The Big Sponge Theory

As many of you know, for the past three fall semesters I have taught a special-topics physical education/science class here at Marist College called “Track and Field Coaching.”

Now, before you snicker and make jokes: This is a 2-credit, academic-based class. A few blog readers and followers are “alums” of this class (or maybe are in this class right now! … future alums of the fancy class), and they can attest to the fact that I try to challenge the students with a lot of work.

To wit: Along with perfect attendance, requirements include 10 1-page papers, a 5-page midterm research paper and a final project in which students must map out and detail a training program for a team for an entire season or training cycle. The goal is to make the students ready to coach a track team if needed.

I’m happy to report that Marist alum DJ Paulson, who was in my first class back in 2007, will be coaching locally at Beacon High School, where he teaches. He said he will be using our class textbook as a reference to help him. This is great! Good luck, DJ!

Anyway, I’ve been trying to do some new and creative things with the class this year. We have weekly fun “quizzes” as a way to get through the material. And I’m trying to incorporate everyone in the discussions, branching out and away from the text a bit, as we have a few non-track folks in the class.

We just completed a short block on distance running. Some of the class discussions were wide-ranging and interesting. One topic that came up was the subject of overtraining as it relates to college athletes. It’s a relevant topic and one that generated a fair amount of healthy discussion.

This led me to trot out my “Big Sponge Theory" on collegiate distance runners’ training. I’ve tried to impart my “Big Sponge Theory” on previous teams and eras of Marist Distance Running. Mostly, the theory was met with apathy at best, ridicule at worst. But I am undaunted, and I keep hammering home the same ideas year after year in hopes someone will get something out of what is said. And in fairness, several current team members seemed to grasp the concepts espoused in the “Big Sponge Theory.”

Of course, being the buffoon I am, I had the whole class giggling, laughing and generally making fun of me by starting my theory with a reference to a “big-ass sponge.” Not smart on my part! Giggle-giggle. Chortle-chortle. Laugh-laugh.

OK. Now that the “b-a sponge” line is out of the way, and perhaps the longest intro in history of blogging is done, I would like to share the Big Sponge Theory with my friends in the blogosphere. Here goes:

Imagine your body, a distance runner’s legs and body, is a Big Sponge. A Big Sponge. OK. Got that? Now, each time you go on a training run, imagine that the training load is represented by water being poured onto the Big Sponge that is you.

An easy distance run is a slow and steady drip of water onto the sponge. It gets ABSORBED (key word) relatively easily. During base training, which consists primarily of easy distance runs, that slow and steady drip onto the sponge keeps the sponge nice and moist. A nice and moist sponge is GOOD. A nice and moist sponge is the GOAL.

Now, any Quality Days mean that a large volume of water is being poured onto your sponge. A long run? A lot of water. Note that even if the long run is at an easy pace, it is still a Quality Day and still represents a lot of water. A hard, hammering distance run? A lot of water. Hill repeats? Tempo? Fartlek? Intervals? Buckets and buckets and buckets.

So here’s the Big Sponge Theory: Those quality days (or Bucket Days) need to be spread out, or else your sponge will be oversaturated, your legs and your body overtrained. If, after a quality day of any sort, you follow that up with a few easy days (slow drips), that allows the Big Sponge to ABSORB the water. And this is what keeps the sponge (and you) healthy, strong. This is where the advances in training, fitness and ability come; in letting that sponge ABSORB those bucket days and stay nice and moist. And remember: A nice and moist sponge is the GOAL.

If you over-saturate the sponge, it will be soaked. It will not be effective. It will be useless. Much like an overtrained body.

The message, then, to the overzealous (usually hot-shot freshmen trying to prove themselves) collegiate distance runner is this: Don’t oversoak your sponge. Don’t hammer every day. Let your body recover between hard efforts. If you hammer your recovery days, you are pouring more water than needed onto that Big Sponge. Then, the next day when we are doing some sort of Quality Day, the downpour continues. Eventually, the sponge, and you, become ineffective. Feckless. It can take days and sometimes weeks for that Big Sponge (you!) to dry out and return to the coveted nice and moist stage.

And remember: A nice and moist sponge is the GOAL.

Does this make sense? Is this long-winded? Did I just waste your time and my blog space? I hope not. It makes sense to me, and I hope you can take a little something out of this.

Just call me: SpongePete, SquareCoach.

Run. Rehydrate. Run Some More!