There’s a track team in the Northeast that for years has sported warm-up tops with the saying “The Smart Way” on the jackets. Pretty cool, and pretty unique.
I was thinking of this Tuesday afternoon as I watched two large groups of men’s distance runners going through threshold mile repeats on the fancy McCann Center 160-meter oval. I wasn’t timing each of their intervals because there were several other groups working out (I’m not great at multi-task timing). But a few quick checks indicated that – miracle of miracles – our men were hitting their splits.
I say “miracle of miracles” because through the years I have found it very difficult – almost impossible, really – to get men’s distance runners to buy into and accurately execute threshold (tempo) pace. Guys are competitive and sometimes irrational in workouts. This leads to racing each other, which leads to faster-than-protocol pace, which leads to not threshold, which leads to an annoyed coach wanting to throw his clipboard down in frustration.
Which leads to another funny story, not directly related to threshold workouts: During our indoor track practices, we often are running circles around the men’s basketball team practice. Often during intervals, I find myself yelling out things like “relax” or “chill out” or “slow it down a bit.”
SLOW DOWN. A track coach saying SLOW DOWN. This has caught the attention of men’s assistant basketball coach Paul Lee, a really good guy. Paul often comes up to me during the day and says, “Hey Pete, you gonna tell your guys to slow down again today?” Ha!
It is a bit unorthodox. Kind of like threshold running. It seems unnatural. That’s exactly what middle distance runner Andrew James (AJ) said yesterday. It probably seemed REALLY unnatural for AJ, since he has been ripping out fast interval workouts for the past few months. It’s kind of like taking a car in overdrive at 55 miles per hour and downshifting it to third gear. Or something like that.
But it works. It is the Smart Way. On Tuesday, I was feeling really good about the boys, who seemed to embrace the Smart Way for this day.
Until the last interval, when one of the groups decided to “kick it in” and finish the workout with a flourish. Which is totally not the point! But what the heck, I like the spirit. And they did MOST of the workout the Smart Way.
And, as you know: Boys will be boys.
I don't have to tell you how important I think proper threshold pace training is. It was always a battle with my high school kids, although some eras really got it. Jut was a master!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was coaching the MHRRC, with all the training groups going on at once, there was no way to check their splits. I used to just stand along the track and listen. If I heard heavy breathing as a group went by I admonished them to slow down. You're right, boys will be boys, even when they are 50. The woman were much better at it.