Distance running WO

i apologize if this seems redundant, it is very similar to Ron's previous post about CC and CF, but there are some differences.

my wife is the athletic trainer for the track and field team here where we are both grad students. It is Div I. the distance team has no set strength program. one of the girls on the team asked her if i could come up with a program for her.

first problem: i used to work in the athletic weight room here and i don't want to "step on any toes" by training one of their athletes, which i know could potentially **** them off, but they aren’t doing anything so i think i can get away with it.

real problem: i have never trained a distance athlete.

my first thoughts would be to start with O-lifts (as i usually do with athletes) but with a distance runner, running on a track i can not think of a transfer between a snatch (or C&J) and running on a flat surface.

i will have no control over her running, which is probably good since i only do it once a year myself (OKC marathon), so this is merely the strength portion of her WO. she only has time to WO twice a week, with everything else she does. so not sure if some variation of CF would work only twice a week. she has previously (the rast 2 years) been doing 1 set of 20 different exercises for 20 reps.

my only thinking thus far has been high rep body or low weight exercises like tabata squats, and some O-lifting for the "kick" at the end of a race.

any help would be great.

tanner

[Ron Nelson]

Get the latest "Get Up!" issue with Lincoln's overview of the Burgener warm up. That will teach her the basics of the O-lifts. That's what I'm going to do with the jr. high CC runners. If anything, it's going to build speed, but also hip recruitment, shoulder flexibility (is that good for runners?), and make them "one piece animals." I figure that will help over the long distances.
Another thing, O-lifts are great at training muscle memory. One thing Josh Everett told me as I was practicing the C&J, "Don't think; lift."
Oh, I'm also going to throw a lot of dumbbell swings, calisthenics, and WOD's their way to build endurance and mental toughness.
Now, wait for Eugene with the real good advice!

[Ron Nelson]

Here's the link to the issue:
http://danjohn.org/iii9.pdf

[Graham Hayes]

I think deadlifts and push presses are a must.

[Eugene R. Allen]

Thanks for the nice lead in Ron.

Tanner, you mentioned the other posts about CF and cross-country running so you are no doubt aware of and in agreement with the validity of high intensity training for long distance athletes. You have the athlete coming to you for training advice so she too must be aware of the need for the addition of strength and strength-endurance training to her program. You just need the exercises.

This is the easy part. The hard part is getting the endurance athlete into the weight room.

Dispense with the idea of picking body parts that need to be strong. You don't want an athlete with strong parts, you want a strong athlete. But do keep in mind you are training a distance runner not a hammer thrower.

Stair running is a must. Hopefully you have a stadium there at your school where you can have your athlete run. If not, try to find some because stairs are fabulous for the development of strength-endurance.

Box steps, with and without weights are not a replacement but a good augmentation. Weighted lunges are also very good as are the DL varieties. Be sure to do duckies (heels together, toes out with the knees tracking the toes) Romanian and Sumo varieties to challenge her legs in different ways.

Hip flexors. Do what you can to strengthen the hip flexors. I have found that KB swings when done with proper hip drive are great for the hip flexors and swings are a great high intensity cardio workout as well...especially when done as a part of a larger group of exercises. Have her stand on two boxes holding a KB or dumbell in both hands, and do squats as deep as she can go. The extra weight will pull her down deep into the hole and develop strength through a very complete range of motion. Swings and snatches on the boxes are very effective as well. I am a big fan of flutter kicks not just for their ab benefit but also for the work they subject your hip flexors and quads to. Have her crank out 100 four count flutterkicks after her swings, snatches and box squats.

Oh, thrusters too. Thrusters really work a lot of posterior chain muscles, is an easy to learn exercise and can be done with a barbell or two dumbells. Have her do Helen with swings or thrusters and jumping pullups. Smoker.

As part of a warm up have her sit on the ground with her feet out in front of her and some light dumbbells (one or two pounds) in each hand. She is to move her arms with a runner's swing at an accelerated pace for 30 seconds to a minute at a time. We don't want the athlete to slow down because her arms slow down.

Recall the WOD from a few days ago with that huge variety of exercises that seemed to go on forever. I changed it a bit and made it go on a little farther. I called it 500 squared because I added a 500 meter row as the first event and then added enough exercises to total 500 reps. It took me 25 minutes so I was motoring along at very high intensity for quite a long time. This is perfect for an endurance athlete and is very typical of the way I arrange my exercises. Lots of exercises, lots of reps, lots of intensity, lots of time under load.

Core strength is a must. Have her do med ball work and rotational throws so she can build the connection between her lower body and upper body. All that arm strength she develops won't help much if her middle is weak. Pilates ball exercises and body planks are great. For the planks have her balance on her forearms and toes with an nice flat back in a pushup looking position and stay that way for 30 seconds or so. Do the same with one leg and the opposite arm extended, turned on the side and even with just a foot and hand on the ground.

Tanner, the secret is to not have her do things that are so hard she is smoked in just a few minutes. Lighten the load just a bit so she can continue at a very intense pace but for a fairly long period of time...up to a half hour or so as opposed to less than five minutes.

My wife was a PAC 10 runner (2:12 half mile) in college and they did squats, box steps with weights, lunges and the bench press in addition to their running. Not sure of the utility of the BP but some med ball throws will be perfect for your runner.

This type of work made my 2004 season my best ever. I keep aging up but my times keep getting better. Your runner will get better results by adding a third day of this intensity work...2 days is pretty minimal. If it is a quality run day (intervals on the track) she should lift after the run workout if she lifts at all. If it is just a mileage run she should lift first.

Good luck with this Tanner. What a great testimonial opportunity you have in the making.

[Ron Nelson]

Sheesh!
I'm going to have to print out every post Eug puts up. It's been a great start to my training manual!
As for thrusters, I have found that stretch bands are a great way to teach the thruster to a beginner. The bands give enough resistance through the entire ROM and just challenging enough to give them a great workout. I'm in complete agreement with the use of Helen and Fran to train endurance athletes of this distance. Luckily, we have a football stadium that's just a short jog away. Good warm up, then brutal stadium laps.
Eug,
I like the flutter kicks used with swings. This proves once and for all you are an evil genius! When I get our CC shirts made up, one's coming to Tacoma!

[Eugene R. Allen]

Ron - I do the stairs at Stadium HS and their bowl consists 21 sets of steps most of which consist of 60 steps each. I have done it in under 16 minutes but anything under 21 minutes is considered good work because that requires going up and down each set in less than a minute.

You may find that there is a group of people that run the stairs you do and from them you can find out what a good time is for doing the entire bowl.

Some tips. Make sure everyone keeps their heels down. If they stay high on their toes they will blow their calves up. The arm carriage is not fore and aft as with regular running but rather a both arms upward with a shrug maneuver that is timed with the downward push of the stepping foot.

A fast turnover allows you to not have to extend your leg all the way but rather float to the next step. This is faster and requires slightly less range of motion and is just a little less of a drain on the legs...though it is harder on the lungs.

Don't rest on the top. Use the descent as the time to recover. Be sure to land mid foot with a fairly rapid turn over and brake as little as possible so you don't slow down and you don't use your quads more than you need to. Stress caution on the descent. There is not a set of stadium steps made that is friendly to a fall.

If your bowl is anywhere as big as mine, consider having your kids do only to a portion of the bowl the first time. A full bowl trip the first time at Stadium HS always results in quite a bit of limping for the next several days.

Make sure they run for at least a mile at a gentle pace after the stairs in order to properly cool down and work out some lactic acid. The next days workout can be a gentle run but must not be a track workout or anything tough. In the beginning limit stair work to just once a week.

Time them every single time they go. By having a pecking order and an individual PR time each and every trip they will have a reason to work hard and will have a goal time to beat. Their improvement will come quickly and often.

Another training trick is to team up the runners and have them alternate sets of steps. Start the teams on opposite ends but have the finish line be in the middle someplace.

You can also have them alternate pushups and situps at the top or bottom, or situps/flutterkicks at the top and pushups at the bottom to make their workouts more CrossFit-like.

Once they are strong enough you can insert the stairs in the middle of a long run. Great confidence builder to have them go from being unable to compete the stairs to doing it as part of longer workout.

Thanks for thinking about me re: your shirt. One of my wife's running pictures shows her getting an award of some kind wearing a shirt that says "You can't beat what you can't catch." I like that one. How about "If running were easy they'd call it baseball." On consecutive lines "Run Far. Run Fast. Run Often. Win." I really like that one. If you don't do that one I may make up a shirt like that for myself.

[Joshua F Hillis]

My two cents. This is just my opinion, and I only ran high school. But I was 2nd man on a cross country team that tied for the best score in Division 4 History at the State Meet. Also ran a 4:16 mile and a 9:22 two mile in track, enough to be top 20 in California, and top five in any invitational I ran at anywhere in the nation.

I agree with 90% of what Eugene said.

One thing I would definately toss out would be the stadium stairs workout. If she is in cross country season, she is doing a pretty heavy hill workout at least once a week already. The design of the hill workout should be exactly the same as what Eugene described. If she is in track season, she is doing some pretty intense interval workouts that are tailored to her times, events, and what part of the season she is in. I'd save her running legs for her running workouts. I'd focus on things she ISN'T ALREADY DOING.

I totally agree with Eugene on Helen and Fran. SO GOOD for a runner. Such a good way to create that "one peice athlete" that Eugene said. Balance the body out with full body functional movements. SO SO SO SO GOOD.

Also I wouldn't worry about heavy O-Lifts, I'd go more for high rep thrusters, kettlebell swings or kettlebell snatches.

[Joshua F Hillis]

Also, in terms of the cycle of the season. I'd do CrossFit style workouts in pre-season and early in the season.

As the big meets start coming up, I'd back off the full out CrossFit WOD type stuff and do strength work that isn't going to take anything out of the track workouts. Functional movements on the 3-5 rule: 3-5 sets, 3-5 reps, 3-5 minutes rest. Maintaining that full body strength, but leaving her fresh fresh fresh for her track workouts.

In the championship stretch I would cut out additional strength work completely. Track workouts only.

There's some really great info in this thread! I might have to steal a bunch of it as it looks like I'll be doing spring track this year.