Some excellent advice on 800 pacing. It's interesting to note that our head coach and I were actually thinking the opposite; go out in 58 and hang on till the end to see what he can do. The reason for this approach is to test his level of conditioning. Remember, Greg ran a full cross country season and then did long intervals and ladder workouts during the winter and early spring to build endurance. Our coach wants to see if this level of endurance training has paid off and wants to compare it to the current crop of middle and distance runners who mostly trained in distance runs during that time. There is also no pressure on this race. It has been discussed that unless Greg does something spectacular i.e. go under 2:00, we're not going to move him out of the 400 and into the 4x800 relay or open 800. This is because we have a crop of guys running 2:04 to 2:06 and putting Greg into that mix does little to change the dynamic. We also don't want to deprive him of whatever his potential is for the remainder of the season in the 400. So we're treating this as a bit of a mix in the training routine.As for speed workouts, today was one of the best we have ever run. We started with an all out 350m with a full 15 minute recovery. This was followed by 4 200m intervals with a target time of 27 with 5 minutes between each one. Greg split 46 for the 350 and then ran 26, 27, 26.5 and 25.7. Based on Clyde Hart's 400 training program, these times should translate into a much faster 400 than Greg has yet run. Our District championship meet is May 21 and this is what we are striving to peak for. Greg's history has always been to hit his best time in this meet. Between now the 21st we will continue to run the high quality speed workouts and keep inching the target times down. I really believe this will give Greg his best shot at peaking at the right time and going as low as he can in the 400. Even though we'll see what he can do in the 800, as I said we're treating it as a diversion unless there is really something that develops to change the dynamic.
This is really getting fun and exciting! By the way, on another note, a former Hudson girl (distance runner and in the top 10 in cross country in the state as a freshman) is now a freshman at Bucknell. Her family moved to PA two years ago. I saw some Facebook chatter (yes, I'm one of Greg's "friends") and she is astonished that he is not going to run track at American. I don't think her opinion has any real influence but at least I'm not the only one trying to plant the college bug in his ear. And for real underhanded moves, Marcy suggested that she and I casually pass by the athletics department during Greg's 3-day orientation trip in June and meet Coach Centrowitz. "Hey, our son is not planning on coming out for the team but......?????" You never know!
More after our Wednesday meet and the 800.
Dave
1 comment:
Interesting difference of tactics/coaching. At least Greg has some good solid coaching. I think the only advice that Truce ever gave me that I listened to was to relax my face. I don't really remember him ever giving me advice on pacing or how to run. I decided on my own to run evenly paced races. However, I found in large cross country meets, if I did that, I was too far back in the pack at the start (in one big invitational, almost the back 10%). Truce didn't really say anything, but the next race, I pushed a little harder (national qualifier) to stay in the top third of the pack (ran 9:53 1st two miles, although it was downhill), and finished 13th overall. I missed nationals by a couple places. But don't forget to let Greg know about relaxing the face...timeless advice..........
Mark
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