Runners progress in small steps (or sometimes big leaps) from where they are to where they want to be with careful planning and monitoring. 

  • By paying attention to the affects of training on our body and gradually progressing, we can break barriers that we never thought possible.  

  • A planning session is required with each athlete in order to gather information about your current status and learn about your goals.

  • Weekly phone conversations or emails will be necessary to communicate about training.

  • The main trick is to have fun training along the way! 

  • Periodic races play a big role in measuring one's success and allow more accurate planning.

Cross training and/or weight training helps keep the body in balance (see the weight training page for more info).

Jack Daniels' Book Running Formula combines all of the essential elements for the fitness of a distance runner.  His book is utilized to determine not only the type of workout but how fast one should be running in that particular workout.  The Daniels' VDOT system is utilized to give each athlete a numerical value pertaining to their most recent race and the VDOT number is then used as a guideline for how fast the workouts should be.

  • Types of running workouts:

    • hill training

    • strides (85-90% of max speed)

    • repetition pace (100 - 400 meter at mile race pace)

    • interval pace (600 - 1200 meter at 3000 m pace, a.k.a VO2 max pace)

    • tempo pace (800m - 4 mile at 80-85% race pace)

    • marathon pace (training at current marathon pace)

The Training Peaks app is utilized (at no extra cost to the athlete) to assign daily runs and other training.