Common Denominators

Track and Field Videos on Flotrack

A very informative interview with Ron Warhurst, Head Cross Country Coach at the University of Michigan. If you have 7 minutes, watching the video is worth it. Many of the things we do at Haslett come from Coach Warhurst. Some of these training components are covered in the interview that relates to Haslett's program.

• Drills. Reinforce good running form. Coach Warhurst talks specifically about arm carriage. Everyone has a unique running style, but the drills we do help to make this style more efficient. You will never have perfect form, but by consistently doing drills you will become more efficient, which will enable you to run faster.
• Strides. Coach Warhurst calls these 150's. At Michigan they do 150 meters of very fast running followed by a 250 meter jog. We do 100 meter strides at Haslett. To really benefit from strides you need to do them FAST. You have to concentrate on running fast and really force yourself to run FAST... constantly telling yourself to run faster and faster. I like to repeat the words FAST-RELAX over and over as I run my strides.
  
• Hills. Running hills is comparable to lifting weights. It builds very specific running strength that allows you to run faster. The stronger you are with running specific strength the faster you will run at any distance. Meijer Hills in the winter and EL Hills in the summer build strength for the spring and fall training at race pace.
  
• Relaxed Fast Running. You can't muscle it and run fast. Look at any world class runner and they make it look easy... from 100 meters to the marathon. Even though these runners are pushing their physical limits, they are also concentrating on running relaxed.
• Consistency. Consistent training... we have said this over and over again. There is absolutely no substitute for this. You loose fitness much quicker than it takes to gain fitness. I would say its about a 1:2 ratio. For every week off it takes about 2 weeks to gain that fitness back. 2 weeks off of aerobic activity would mean 4 weeks to gain back that fitness. 3 weeks off and you are looking at 6 week to gain that fitness back. 4 weeks off and yikes... 8 weeks. That's an entire fall or spring season if you don't maintain your fitness in the off season.

Enjoy!