Thank you very much for your help. Your assistance is greatly appreciated. You have historically been very successful at being ready when it is important and for teaching your athletes how to manage their races. You have also been extremely successful at developing kids. I'd like to start off with a few questions which could lead to follow-ups.

Q: What message would you give to young athletes who have decided they love to run and would like to pursue it?

A: Be patient and recognize that you might have twenty years to go. Have other activities and interests. Every new level has harder requirements; so pace yourself over your career as you would over a race. And stay good in school. I don’t want to sound like some square old duffer, but good running coupled with good school work will give you a whole world of opportunities, running and otherwise. Good running alone will end up with you 35 years old and showing up to Sunday road races in a 1972 Volkswagen bus (that you live in).

Q: In Arthur Lydiard’s 1961 book, Run to the Top, he advocated a few simple rules for youth running. He said 10-15 year olds should do just aerobic distance running at their own pace (walk if they want to) and any distance they enjoy, avoid anaerobic work completely with the exception of short sprints of 200 or less to work on basic speed and should minimally race. He said there is no need to put limits on how far they run as long as they are doing it on their own will and are having fun. What do you think of that advice for youth runners 50 years later? (he told my middle school kids that they could run 20 milers no problem if they went slowly enough, which we have not attempted!)

A: Arthur never worked much with young runners. He was right, from a physiological perspective, that young runners can do such long runs, and a great amount of training volume. But Arthur didn’t understand about measuring out their desire and enthusiasm over a possible twenty year career. Are they going to do 20 mile runs every Sunday from 14 until 32?

Q: What do you think is important for middle school kids to prepare for high school running?

Just do this for a limited number of weeks in the fall and spring. Don’t go year-round yet. Soccer and Swimming are great developmental sports for young runners. Even if you are better at the Mile, still run the 200m and 4 x 400. These events develop muscular skills that are much harder to gain when you are older.

Q: What do you think is important for high school kids to prepare for college running?

A: Hold back on your desire to keep increasing your mileage. Even as a 17 year old, you may have 15 years to go. Try not to race too much. The athlete probably doesn’t have much to say about the racing schedule, but at least don’t add many post-season or “between seasons” races. Think of training as depositing money in an interest-bearing bank account, and racing as withdrawals. The longer the deposits, the greater accumulated interest, the bigger possible withdrawal.

Q: For high school kids, can you expand a little about holding back on increasing mileage? Some high school kids run 60-80 miles per week, but many more run 20-40. How would you advise kids in the lower group? What mileage and pace should high school boys and girls be prepared to run as college freshmen?

A: All colleges, like all high schools, are different. I think 70 mpw is a logical limit for h.s. boys, and 50 – 55 for girls. That would give them the opportunity to be very competitive, but also room to grow in college and beyond. Daily training pace will be a big adjustment for girls moving to college running.

Q: Do you recommend any kind of general formula of "hard" training and "easy" training? Some kids like to run hard all the time and others like to run easy all the time.

A: Here at CU we only go “hard” a handful of times per season. I’m sure there are coaches who like to sound macho or tough by preaching heroic workouts, but that isn’t really how you get in shape. You really just need the necessary stimulus for adaptation… a hard enough workout to cause your body to adapt and improve, but not so hard that it takes days to recover. We shoot for three “harder” sessions per week. It may be possible to do four at lower elevations.

Q: When you talk about "hard" sessions, could you clarify what that means? Is this aerobic training, anaerobic training or some combination? Also, what methods do you use to teach athletes how to monitor the difference between aerobic and anaerobic training? I've read where you talk about "sensory data". How much does your "training formula" change as the season goes on?

A: I guess a “hard” day is any day we are hoping for a stimulus/response from. Could be addressing any of the metabolic systems, or just neuron-muscular. We try to teach them the basic physiology, then ask them to pay attention and learn. Mostly we help them understand when they have gone too hard. Well the formula does change as the season goes on… mostly transitioning form aerobic/slower work to anaerobic/race pace work. But we end up doing a lot less of the latter than most places I suspect.

Q: After track season ends, I read that you ask your runners to take 2 weeks “down time”. What does this mean? Is down time more important for physiological or mental recovery?

A: Critical to both.

Q: How do you recommend building mileage over the summer? How do you mix easy aerobic mileage with threshold runs, long runs and other things during the build-up?

A: That’s different with every athlete. Some have to be very careful; some can be aggressive. Only the individual coach knows. We do a “long” run every week. It is usually 20% of the weekly mileage, so maybe not much in the early weeks. We do something “high aerobic”, maybe a threshold run, once a week after the fourth or fifth week.

Q: I read somewhere that one of your favorite types of threshold runs is 8-10K (on the track?) every other week during the base phase. Is that accurate? What is it you like about that workout? What factors do you use in determining threshold pace? Do you think this type of workout would be useful for high school athletes?

A: That’s accurate for men. The women go a little less. Educated guess, then careful, objective (I hope) observation. Great workout for h.s. athletes until the marathon of useless races begins.

Q: How do you teach kids how to race at a higher level?

A: Well I’m not supposed to think of college students as kids (but now that I am approaching their grandparents’ age I sometimes forget). Let’s talk about 12 – 18 year olds. I see a lot of coaches who give way too much instruction before workouts and races. How can you remember it all? I think it is more for the coach than the athlete. Increased fitness and increased experience will allow the athlete to “discover” the next level requirements. Sometimes the coach may have to nurture their confidence some at a new scary level. I recommend that the coach do a lot of questioning, or the athlete question herself/himself… “What do you want to learn today? What do you want to try?”

Q: Your program seems to start anaerobic work later than most schools, you start races later and you run fewer races to hopefully peak at a higher level at the very end when it counts the most. Despite all your great success, does that test the patience of you and your runners at times? How do you teach the discipline of patience?

A: Yes it tests all of our patience and faith. First the coach has to truly trust it, “realize” it, himself; then he/she can impart it to the students. Teach the lessons slowly, in small increments. Nothing teaches like success.

Q: What is your philosophy with regard to how often kids should race; by age, experience and season. I understand this could get very complicated, so please handle it however you see fit. For example, a 14 year old freshman girl is much different than an 18 year old senior boy.

A: Ideally, only after a reasonable period of preparation… at least 4 – 6 weeks. Then no more than once a week, best is every other week, but good luck finding a high school schedule that allows that. I coached a semi-famous runner once who raced 78 races his senior year of high school! The coach or AD should have to run a race every one of those mornings!

Q: There is also the problem of 3 seasons with 12-15 meets each season. How can kids train effectively and stay healthy with these demands?

A: Different coaches will give you different answers to that question. My opinion is that, with that many races, the athlete doesn’t really need much traditional “interval” or “speed” training. The races accomplish that themselves. Just easy or steady aerobic running in between and some light sprinting would be most practical.

Good diet and rest are important as well. That’s a bigger problem for college athletes I suppose, but even high schoolers will have to do some time-management if they’re going to get nine hours of sleep. High schools start too early!!

Q: What are some of the most important characteristics necessary for success?

A: Talent. Patience. Enjoyment, Character. Maturity. Patience, Responsibility. Humility, Patience, and Patience.

Coach Wetmore,

The goal is to help kids love running and train correctly so they can get to you well prepared.
Thanks again for your help.

Yours,
Mick Grant and John Molvar
youthrunner.com