這兩天我認(rèn)真看完了一遍reddit的r/trackandfield（田徑分支論壇）上的Distance Running FAQ。

在我看來(lái)，主要都是一些網(wǎng)上流行的說(shuō)法，并沒(méi)有多少價(jià)值。但其中也有一小部分，是我這外行人從沒(méi)聽說(shuō)過(guò)的，感覺(jué)很有價(jià)值的。

所以，干脆把整篇文章搬運(yùn)過(guò)來(lái)，供大家參考。

對(duì)于大家很感興趣的部分，也歡迎留言探討探討。

Preface:

This is meant to be general.? Just about all of these subjects could have entire books written about them, and I’m not about to do that.? This should give enough info to start making a running plan, but it’s not going to provide some plan you can copy-paste. It’s not meant to eliminate questions from /r/trackandfield. It will just eliminate some of the repetitive questions and hopefully lead to deeper discussions.

General things you can do to get better at running:

• Sleep 8-10 hours a night

• Stay hydrated

• Eat enough food (calories)

• Eat enough protein

• Don’t eliminate eating fat or carbs entirely

• Eat mostly healthy food.? Get some fruit and vegetables.? Don’t take this to mean only ever eat healthy food.? Just use some moderation.??

• Eliminate things that add stress to your life.? That could be certain people, or it could be that you procrastinate and it causes you stress when deadlines come up. It could be that you play hours of competitive online gaming and it stresses you out the whole time.

• Don’t overdo it on easy (aerobic) days.? It will not make you better.? Work smarter, not harder.

• Don’t use the same shoes forever.? You’ll get injured eventually.

• Some cheaper shoes may only last 300 miles (and Vaporfly more like 200 miles).? Most higher end shoes are built to last more like 500 miles or so. In general, it’s best to look into your particular shoe and see how long they tend to last, because there’s a wide range.? Sometimes they change quite a bit from one year’s model to the next in durability, so still check every time you get shoes, especially if you’re doing a lot of mileage or are new.

• Rolling out muscles (self myofascial release) with a foam roller, lacrosse ball, or something similar.? Foam rollers don’t make as much of an impact as something harder, like a lacrosse ball, but if you’re particularly tight/sore there, it might be fine to start with it.? Every other day or so should be enough.? Don’t go hard with rolling/massage the day before a meet or the 2 days leading up to a big meet.

• What to prioritize with rolling

• Side of hips (TFL and gluteus medius)

• Feet

• Calves

• Hamstrings

• Quads

• Glutes

• IT bands

• Work on preventing anterior pelvic tilt (explained later)

• Improve ankle mobility (explained later)

• Take side and front video of you running (if you can only do one, do side).? Evaluate it on your own (I’ll be explaining some stuff to look for later) and/or post it online to ask for help.??

Running form notes:

• Anterior pelvic tilt is very common and is the cause of most hamstring injuries, among other injuries.? This is where your hip is tilted forward, making your hamstrings constantly? overstretched.? It also is the cause of a few other form issues, so you’ll want to fix this early. Here’s what to do to help fix this:

• 2 kinds of hip flexor stretch, regular lunge position stretch and couch stretch.

• Duck walks to improve lower back flexibility

• Improve ab strength

• Improve glute strength

• Focus on making your hip neutral when just standing at first.? Think of pushing your bellybutton to your spine, if you need to do it that way.??

• Then focus on doing it while walking

• Then do it while jogging

• Then do it while doing sprint drills

• Then do it during sprints

• Then you can try doing it in races

• Gait width: your feet should be landing under your hip (left foot under left hip, right foot under right hip).? If you were to straddle a lane dividing line and sprint down it, your feet should be landing to the left and right of the line, without touching it.? If you have a narrow gait, it is inefficient (slow) and increases your likelihood of getting shin splints.

• Dorsiflexion: After you push off the ground and while your foot is in the air, you should be dorsiflexing your ankle before making ground contact.? You should start plantarflexing right when you’re about to hit the ground.? The plantarflexing part will happen naturally, but not everyone dorsiflexes.? Landing flat footed while sprinting is fine, if you’re dorsiflexing in the air. If your foot just stays plantarflexed the entire time, you increase injury risk in many parts of your legs (shins, calves, Achilles tendons, ankles, knee).

• Torso stability - There should be slight twisting of your torso when sprinting at high speeds, but not much.? Sometimes the twisting comes from an issue with the lower body, and sometimes it’s a weakness issue.? Check for lower body issues first, like narrow gait width.

• Upright torso - Being hunched over will slow you down.? Leaning back will also slow you down.

How much mileage should I be doing?

Your weekly mileage depends on a lot of factors, like age, running experience, history of doing other sports that involve a lot of running, like soccer,? or aerobic work, like swimming or biking.? If you’re not new to running and already have an amount of miles you’re used to, then trying to add 5-10 miles per week over your previous year is generally a solid goal. It might not always be good to be reaching for more miles than last year, though.? If last year’s mileage was leaving you injured or overtired, then you might need to go down a little or sometimes another year a second year at that same mileage ends up being easier after a year of running (usually relevant if this is after just your first year or two of running). If you’ve improved a big area of weakness from your previous year (added in lifting, improved form, etc.) it will be easier to increase mileage. Also a good diet, low stress, and sleeping enough all increase your ability to do more miles and adequately recover from them.??

• Your mileage shouldn’t increase week after week for a long period of time.? Go up for 2-3 weeks, then have a down week to recover.? The down week is when you actually adapt and get better, so it’s very important. Having no down weeks leads to overtraining and injury.

• If you’re brand new to running and have no experience in a sport that involves much running, then you’re going to want to start out small and slowly progress.? It’s better to progress a little slower than necessary than to progress too quickly and get hurt.??

• Start with just running a mile (if you can).? If that’s pretty easy, you can take a few minute break, then run another mile.? You can do this 3 times that week, with a day of short sprints (explained more in depth later) and a day of circuit training (explained more in depth later) for a good first week of running.? Your progress from that point will depend on how well you handle that

• It’s often said as a general rule of thumb to not increase more than 10% in mileage a week. It’s repeated, because it’s simple instead of correct.? An example of when you’d increase more than 10% would be after taking time off to recover from a season, then doing significantly less mileage than your average in the first week back.? You’re not then stuck only being able to go up by 10% to get back to a normal mileage.? Also, sometimes increasing 10% is too much for some newer runners or ones that are more prone to injury.? If your workouts for the next week are going to have more intensity, then increasing a lot of (or for some people, any at all) miles at the same time is likely to cause injury. If your workouts are going to be less intense, then you might be able to handle a larger mileage increase than normal.? You could have a down week that’s more than a 10% decrease in mileage, and that doesn’t require that you have to have another below average mileage week after that to get back.

• If you’ve had an extended break from running (3+ weeks) you’ll want to have your first week back be a good amount under what your average week was, then take a couple weeks getting back to normal.?

Forefoot vs. Midfoot vs. Heel Strike ground contacts

As long as the heel strike is just slight, and not a big overstride, then the 3 kinds of ground contacts are basically equal, as far as energy efficiency is concerned.? Heel striking has more braking forces, but it also has the ability to absorb a lot of impact without expending energy.? Forefoot has less braking forces, but then you’re using your muscles, and therefore energy, to absorb all of the impact forces you have when landing on the ground. If everything else with your form is fine, and you’re not getting injuries, then whichever you’re doing is going to be okay.? If you are having injury issues, here are some factors to consider:

• Heel striking puts more stress on the knees.? This can lead to some issues, like patellar tendinitis and patella femoral pain syndrome.

• Forefoot striking puts more stress on the ankle.? This can lead to some issues, like achilles tendonitis, calf injury/tightness, and shin splints.?

How should I be pacing Distance and Tempo runs?

These paces are easier to determine if you’ve run longer races, like a 5k, but you always have the option of running and occasionally checking your heart rate to figure out the pacing yourself. It’s very common for distance runners to take their distance runs too hard and end up not improving as much as they could.? If you take your easy days too hard, you will not be recovered for the hard days.? You’ll just break down over and over again, instead of breaking down and recovering.? The recovery is when you get better.???

• Distance run pace compared to 5k pace:

• 5k per mile pace + one third. If your 5k pace is 6 minute miles, then 6 plus a third is 8 minute miles.?

• Distance run pace using heart rate:

• Should be in the 130-150 beats per minute. Generally aim for the lower end of the range. In tough weather conditions, you’ll notice you hit your target heart rate range at much slower paces.??

• Distance run pace without any kind of measurement:

• You should be able to hold a conversation without having to take heavy breaths during a distance run. If you can’t, you are going too fast.?

• Tempo pace compared to 10k pace:

• They’re the same thing.

• Tempo run pace compared to 5k pace:

• 5k per mile pace + 30-60 seconds per mile.? Faster runners will generally be closer to than 30 that slower runners.

• Tempo run pace based off heart rate:

• 170 beats per minute range.

• Tempo run pace with no measurements:

• Can’t talk too easily, but you can get a few syllables out before taking a breath

.??

How do I pace my race?

There are two different kinds of races: racing for a time and racing for a position.

• Racing for a time:

• Any race that’s a mile or longer:

• Even splits.? If this is a cross country race with parts that are harder than others with hills or something, then the plan would be “even effort” instead of “even pace”.? Obviously there’s more effort in the last mile, because you’re tired, but the idea is that if you were running each mile individually, they would be an even level of effort to run the pace fresh.? On a track, you’re just looking for the same split every lap. In some situations, you will have to have a slightly faster first lap for positioning to get out of the traffic, but it shouldn’t be far off.? Finishing with a slightly faster second half is fine, but if the difference is significant (about a second per lap, so 4s for mile, 8s for 2 mile) then you could’ve gone faster with a faster first half.??

• In order to run the even splits, you will need to really feel an increase in effort in the 3rd quarter of the race.? That’s usually where people fall off the pace, then there isn’t enough time in the last quarter of the race to make up for it.??

• 800m: First lap roughly 3 seconds faster than the second.? If you’re more of a sprinter type, then you might have a bigger differential.? If you’re more of a 2 mile / 5k type, you might have a smaller differential.? The first lap should always be the faster lap, though.??

• Racing for a position against equal competition:?

• For the athlete that does not have very good top end speed:

• Your options become much more limited, when you don’t have top end speed.? You’re mostly looking to turn the race into a time trial.? You always have to be noticing if the pace is really sagging.? If you get to the halfway point, and it’s off pace, you need to push the entire second half to eliminate the opponent’s kick (assuming they have better speed).? If you’re just significantly better than your opponents, you can do just about whatever you want, so if you have another race that day, just sit and kick to save energy.

• For the athlete that has very good top end speed:

• Option 1 is sitting behind the leaders and kicking past them at the end.? If you have good speed, you should be able to get next to them and just out-sprint them the last 40 meters or so, giving them no time to react and get you back. The farther out you kick, the more you risk overdoing it and letting someone else back into the race with time to react.??

• Option 2 is dragging out the beginning of the race very fast.? It only works if the other people in the race go with you, so you have to be careful with this one.? If you go out super hard the first 400m, and no one goes with you, you’re screwed, unless you’re significantly better than the other runners.? If the other runners go with you though, your high speed makes it so you can run a fast 400m and be further from your 400m PR, so you don’t go as lactic from it, whereas your opponents with less speed could end up going very lactic and feel that the entire race.

What should I do in the Summer to prepare for Cross Country?

Summer training is often labeled the ‘Base Building Phase’, and while you should be increasing your aerobic base, it’s not the only thing you should be doing.? Using it as a time to increase your miles per week over last year to increase your work capacity is important.? You should also be working to increase your lactic threshold and your max speed. It is not a time to be doing hard intervals at 400 to 5k pace.??

• Mileage:?

• Increase 2 or 3 weeks in a row, then go down for a week, then repeat.? Example would be 30-33-36-33-36-39-42-39-42.? Or for a more significant down week - 30-33-36-30-36-39-42-36-42.??

• A more significant down week can be good, if you’re feeling tired by the end of the up weeks.?

• ?A down week can be done by taking an additional day off, or lowering the miles run for 1-2 of the workouts for the week.? Don’t just cut half a mile or a mile off of every single run for the week.? You’re trying to have more recovery time, and your body isn’t really going to notice cutting half a mile.

• Long Run (once a week):

• One of your runs should be noticeably longer than any other of your runs for the week.? If you’re running 6-7 days a week, it should account for at least 20% of your weekly mileage (though maybe not in more extreme amounts of weekly mileage).??

• The distance of the long run should be gradually increased over time.? You can add a mile, half mile, or 4-5 minutes a run, or however you can gradually increase.? This is because each time you do a run that’s longer than you’ve done before, your body reacts by causing adaptations that make you better at running for longer.? You want to get those adaptations over and over again, so increase gradually.??

• You will eventually get to a point where increasing your long run is no longer wise, with your specific weekly mileage goals for the year in mind.? You can still progress your long run in difficulty by picking up the pace of the end of the run.? Start with the last 5 minutes or so and gradually build up to around 20.??

• Long run is considered one of the hard days of the week.? Don’t put another hard day right after the long run.? Some people do like to do their long run the day after another hard day, or do it later in the season as a way to further progress the long run without making it longer.??

• Tempo Run (once a week):

• Tempo runs improve your lactic threshold.? This means it will make it so you can run for extended periods of time at a faster pace without accumulating lactic acid, which is one of the main factors of fatigue when racing distances of 800m-10k.??

• Tempo runs can be done in one continuous bout of tempo paced running, or it can be split up into intervals with either a standing or jogging recovery.??

• In the summer, you generally want to be starting with a smaller volume of tempo running, and increasing it over time, instead of trying to constantly increase the pace of your tempo run.? You can also go from broken up intervals into one interval over time.? Example of a progression: 10x400m, 7x600m, 5x800m, 4x1000m, 2x2000m, 4000m, 4500m, 5000m. Recoveries should be short, around a minute of standing or jogging.? Or just start with a mile of tempo and just slowly add on distance over time.?

• Volume range for tempo workouts:

• 1 mile is on the lower end for a workout, but if you’re very new to running, you could try even less.??

• Given that tempo pace is essentially 10k pace, a continuous tempo workout wouldn’t be longer than 4-5 miles, and you wouldn’t be doing tempo workouts that long in your first year distance running.

• Tempo paced interval workouts can go more than 6 miles, if you’ve built up to it.? It could have a jogging or standing recovery.

• Speed Work (once a week):

• These workouts start out as more of a ‘Preparation for speed work’ and eventually turn into actual speed work, then you can eventually mix in a little speed endurance, if you have enough time.??

• Hill Sprints (step 1) have 3-4 minute standing recovery.? This is very important, and you shouldn’t skimp on the recovery time.? These are about quality and should be done at 98%+ speed, basically as fast as you can go without tensing up and breaking form.

• Start with hill sprints of 6 seconds.? Start with 6 reps, build up to doing 10.? Move on to 8 second hill sprints, 6 reps, build up to 10 reps.

• Phasing in max speed sprints (step 2) involves gradually decreasing the number of hill sprints and increasing the number of flat ground sprints.? The flat ground sprints should be done first in the individual workouts, then the hill sprints after.? Flat sprints should be about 50-60m and have 6-10 minutes of recovery.

• Example of one way of transitioning: (2x50m + 7x hills), (3x50m + 5x hills), (4x50m + 3x hills), (5x50m + 2 hills), (6x50m)

• Max speed sprints transitioning into Speed plus Speed Endurance combo workouts (Step 3) involves first extending the length of the max speed sprints, then doing some reps of max speed and some reps of speed endurance.

• Example of a transition: (6x50m), (6x55m), (5x60m), (2x60m, 2x80m, 2x100m), (2x60m, 3x100m), (2x60m, 100m, 120m, 150m)

• How to put this into a normal week for someone running 6 days a week and 40 miles:

• Monday: mile warmup, speed workout, mile cooldown, lift weights (2 mile day)

• Tuesday: 8 miles

• Wednesday: 2 mile warmup, 2 mile tempo, 2 mile cooldown, lift weights

• Thursday: 8 miles

• Friday: Long run - 10 miles

• Saturday: 6 miles

• This is just one example to give you an idea of how to put it together.? Don’t have all the distance runs be the same length.? A lot of these days could be moved around.? The speed day is best the day after a day off, but it could be the day after the 6 mile run, and it would still be okay. The long run could fall the day after any workout, but I wouldn’t generally place it the day after a day off, unless you’re not good with them and feel the need to go into them recovered.?

Summer (Off-Season) Weightlifting:?

You should be working to increase your strength and power, while also trying to make yourself less susceptible to injury.? It’s often said that Summer lifting should be higher reps per set, and while that’s true, it is generally taken too far in that direction.? Don’t rush through your lift.? If you’re able to rush through your lift, you’re not doing enough weight.? Get your form correct before worrying about increasing weight.? Don’t go in and do the same weight week after week (assuming you have the form down).? Push yourself.? Do not repeatedly go to failure though, as that requires a longer recovery time.?

• A runner should not be doing an upper/lower split (that’s where you have a day off just upper body lifts and a day of just lower body lifts) because your upper body day is a day where you’re fatiguing our neural system, but not improving your lower body strength, which is obviously more important for a sprinter.??

• Your lower body is the more important part, but you should not neglect upper body.?

• You should be doing both pushing and pulling exercises

• You should be making sure to focus your lifting sessions around your bilateral lifts (using both limbs together to lift, like bench press, pull ups, barbell back squat, deadlift, etc)

• You should include unilateral lifts in your workouts (dumbbell lifts, single leg exercises)

• Summer bilateral lifts should be around 4-6 reps per set and 3-4 sets.

• Summer unilateral lifts should be around 8-12 reps (per leg) for 3 or so sets.

• Having a rep range allows for progress towards going up in weight.? Once you can do 12 reps, it’s likely time to go up in weight and try sets of 8.

• Lift bilateral and unilateral lifts on high intensity days (speed days in Summer)

• Lift just unilateral exercises on moderate intensity days (tempo days)

• A lifting workout can consist of 4-8 exercises.? Generally around 3 bilateral lifts, with the rest being unilateral.??

• If you know how to properly do a clean or snatch, in the Summer they should be around 5 sets of 5 at around 50% of your max weight with a focus on moving the bar as quickly as possible.? This will prepare you to do heavier lifts later in the year.

Cross Country Season:

• Early Season:

• What was your focus in the Summer needs to be maintained throughout the rest of the year.? When you’re building up something, you do that kind of workout every week.? When you’re maintaining it, every other week is generally enough.??

• Keep up doing max speed workouts, tempo workouts (continuous or interval style), and long runs, like in the summer, but every other week.

• Add in longer hill intervals.? Some programs will start doing these at the end of summer, and that’s an option.??

• This part of the season will start having either time trials, scrimmages, or meets, and those would be one of your 3 hard days for the week.? If you’re new to running and start running 5k races, you might be better off with only 2 hard days on those, because weeks are going to be quite a strain on your system.??

• Doing one workout in early season that’s all 5k paced is fine, but it shouldn’t be a regular thing. That will be a focus later. 5k paced brief surges can be done on an aerobic or tempo day to start introducing that pace, but there shouldn’t be a ton of it. You’ll start having 5k races, which would be your 5k pace work for this phase of training.?

• Interval workouts are generally shorter intervals, if you’re doing any faster intervals, like 1-2 mile pace.? They will get longer later.

• This phase is more of a brief transition, assuming you just did a whole summer base training phase.??

• Lift twice a week.

• Middle Season:?

• Similar to the early season, but intervals start getting longer.??

• Hill workouts phase out, but doing hilly runs is fine.

• Mileage isn’t as high as in the base building phase.

• Lift twice a week.

• Still maintaining what you’ve built, so every two weeks you should at some point be doing:

• Speed

• Tempo

• Long Run

• Intervals

• race

• Late Season (Championship meets):

• Intervals are generally longer than the middle season.

• Lifting becomes more explosive and lighter in weight.

• Lowest mileage phase.? Long runs tend to get shorter.

• Still trying to maintain what you’ve built up by cycling through the workouts.?

• You can combine some workouts into combo workouts to have fewer hard days and still touch upon them within a 2 week period.

• Don’t do anything too hard 1 or 2 days before the meet.?

Winter Track:

For the purposes of this FAQ, I’ll be discussing 800m, mile, and 2 mile.? If you do the 1000m, the training is the same as the 800m.? The 3 events have their differences, but they have a lot in common. It’s common for someone to run all 3 of these events at some point in the season, and maybe even the 400m, but you would generally focus your season’s training towards one primary event.? The 800m training will be more geared towards the distance runner type of 800m and not the 400-800 type, as middle distance is pretty different entirely.??

In a normal season, you will have 1-2 meets a week.? Those meets will represent a workout of the pace of that race, assuming you went hard in it.? An 800m runner could get a 400m paced workout in by doing the open 400m and the 4x400m relay, instead of doing a 400m paced interval workout.? Same idea with racing a 2 mile to get in 2 mile paced work in, or a 2 miler racing 800m and 4x800m to get 800m paced work in.??

If you’re coming off a Cross Country season, take a couple weeks off.

• Early Season:

• If you’re coming off of not having done anything all Fall, then your first few weeks will look like the Cross Country summer, so read that.

• If? you’re coming off of an XC season, you can go right into Middle Season training.

• Track isn’t as high mileage as XC, but distance runners still have a long run every week early season and every other week once meets start.

• Middle Season:

• Interval workouts that are 1-2 race distance away from your primary race are the main paces you’ll be doing interval workouts in this phase.??

• Still maintaining what you’ve built, so every two weeks you should at some point be doing:

• Speed

• Tempo

• Long Run

• Intervals

• race

• Mileage is lower than early season.

• Shorter, broken up intervals

• Late Season

• Intervals become longer, with longer recovery between intervals.??

• Example of a change from mid to late season intervals would be a middle season workout of 800m paced 200m intervals with a brief jog or standing recovery, then later season doing 2x500m or 2x600m at 800m race with significant recovery, like 20 minutes. (This would be for an 800m runner)

• Still maintaining everything you were in middle season, but might use more combo workouts to touch on everything with fewer total hard workouts.

• Lowest mileage phase.? Long runs tend to get shorter.

• Don’t do anything too hard 1 or 2 days before the meet.?

• Your main interval workouts will be at your current race pace or goal race pace.? Your goal race pace shouldn’t be way off from your current race pace.

Spring Track:

Spring track is very similar to Winter track. Some programs may focus more on spring track than winter track, and those programs wouldn’t taper off the mileage as much in winter. Most people doing Spring track will have done Winter track, so they would be able to skip the early season phase of training. A newer runner should be able to handle a little more miles per week in spring than they did in winter, now that they’ve had a full season of running.

How would a more speed oriented distance runner’s training be different from one with very little speed? (fast twitch runner vs slow twitch runner)

• A more fast twitch oriented distance runner will generally do well under lower mileage.??

• Intervals that have jogging recovery end up being more aerobic in nature and would be more fitting for a slow twitch runner than a fast twitch runner.?

• You can do some interval workouts that are the opposite of your strength, but the majority of your intervals should fit your strength to get the most out of the season.?

What aerobic workouts can I do that have less pounding than running? (either due to coming off injury or having low work capacity)

These are workouts that will help improve your work capacity while not adding more impact to your week of workouts, so you’re recovering better from your harder days. These are a good way to have a newer runner workout more times a week, when they’re not ready to run 5-6 days a week yet. They can also be added to the end of a running workout for runners of any level.??

• Bodyweight Circuits: ~10 minutes worth of bodyweight exercises that are 20-45 seconds in duration.? If the workout is more recovery in nature, the rest time is equal to the work time.? If it’s more conditioning based, the rest time can be ~half the work time.? Roughly ?? of the exercises are lower body with some upper body and core exercises mixed in.??

• Core Circuits: ~10+ minutes worth of core exercises that are 20-60 seconds in duration.? Rest time is 5-20 seconds. The specific exercises aren’t super important.? Vary the difficulty and vary the muscles used (twisting, isometric, crunching, lower back)

• Hurdle mobility exercises: ~10 minutes worth of hurdle mobility exercises.??

• Resistance band exercises for hip stability: zombie walks forward and back, side shuffle, side leg raises, isometric side leg raises.? For side leg raises, your body should be completely straight, and your hips should be perpendicular to the ground.

• Animal walks: duck walk - forward, back, and sideways, bear walk, panther walk, inchworm, crab walk, sideways pushup position crawl

• Cross-train - Biking, swimming, elliptical, water running

Do strides improve your speed?

The short answer is no. Strides can help you to maintain the speed you have during a high mileage phase with a lot of slower running, but they don’t make you fast. They’re still good to occasionally do at the end of distance runs, with a focus on good form.

Should I be doing doubles, and if so, how should I add them in?

For the vast majority of runners, doubles aren’t necessary. They’re used to make it easier to hit higher mileage totals.? If you’re not doing at least 50 miles per week (and some would say even higher than that) you don’t need to be doing any doubles.??

• Only do 1 more double than you did the previous week.

• Don’t use doubles to add in additional hard workouts. They are for additional distance runs.

• Some people will run in one session and lift in the other as a ‘double’. This is fine, but it’s also unnecessary, unless you have some restrictions to your access to facilities.?

What is a progression run, and should I do them?

A progression run starts out slower than your normal distance run pace and slowly gets faster, until it’s faster than your normal distance pace. It would be as long as a normal distance run and would just be in place of that. They can be good to occasionally do, especially if you’re not feeling ready to go at the beginning of your run.? Going faster at the end causes you to fatigue your fast twitch muscle fibers, which will cause them to adapt and improve. You get those same fast twitch advantages by making interval workouts be faster at the end as well.??

Should distance runners do the wicket drill?

Everyone can benefit from doing the wicket drill, even though it’s often thought of as something for sprinters.? It would go directly before doing sprints on a speed workout day.

Wicket Drill

The wicket drill is done by running at a high speed and stepping over a series of “wickets”.??

• A wicket - can be many things.? You’ll commonly see them as 6” mini hurdles (AKA banana hurdles), and that’s the tallest thing you’d want to use. You can also turn them over to just be running over the crossbar lying on the ground. Those mini hurdles can be expensive.? You can make cheaper versions of them out of PVC pipes.? You can also just use sticks, cones, or half-cones.?

• Spacing - can be either a consistent spacing or progressive spacing.? Generally, if you do consistent spacing, you don’t do too many, like 8-ish.? I’ll give some spacing suggestions based on my experience. Whatever you do, don’t use spacing that is so far apart that you end up having to reach to get to the next one, as that defeats the purpose of the drill.

• Consistent Spacing

• I’ve started off JV girls with 1.5m between

• I’ve started JV guys off with either 1.5m or 1.6m, depending on ability level and their height.

• Varsity guys can generally do 1.7m without issue, unless they’re particularly short

• I generally set up multiple lines with different spacings, and after each rep each kid does, I tell them if they should move to a shorter or longer spacing.

• Progressive Spacing

• Vince Anderson has a good chart, if you want to look it up. It has spacing for the wickets and spacing for your first 6 steps going to the first wicket.

• Every 3 or 4 wickets, they should get 10cm (4”) farther apart.??

• Start the spacing at what you would for consistent spacing, or a little closer.