Sometimes whimsical analogies are useful in understanding how cross country coaches go about their work. To that end, today we will consider a workout ingredient list. When it comes to cross country coaches, it seems there are both cooks and chefs. The cook chiefly wants a step by step set of recipes for several different types of proven workouts so that they can prescribe them to their runners without hesitation. Not concerned about the science, don’t care about individual differences in adaptability, not interested in changing the workout design in any way. These coaches diligently follow the workout steps that others have developed. Cooks are always looking for a new recipe to cut and paste into their cookbook. Their creativity lies not in workout design,…