Running

1500m/Mile Pace Workouts

Reading time: 3 min

This post outlines progressions for two different types of 1500m/Mile pace workouts: Long Recoveries and Short Recoveries. Plus three 1500m/Mile Race Prediction workouts are included at the end.

The workout list below is NOT a training program. Check out the post on Five-Pace Training to learn how to integrate these 1500m/Mile pace workouts into a complete program. The Five-Pace Training model includes workouts at paces anchored to standard race distances spread over two- or three-week training cycles. The post on Choosing Workouts will also be helpful when selecting your training sessions.

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Battle of the Greats

Reading time: 2 min

Have you ever wondered what would happen if a current world-class runner era went head to head with one of the all-time great runners from a by-gone era?

  • Sebastien Coe vs David Rudisha in the 800m
  • Hicham El Guerrouj vs Timothy Cheruiyot in the 1500m
  • Kenenisa Bekele vs Selemon Barega in the 5000m or 10000m
  • Zersenay Tadese vs Abraham Kiptum in the Half-Marathon
  • Haile Gebrselassie vs Eliud Kipchoge in the Marathon

Better yet, imagine that the greatest ever 1500/Miler, 5000/10000m runner, Half-Marathon and Marathoner were all in the same race!

Oh, wait.. that race happened!

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Magill Speed Runner Program

Reading time: 5 min

When I go to the book store with my wife and daughter, I swing by the endurance sports section. I peruse through the titles to see if anything new and exciting I didn’t know about is available. Last summer (July 2018), I noticed a book called Speed Runner by Pete Magill. The subtitle was “4 weeks to your fastest leg speed in any sport.” I cringed. Terms like “4 weeks” and “fastest leg speed” upset me. They wreak of the current “hack” culture out there on the internet. I almost didn’t by this book.

Luckily, I had heard the name of the author before, Pete Magill. I knew he was the real deal. Magill is a national championship coach and accomplished masters runner with multiple American and age-group records. I started flipping through.

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Natural Running Video

Reading time: 7 min

Back in the Summer of 2015, I was fortunate enough to be a presenter at a workshop on Natural Movement. The workshop started with all attendees flat on their back learning about rolling. Then it moved onto various types of crawling, ways to get up, walking and finally running. I did the piece on running.

Here is a video Introduction to Natural Running that I made as part of the workshop. Those that signed in advance received the video before the day of the seminar. I wanted participants to have a feel for the content of the running section. So I used clips that a friend kindly videoed for me.

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Transition Program

Reading time: 8 min

In the Running Base Building Program that I presented, the focus was on Base Runs and Fast but Not Hard drills. This combination develops general endurance, general speed and running skills while allowing time for your tissues to adapt to the demands of running.

From a Base Program, I don’t suggest you jump right into hard training. It is best to use a Transition Program for a few weeks to a few months. The Transition Program nudges your body toward more the demanding training that will come later.

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Five-Pace Training Program

Reading time: 11 min

Five-Pace Training involves, you guessed it, five different training paces. It is also known as Multi-Tier Training. I first read about Multi-Tier Training in coach Joe Vigil‘s book Road to the Top. Vigil referenced the book Better Training for Distance Runners by physiologist David Martin & coach Peter Coe as the source of the idea. And Coe credited the development of the system to coach Frank Horwill. You can read a selection of Horwill articles HERE.

Joe Vigil, Peter Coe and Frank Horwill are BIG names in the world of running coaching. It is amazing how one referenced the other who referenced the other regarding Multi-Tier Training.

What I present here is a generalized version of Multi-Tier Training which I call Five-Pace Training. The small tweaks I have made allow the concept to be applied more widely. Multi-Tier Training was designed for middle-distance runners. But the fundamental idea does extend to long-distance running as well. Here we go!

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Coach Vigil’s Fulcrum

Reading time: 7 min

It has become clear to me that we must view a training program as a balance with the aerobic phase, the Fulcrum, and the anaerobic phase

Coach Joe Vigil

Coach Joe Vigil is a living legend. He is a scientist and coach whose unique combination of physiology and sports science with motivation and decades of experience have produced incredible results.

Here is a shortlist of his coaching accomplishments:

  • Coach of Meb Keflezighi, Deena Kastor and Brenda Martinez to name a few famous American runners.
  • 20 different medalists at the World Cross Country Championships
  • 19 NCAA and NAIA collegiate team championships
  • A perfect score at the NCAA Cross Country National Championships which means that the runners on his team finished 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th
  • A meet-winning percentage of 94.2 percent with over 3000 wins
  • Coach of the US Olympic Team, twice. And was named to the coaching staff of the World Cross Country Championships, the Pan American Games, and numerous other international coaching staffs

If you’d like to learn more about Coach Vigil, Spartan Life did an excellent profile on him which you can read HERE. If you’ve never heard the name Joe Vigil before today, make sure you read the profile!

The focus in this post is how Coach Vigil transitions his runners between the aerobic and anaerobic phases of a training program. In earlier posts, we learned about the methods used by Arthur Lydiard and Jack Daniels. Coach Vigil calls this phase the Fulcrum, and he describes the concept in his book Road to the Top.

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Of Records & Races

Reading time: 3 min

On the track or road, when a runner sets a world record, often he or she is far ahead of any rivals. The record becomes a time trial more than a race. Once the pacers have completed their duties, there is nothing to feed off other than the clock itself.

Time Trialling to a record is an incredible accomplishment. But when a record comes down to a drag race between two or more runners, the excitement you experience while watching is palpable.

In the runners’ attempts to outdo one another, they are each elevating each other’s performance. The result is a race that is “greater than the sum of its parts.” The results achieved are beyond what the runners could have done alone racing against the clock.

I love that.

There is a comradery underlying the machismo of racing for the win, the gold or the money. There is a tie that binds runners chasing mastery of their sport at the highest level – the spirit of competition. Aiming to be the very best a person can be. We are going to watch two such races today.

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Jack Daniels’ Phase II

Reading time: 8 min

Sometimes picking up the pace in a race feels better than staying with the same pace; always try speeding up before you drop back from a tough pace

Coach Jack Daniels

In the mid-90s, editor-in-chief of Runner’s World magazine Amby Burfoot called coach Jack Daniels the “world’s best running coach.” Burfoot, an accomplished marathoner from the late-60s and early-70s, believed so strongly that he “plastered” the phrase on the cover of the magazine.

In 2009, Burfoot posted on the Runner World blog a point-by-point account of why he believes so strongly in Daniels‘ coaching abilities. If you are not familiar with Daniels, take a moment to read the post.

As I mentioned in the post on Fast but Not Hard drills, Daniels’ Running Formula was the first full-length running book I read when I first started. I implemented his program for several seasons. And I enjoyed it tremendously.

The way Daniels lays out the principles of training and simplifies the concepts down to specific pace ranges and workouts is impressive. If you’re interested in learning more about the nuts-and-bolts of running, Daniels’ Running Formula is a great place to start.

What we are going to focus on today is Phase II of Daniels training programs.

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The Forward Lean

Reading time: 7 min

Many articles on running cues or techniques discuss the Forward Lean. The fundamental idea is that by leaning the body forward, you improve your running technique.

The caveat in most articles is that the forward lean must come from the ankles and not from the waist. What does it mean to “forward lean from the ankles?” It is perhaps easiest to understand by experience.

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