What to Work On

There was a great pair of articles (June 2011) in RunningTimes and RunnersWorld.  These articles do not deal with the same topic but they are related.  The RunningTimes article written by Jay Johnson, a coach of some up and coming elite distance runners.  In this article he talks about making the next jump in performance.  The beauty of this article is that it is not written for the elite or those looking to become.  He is writing with the high school runner in mind.  The article points out four elements that need to happen for you as a runner need to do to make the jump to the next level in your abilities:

1. General Strength and Mobility
2. Volume
3. Fartlek
4. Special Element

The first two are self-explanatory; add strength, flexibility, and miles.  We have had a couple of athletes start to do this and they saw the gains from it.  I would love to see everyone of our runners in the weight-room this summer, stretching afterwards.  Along with this comes running more miles.  We have the progression setup for our runners to run more as you grow and mature.  The miles are lower than those suggested by Coach Johnson but I feel that what we ask is fine.   The other two things are fartleks (speed play) and special element.  The fartleks are handy because they should be done at least once a week in your weekly runs to help you semi-maintain your speed, this is also where summer races come in.  Farleks are suggested because you do not need a track to do them, or even a watch.  All you need is some electric poles spaced out in the country or city blocks.  All that matters is that you run fast and then run slower and then fast again.  The special element is a part of your running that you know you need to work on.  For some of the younger runners this might not be worked on for a couple of years.  For the more experienced runners those elements of your race need that special attention that the season is to short to work on.  For some it might be hills, how to run up and even down.  For many it should be form, the RunnersWorld article does a great job of showing what to work on.  We all have little quarks that make us who we are, same goes with form.  But if we can fine tune a make some minor changes we might be able to improve how we run therefore improving our times. 

I would highly suggest reading these articles, I can not do them justice by just describing what they discuss.  Also if you have any questions please feel free to contact me (Coach Pederson).