Optimal Training

The difference a healthy diet makes

In retrospect, my diet was the one thing I never truly attempted to improve while I was running competitively.  I lived off of hamburgers, pizza, and way too much soda.  About the closest I ever came to modifying my diet for my training was eating pasta dinners before meets. 

I never experienced any major setbacks as a result of my diet, but I have no way of knowing how many minor hurdles I was putting in my way by eating the way I did.  I think I was probably just lucky.  I certainly never had an experience like Anthony Famiglietti, who talked about the diet-induced problems he experienced in this must-read article with Joe Battaglia at Universal Sports.

I wouldn't wish his experiences on any runner, even if he wouldn't trade them now.  I'd much prefer young athletes learn from his experiences to realize that certain behaviors, if practiced with consistent quality, will ensure optimal training.  And yes, maintaining a healthy, balanced diet is indeed one of the behaviors that requires consistent quality!

Coaching Changes: Why not more?

There have been a spate of high profile coaching changes this year--Flanagan, Donohue, Ritz, Wariner--and they've come about for a range of reasons.  My most recent article at Runner's Tribe takes a look at these changes within the context of the athlete-coach relationship and asks the question: Why not more?

Every runner seeks a magical connection with their coach.  The kind of relationship that allows them to work with one person for their entire career, and feel as though they achieved every bit of the potential that lay inside them.  But if one thing is true, it's that coaches have a hard time changing their methods too much over time.  If anything, as they achieve success, their early experimentations gradually decrease and their confidence in their methods makes their approach more rigid.

But that's not the same development path of an athlete.  Athletes live and train with coaches during the most crucial phases of their lives (18-35).  During this time they gain independence, they study, they date, they marry, they parent, and they inevitably deal with a host of personal issues, financial, emotional, and physical.  In short, they grow.  And at each stage of that growth, what they need from a coach changes.  The 18-year old who needed to be motivated to train and attend classes and told to reign it in has different needs at age 28. 

Given this fact, I think it's surprising that more athletes don't change coaches.  Especially just after the conclusion of an Olympic cycle.  But change is hard.  And it's compounded by the personal relationships that get formed over the years of working with someone.  It really is like a divorce.  It can be amicable or it can be messy, it can be a relief or a trauma.  And often, it can just plain be necessary. 

There are four key criteria where I feel athletes misinterpret the role of their coach as they plan their goals for the future.

Click here to read my four criteria and my thoughts on when an athlete should consider a coaching change.

An article as complete as Jenny Barringer

So Jenny Barringer has been lighting up the collegiate scene this year.  She's broken collegiate records from the indoor mile to the indoor and outdoor 5000m, and she's yet to run a steeple.  Joe Battaglia at Universal Sports just did a great article on Barringer with a ton of great quotes.  And yes, as Ezra pointed out to me, he even referenced my Trade Values article in which I ranked her #1 in the US.  Her thoughts on my placing her at #1:

“On a narrow and personal focus, I was glad that somebody finally recognized that I’ve been on a roll and have been working really hard and I’m really young and I’ve been doing all of this while carrying full loads of school work,” Barringer said of her ranking. “I think my potential to improve has quite a steep curve because I’m still in 15 credit hours of school getting As and Bs. It was cool to see somebody recognize my range, the records I have taken and my potential to improve from here.

“As the voice for all the steeplechase runners out there, my response was that it’s about time that somebody finally lobbied for all of us and said if all of those really great 1,500-meter runners or 5K runners want to run the steeple, it’s there for them to do. It’s not some kind of inferior event that other runners are barred from running so the women that are tops in the steeple, why should they be discriminated against.”

Love it.  And she's right.  There's a whole world of development ahead of her. 

Rather than effuse about Barringer--which is very easy to do--I just want to point out that this article is really written the way articles should be written.  I love reading interviews, but I'd much prefer a well-packaged article and story, filled with interview quotes, if I have my choice.  These are the types of articles that I aspire to write.

Decline of the Dual Meet

I had an amazing weekend down in Los Angeles, where I met up with former teammates to watch the UCLA-USC dual meet.  We ran an alumni race (I lost), cheered the Bruins (so did they), and enjoyed breakfast at Gilbert's, drinks and singing over the piano player at Casa Escobar, and of course Headlines (where the subscription special #1 is still the best deal in Westwood).

I was also reminded that the UCLA-USC dual meet is my favorite meet of the year.  It was painful to watch USC sweep us for the first time ever, but the meet itself was still fantastic.  And it is arguably the most important meet to the teams involved, when you use team in the wholistic sense.  Every athlete on the teams gets to compete in the dual meet, unlike the conference and NCAA championships. 

Sadly, the inclusiveness of the dual meet hasn't been enough to keep it a major part of the US collegiate track and field season.  I discuss this in my most recent article at Runners Tribe, The Decline of the Dual Meet.  A snippet:

"Sadly, aside from a few notable exceptions, the dual meet in general is in decline.  Despite being what Bob Larsen, the former head coach at UCLA and current coach of Meb Keflezighi, calls "the heart and soul of track and field," emphasis has changed from developing well-rounded squads with top athletes in every event to focusing on specific areas (distance, jumps, etc.) in hopes of scoring enough points to steal the conference, region, or national title.  With complete "teams" unnecessary, the meets that showcase them have also become less relevant.

There are essentially four types of track and field meets: dual meets, championships, invitationals, and relays.  Of those four, only dual meets are truly about the teams."

Click here to read the complete article.

Chris Derrick interview and AJR 5k video

On Saturday, Chris Derrick broke Galen Rupp's Junior American Record for 5000m, running 13:29.98 at the Payton Jordan Invitational at Stanford and finishing 3rd.  In doing so, he also defeated German Fernandez (13:31.78, 4th).  This interview at Tips 4 Running gives some great insight into Chris's training, mindset, and maybe even his talent (he estimates he has 53.high speed in a flat quarter!). 

Here are the meet results from the Payton Jordan Invitational.

Here is a video of the race.

NY Times' Brooks on "Genius"

David Brooks of the New York Times often writes about politics and economics from a slightly right-leaning sociological view.  Today, however, he's written an article about "Genius" in which he argues for something that you and I have always known: that genius is the product of deliberate practice.  (I wrote about this when Bobby Fischer passed away.)  What makes us great is not, as he puts it, some "divine spark" but rather the ability to "develop a deliberate, strenuous, and boring practice routine."

Sounds a bit like running, to me.