Canadian running Conference....

....I had the please of attending the Friday and Saturday nights of the recent Endurance Conference here in Vancouver. I've always been a believer in analyzing training methodologies first and foremost and this gave me an opportunity to tweak things are confirm some ideas.

The one area I hope people there did follow was how we need to leave some of our old training models on the back burner (actually go back more in time and keep those models...'old school'). The concept of the low mileage high intensity of the late 80s and 90s (and even into modern times) was pretty much destroyed by three of mid/dist coaches there (James Li, Alberto Salazar and Dave Scott-Thomas). I am still amazed that people havent' gone out of their way in this day and age of internet and freedom of information to find out what most successful coaches/athletes have done/are doing (not the genetic freaks, but rather the avergae athlete). The funniest presenter was Dave who when he said he first began recruiting for Guelph people used to comment that his was the school that ran too much/a lot. I highly doubt anyone is saying that anymore....

The first night was also a great way to begin with a Li Salazar showdown (kidding), but it was good to see both the similarities and differences between Li's slightly less volume (although still decent volume) and more athlete directed model vs Salazar's more higher mileage more coach controlled model. Where as Salazar was all about specifics Li offered the honest admission that he doesn't actually know how much actual volume Bernard Lagat runs per week. As wel Lagat does a lot of tempo style sessions to offset his lower volume mixed in with some really solid speed session. As well, he added that they do a lot of hills and more 'feel' workouts, whereas Salazar was very specific in his paces and on the track which reminds of Henry Rono's famous diatribe after a few beers where he said salazar was on the track all the time while he was out running 'any hill'....
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As always the key was in getting athlete to believe in their training and by and large that involved allowing athletes an ownership in their training. Although I don't disagree with this statemtn if I have learned anything over the last handful of years it's how little some athlete truly know about training paradigms. Maybe it's because they've been under coaches who 'controlled' them, but I am often amazed when some athletes don't have an idea of what they might do if a coach isn't around. If there's one area i have stressed to young athletes it's find out stuff for yourself and treat running as a form of enlightenment. The lesson learned are not mine....these are theirs.....

I am sure some more meandering things might hop into my head, but i realized that for right now I just need to keep this thing updated regularly.

On the wagon....

...the body has finally been solid for the last 6 months and that's finally resulted in some decent running results. I took a really patient apporach since the summer and planned on a very short, but hopefully successful late season racing for crossy. it turned out I did just enough to win the BC masters in oct and about a month later the Canadian crossy champs.

Training lacked a ton of structure, but it was reletively consistent. I kept it simple with some classic sessions (egs 30-40min of hills, 8-10 x 3mins off 1min, 20-25 min hard tempos and 2 x 20mins off 5min good paced runs at just under threshold) mixed in with 100min and the odd 2 hr long runs. I was averaging about 120-130km, but only off 6 days per week of running.

I was pleasantly suprised with the BC cross results as I had run a low key XC race up at Whistler. I felt terrible there, but BCs felt really easy. At BCs I played it pretty patient and threw in a medium surge at around 5-6km (of an 8km race) and dropped Craig Odermatt. Considering how well Odie has been running this fall I was pleasantly happy.

At Canadians, I felt pretty confident. I'd done a few sessions with one of the athletes I've been coaching. He had no training partners after CIS champs and so we did a few session together. The key was I was running easy and I dropped him easily in the sessions. I knew he was in good shape so this was a nice confidence boost.

The day of the race it had been raining all night and morning and the course was pretty muddy. I've never been a mudder and figured my fitness might be offset by the mud.At Canadians there were a few questions marks (Grame Wilson and Steve Boyd), but after 1km I knew unless someone began to hammer early this was my race to lose. At around 2km Boyd threw in what felt like a pretty good surge and I answered it easily and then went past Steve. At that point things felt so easy that I just began to control the race in leading at times and follwoing when I wanted. By 6km it was just me and Odie once again and with about 1km to go I threw in one big surge up a hill and dropped Odie. From there it was just run relaxed to the end. It was some of the most fun I have had running in years...