This is one of my favorite questions! Almost every day at least one athlete will ask me this question before we start practice. The answer is always the same: today we’re going to run. I love to give that answer, not only because it’s funny, but also because of the predictable response: rolled eyes, an exasperated look, and “that’s not what I meant!” OK, I know that’s not what you meant, but it’s still funny.
Actually, if you give it some thought, you might be able to figure out ahead of time what we’re going to do for practice that day. You see, your coaches don’t just show up and then decide what they feel like doing. Every workout we run is done for a specific reason. When you know the reason for the workout, you might be able to figure out when–and why–it’s appropriate to do that workout.
Our first goal for the season is just to get everyone “in shape”. By this we mean that we want athletes to gain endurance so they can run farther without stopping, and strength so they can feel better when they run. Endurance is something you build in your body (your legs and lungs get stronger so they can work longer) but it’s also something you build in your mind. When your legs are shouting “stop!” your mind has to be stronger, and has to tell your legs to keep going.
General body strength is important because that’s what helps you have good posture when you run, even when you’re tired. We don’t fuss too much about running form, but it is important! Many of the drills we do before we run help to train your body to run “right”.
After we’ve built a “mileage base” (that means that you can put a few miles together without stopping) we will start to work on speed. It’s important for athletes to know how to make their body run faster even when they’re tired. When we work on speed we don’t only learn how to run fast, we also learn how to find the strength to run fast at the end of a race.
When you show up for a practice, it might be a distance workout (focusing on endurance) or a speed workout (focusing on speed). If it’s a longer run and you’re told to run at “conversational pace” (that means you can visit with other runners while you’re running without dying), that’s an endurance workout. It’s important that we just put in those miles so we can get used to running longer distances. On the other hand, if the workout involves intervals–short distances run quickly with breaks in between–that’s a speed workout. These practices will get you up on your toes a bit and will work your fast twitch muscle fibers–the ones that help you move quickly!
We also like to run hills, and hill workouts can focus either on endurance or on speed. If the goal is just to get up the hill regardless of speed, we’re probably still working on endurance. But hills are also a nice way to do speed work. When you do hill repeats, focus on getting up the hill strong, all the way to the top. Lift your knees and pump your arms, and make sure your arms are moving forward, not side to side. It’s a good idea to take it easy going down hill (unless you’re in a race!) because the pounding can be hard on your legs.
We usually try to alternate workouts, with a speed workout one day and long slow distance the next. The distance days are sometimes called “recovery days”. We still run, but running slower gives your legs a bit of a break. We feel it’s better for sore legs to get out and move around than to lie on the couch all day. So next time you are tempted to ask your coach “what are we going to do today?” stop and see if you can figure it out yourself, first!