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Archives for Ron Grigg
4 Goals of Coaching the 400/800 Meter Athlete
There is an interesting set of athletes that tend to excel at the 400-meter AND 800-meter events. These 400/800 athletes are not pure sprinters, nor are they pure distance runners. These athletes have a unique combination of skills that will challenge any coach to create a successful training program. Here are four goals I believe…
4 Goals of 800 Meter Training
The 800-meter is a unique event. According to a study done by the University of Western Australia, there is a 60% aerobic energy system contribution to top male athletes and 70% aerobic energy contribution for top female athletes running at 800-meters. It is important to note that the slower the athlete is, the more aerobic…
Two Long Sprints Programs I Steal From Every Day
We had our Divisional State Relay Championship this past Saturday and all four of my ‘primary’ relay teams (girls and boys 4×200 and 4×400) ran faster than they did all of last year. Girls 4×2 came into the meet with a 1:48.07 season best and school record of 1:46.77, set in 2013. They went bananas,…
Speed or Endurance in the 400m, 600m & 800m Races?
Track and field is a counterintuitive sport. That’s why most high school kids are terrible at it. I’m constantly reminding my athletes that their rate of progress is directly proportional to their ability to do the opposite of what feels natural. Push ‘down and back’ to go ‘up and forward’. Jump ‘away’ from the bar…
The Top 3 Articles, Programs & Answers of February 2014
I understand you may not have time to catch everything I post each month. As I continue to increase the frequency of new posts across the spectrum of event groups and training modalities, I put together a ‘Best of’ each month so you can get your track nerd on. Below are ‘The Top 3 of…
Categorizing Training Paces For 400/800 Runners
How do we decide what to train and when to train it? That is part science and part art. Let’s establish a menu of paces for available to us while planning training for 400/800 runners . Coaches of different disciplines and different influences use a variety of terms that often mean the same or similar things. …
The Top 3 Articles, Programs & Answers of January 2014
I understand you may not have time to catch everything I post each month. And since I didn’t do a ‘Top 3’ for December, if you don’t follow me on Twitter and/or Facebook, you may have missed a number of thought provoking (and exclusive) blog entries I posted over the last couple month or…
The Top 3 Articles, Programs & Answers of November 2013
I understand you may not have time to catch everything that we post on CompleteTrackandField.com during the course of the month. So, today I’m doing a quick(ish) recap since you probably missed some stuff you’d be interested in. Below are ‘The Top 3 of November 2013′ for the following categories: 3 Most Popular Articles, 3…
The Best Way to Teach Top Speed Mechanics? The Wicket Drill (VIDEO)
Ron Grigg’s ‘Complete Program Design for 400/600/800m Athletes’ Becoming ‘trilingual’ is crucial to your ability to plan effective training for your combo 400/800 runners. Your first step is to understand athlete and event characteristics in order to provide a framework for training. To better speak ‘distance coach’, I showed you why 10k pace reps are critical…
Why 10k Pace is Critical for 400/600/800m Athletes (Video)
Ron Grigg’s ‘Complete Program Design for 400/600/800 Meter Athletes’ Planning training for our primary event 400/600/800m athletes comes down to finding the optimal mix of ‘speed’ and ‘endurance’ related training activities. In doing this dance, we also must be aware of the impact our own personal coaching bias plays in selecting various workout parameters. For…
The Truth About Coaching 400/600/800 Athletes
Download: The 7 Laws of 400/600/800 Meter Coaching Success The 400/600/800 meter events have definite speed requirements, yet they also have high to predominant aerobic contributions. The athletes who excel at 400/600/800 meters do not possess a high percentage of type 2b fast twitch fibers as would be found in pure sprinter. They also…