Interview with Dr. Jack Daniels

Coach Mick Grant interviews Dr. Jack Daniels, author of the popular book “Daniels Running Formula.”

Q: Dr. Daniels, How would you design a training program for a 14-15 year old girl?
A: The biggest problem in trying to determine the stress of the program is how hard the runner will be expected to be doing various sessions. Some programs are way too structured. I cannot advise more than 3 quality days in a single week (all other days being easy running, with maybe a few "comfortable" strides thrown in). Frequently, kids will

run too fast in most sessions and leg pain is almost sure to follow (shin splints at the least). Fartlek sessions usually turn out to be pretty hard efforts, and 200s (which I think are good to include fairly often) must be held to "comfortably fast," not too fast and certainly not sprinting.

Q: OK, How would you roughly structure a training week around the three quality days?

A: (1) two easy run days, followed by a few strides at the middle or end of the easy run.
(2) Identify the intensity to be associated with the various workouts -- for example, the 200s, 300s, 400s should not be any faster than CURRENT mile race pace, and the 800s, 1000s, 1200s should be 6 seconds per 400 slower than current mile race pace, and fartlek running should be comfortably hard, not gut efforts. I hate to see kids discouraged from running or injured so they can't give it a fair try.

(3) 5 to 7-mile runs are good.

Q: High School spring track has a short season and several competitions. How would you suggest setting up a training schedule around these challenges?

A: The problem is when there is a meet or two in the week. If there are 2 meets in a week then we only need 1 additional workout and that would probably best be a fartlek type run-- 5X3 minutes of hard running with 2min recovery jogs, or 7X2 minutes hard running with 1-2 minutes of jogging to recover. For example, if there is a Tuesday meet, then do the fartlek on Wednesday and have 2 easy days (Thu & Fri) before the Saturday meet. These (fartlek runs) take the pressure off of having to try to hit specific times in a workout. In general either Mon & Wed for quality days (with a coming Saturday race day). If we have a Tuesday meet, then make it Tue & Wed for the quality days and after the Tuesday races add a set of 6 X200 at a comfortably fast pace with 200 jogs to recover. If Wednesday is our race day, then we need to train on Monday prior to that Wed, and I would make the Monday effort fartlek type training.

Q: Dr. Daniels, How would you manage the challenging high school racing season?:

A: Number of races can vary a good deal. If a second race in a meet is a leg on the 4X400 relay, that is almost always a nice way to finish off a meet, especially for distance runners who don't get many opportunities to work on speed in a race situation. On the other hand if you are trying to run a good 2mile, but the 2mile comes after a leg on a 4X8 or an open mile (or both) then you will usually be discouraged with your 2mile time, and young runners don't need discouragement.Too often, in an attempt to score team points, the better runners are expected to race 2 or 3 times in each meet, and I don't think that is fair for the

individual who has to make those sacrifices. Being there to help the team is great, but letting the top runner try just one open event and maybe a late relay can do wonders for that individual, and it allows other, not yet developed runners, to be the ones who are counted on and need the experience against runners from another team, rather than knowing they will get beaten by their own teammate every time out.

In a single season of track (say outdoor season), I would be for fewer races than double the number of meets run in. If 10 meets, then less than 20 races for the season, and hopefully a lot of the second events are short relay legs.

Yours,
Mick Grant
youthrunner.com