Emphasizing Speed in the Training Program
In my last few years of coaching track at Ravenscroft School in Raleigh, NC, back around 2011-2013, I had the good fortune of witnessing the remarkable career of Wesley Frazier, who was one of the best high school distance runners in the country. While I can’t claim to have coached her, I did develop a close relationship with her, and also with her younger sister Ryen, who just completed her own outstanding high school career this past June.
The Fraziers usually did their own workouts, as they’d been trained by their dad all their lives. I quickly noticed during Wesley’s junior year, when she and Ryen would warm up with my sprinters and hurdlers, that the workouts she did were nothing like the ones the rest of the distance runners did. Wesley usually did fast interval repeats, ranging from 200 meters to 1200 meters. Often, she would do 400’s and 800’s.
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Usually, she timed herself. Sometimes I would time her. An 800 workout might consist of 8 reps, all in the 2:30 range, with a :45 rest between reps. Sometimes she’d mix up 400’s and 800’s and tack on a couple 200’s at the end to work on her finishing kick. She often finished these workouts with a set of 8-10 100’s barefoot on the grass, to strengthen her lower legs.
Meanwhile, the other distance runners would often go on long runs on the cross country trail. And while their track workouts were similar to Wesley’s regarding the distances run, they did not run their reps nearly as fast, but were urged not to run too fast in order to avoid breakdowns later in the workout.
Because of Wesley’s success, and because of the ease and grace with which she ran, my curiosity was piqued. Her style of training was not the norm. She ran tall, on the balls of her feet, like a sprinter. She had a forceful arm action like a sprinter. And she ran fast like a sprinter.
Also, she never got hurt. She was doing these killer workouts but wasn’t putting any undue strain on her muscles. So I asked her one day, after she had completed a very demanding ladder workout, about her training philosophy.
She explained that emphasizing volume doesn’t prepare you to race, even if you’re a distance runner. “You have to train speed,” she said. She went on to say that distance runners who run heavy mileage, who do intervals that involve a high number of reps at a less challenging pace don’t prepare their bodies for the demands of a race.
It made sense. I’d known many distance runners, both in my years as an athlete and in my years as a coach, who could do killer workouts but who couldn’t drop time in a race. One distance runner, Greg – a teammate of mine in college – explained that distance runners often get locked into a pace, and can’t break out of the pace on race day. He and some of the other distance guys would do 20×400 at 1:15. I couldn’t imagine being able to complete such a long workout. But most of those guys were stuck at that 1:15 pace. Perhaps part of it was mental. Greg was always able to run at a higher level when the gun went off. But he was more the exception than the rule.
I don’t claim to understand the physiology of it all, but based on what I’ve seen of Wesley and Ryen over the past six years, I’m convinced that training speed is a good way to go.
So how does this training philosophy apply to the sprints and hurdles? Let me start by explaining how my approach to coaching quarter milers evolved during the years Wesley was on the team (and has remained the same since then, including in my coaching of 300/400 hurdlers).
Back in my early days as a coach, I emphasized volume very heavily in the off-season. Build a base, start slow. Gradually ease speed into the program. While I haven’t abandoned that approach totally, I have made some significant adjustments that have proven beneficial.
Once the indoor season arrives (mid-November, let’s say), and the athletes have built a foundation in the fall, it’s time to go to work. With my quarter-milers, I have two pet early-week workouts:
Monday: a set of 500’s followed by 1×150.
Tuesday: a set of 300’s followed by 1×150.
The 500’s are for over-distance, the 300’s are for speed, and the 150 is for finishing strength.
The volume in these workouts is never high. In the beginning of the indoor season, we’ll do 3×500, 1×150. Five minutes rest between the 500’s, seven minutes rest before the 150.
The Tuesday workout will be 4×300, 1×150. Four minutes rest between the 300’s, six minutes rest before the 150.
I’ll give the athletes target times based on their fitness and ability levels. We’ll do these same workouts, every Monday and Tuesday, for the entire indoor season. What happens is, although the fatigue level stays the same, the level of performance improves. With the same effort they were putting forth in November, they are running much faster by January.
By the beginning of the outdoor season, I’ll take off a rep and add more recovery time. So, in March, the Monday workout will be 2×500, 1×150. Six minutes rest between the 500’s, 10 minutes rest before the 150.
The Tuesday workout will be 3×300, 1×150. Five minutes rest between the 300’s, eight minutes rest before the 150.
By late April, I’ll keep the reps the same, but increase the rest. The Monday workout will be 2×500, 1×150. Seven minutes rest between the 150’s, twelve minutes rest before the 150.
The Tuesday workout will be 3×300, 1×150. Six minutes rest between the 300’s, ten minutes rest before the 150.
By late May – when we typically have our state championship meet – we’ll take off another rep. The Monday workout will be 1×500, 1×150, with 15 minutes rest between reps.
The Tuesday workout will be 2×300, 1×150. Ten minutes rest between 300’s, 15 minutes rest before the 150.
Some observations:
1) The athletes don’t get bored doing the same workouts every week. On the contrary, they look forward to these workouts because they relish the challenge the workouts represent. They also like the fact that these workouts give them tangible evidence on a weekly basis that they are getting faster. It gives them confidence going into races. They know that if they’re dropping time in their 500’s and 300’s, they should be dropping time in their races.
2) By the late stages of the outdoor season, and even before then really, the 500’s serve as a great race indicator.
3) This method of training mimics what track athletes actually have to do, and what they have to train their minds and bodies to do: go real hard, tax the body’s energy systems, get physically and mentally adapted to the types of physical exhaustion that must be endured during a race, and within a particular meet that involves competing in multiple races and/or multiple rounds.
4) Athletes learn to develop a race mentality in practice. Every rep counts, every step counts. There’s less chatter, less socializing, and there’s a higher level of focus during warm-ups. Race day thereby becomes an extension of practice.
5) Injuries occur less frequently. I’m not sure why. My thinking, though, is that training speed earlier in the season decreases the amount of pounding the muscles have to endure through the course of the year. So, if speed is introduced properly (don’t try to run your May times in November), then emphasizing speed over volume saves the body from a lot of unnecessary pounding.
When it comes to the sprint hurdles, I do believe that a certain amount of volume is necessary. Especially for younger hurdlers, there’s the need to develop muscle memory, develop a sense of rhythm and timing, address technical flaws, etc. But for advanced hurdlers who have already established their technique and have enough years under their belt that they know their rhythm, I think the emphasis should be on high-intensity hurdle workouts with fewer reps. When doing a workout out of the blocks over the first three, for example, a high school hurdler with a year of experience might want to do ten reps, whereas a professional shouldn’t need to do more than three.
The overall point is, try to make your workouts as race-specific as possible. The types of muscle fatigue and lactic-acid issues that you will have to deal with in a meet are what you should be dealing with in your training sessions.
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