One of the most important chores that a cross country coach does is to set the workout themes for the many daily sessions during the season. The workouts must be compatible with the other workouts that are sequenced around each other, and themes must be appropriate for the time in the macrocycle in which they…
Archives for October 2014
6 Signs You’re Over Coaching Your Athletes at Meets
As I go into the 42nd year of my coaching career, I wanted to make sure I wasn’t one of “those” coaches. You know the one I’m talking about. The guy who thinks he’s been coaching 42 years but has only really coached one year 42 times (thank you Gary Winckler for that bit of wisdom)! …
Early Season 400m Training Workouts
A coach asked if I would consider writing an article about early season 400m training. Here is a look back at a few of my articles that cover this topic. A while back, I wrote an article entitled, “Circle of Truth.” This is a workout I use for all sprinters and hurdlers as conditioning in…
How to Establish Cross Country Training Groups
The cross country season begins anew and the coaches face their first training challenges as the team gathers for the first day of practice. Foremost in training group formation is the fact that half the team has done some summer training, while the other half has not run a mile all summer long. To further…
Fatigue, Part 5 – The Central Governor Theory
The scientific information presented in the first four sections on the onset of fatigue during exercise (Part 1 Fatigue-Energetics, Part 2 Fatigue-Anaerobic Alactic Energy System, Part 3 Fatigue-Anaerobic Glycolytic Energy System, and Part 4 Fatigue-Aerobic Energy System) pointed out the importance of beginning each discussion on energy system metabolism and fatigue with basic knowledge…