cyclist, anything but have some fun. Visualise an opponent during the run and push them. The ideas are limitless.
Once you have built this base then you can start to super charge yourself. Courtney Carter is a prime example of a WA athlete who has built a base , over time, that is enabling him to work harder and achieve the times. I am sure that if he sticks with what he is doing with Greenie he will continue to get the times.
You can't hope to compete with a sub 30minute runner off a 30km a week base the sums just don't work.
Marc See is another young runner who is coming into his own with the addition of years of training. Ethan Haywood has had some good results and over time with a bigger base and more runs under his belt the times will come down and his performances will become more consistent both on a state and national level. All these runners have and will need to continue to be patient.
Mona, Deek, Coe, Birmingham, Mottram (Buster), Radcliff all took time to build a base and over time improved their times and their standings. Even know Buster is rebuilding with a new coach. It all takes time. You cant build a great house without a solid foundation. Even the leaning Tower of Piza (While injured, leaning) if it was not built on a solid foundation do you think it would still be standing. In other words if we get injured on a good base our recovery and chances of getting back are so much better....
Barrel on wombats...
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