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The Inside "Track" - Part Two

Dateline: 7/27/98

This week is the meat in the sandwich of my interview with Jeff Arbogast. For those of you who missed last week might I suggest you go there first to get the entire picture of what this gentleman is telling us about.
In case you've forgotten, Jeff is Head Coach of Cross Country and Track & Field at Bingham High School, South Jordan, Utah.
So let's just dig right into the meat of his program, the four basic macrocycles of training.

TW: In the literature which you so kindly made available to me you speak of a four season style training for the cross-country/track team (summer, cross-country, indoor track, outdoor track). Could you give us a thumbnail sketch of how you implement and carry out your version of this style of training without, at the same time, causing burnout in your runners.
JA: Bingham trains year-round although remaining very aware of the high-school phenomenon of "burnout". We try to defeat the possibility of "burnout" through a dynamic program which encompasses many aspects of our athlete's lives, trying to infuse a little "fun" into virtually everything they do that is running related.
Fun is a critical aspect of high school athletics. . .more succinctly put. . .who would want to run up and down hills in the heat during training and racing, 40 to 60 miles per week, complete with morning workouts, speedwork, and the stresses of competition. . .unless it was fun?
We constantly involve our student body, parents, graduates, community runners, and other supporters to help make as many things fun for our athletes as possible. Travel runs, camps, sleep-overs, swimming parties, surprise breakfasts, night runs, newsletters, and trips are just a few of the things we do as a team to break the monotony of training. Athletes and parents have a hand in determining how to spark fun into workouts, and many of our best ideas have come from these avenues.
Bingham trains in 4 basic macrocycles. . .
  • Summer training base
  • Cross country
  • Indoor track
  • Outdoor track
We strive to impress upon every athlete the importance of the summer training base. Every facet of our training builds upon this critical building block of training. . .so much so that we really don't expect top-level performance from any athlete who is unable to get a proper base in from Memorial Day until Labor Day.
Our District and Region do not restrict interaction with athletes over the summer, so we plan a "hard-easy" building phase with a gradual build-up of 8-9 weeks followed by a slight taper and the addition of long intervals (800m) once a week during the final 4 weeks until school starts.
We meet as a team three times per week (M-W-F) for "hard" days, and allow the athletes to train on their own or in small groups during the T-TH-S "easy" days. We take Sunday off, a move which allows the legs time to rest and the body to regroup.
Our "hard" days will include hard fartleks of 5-7 miles, hills, altitude, power runs (steady state), or stepdowns ending at a challenging pace. Of the three main training precepts we work on. . .speed, resistance, and endurance. . .we only use a maximum of two of the three in order to avoid injury.
So, we may do a 7m. (endurance) hill (resistance) run, but we avoid any true speedwork during the run as that would incorporate the third training precept and put the runner at risk of injury. Or, we may do a hard fartlek (speed) at altitude (resistance), but we would make it shorter than normal. As we enter the last 4 weeks of the summer, we taper the distance (endurance) by 25% , and add speed.
We avoid "burnout" by using weekly newsletters to all runners, coaches, graduates, and community supporters, weekly mileage cards mailed to my house detailing every training run with or without the team (mailed from anywhere. . .this year's distance record so far is Holland), Wednesday Night Runs for the community complete with music from the football stadium speakers, the Alta Run on Fridays at one of our famous ski resorts, and HARC (High Altitude Running Camp), an intimate gathering of our toughest 10-15 girls and boys who live and train together at 10,000 feet building team camaraderie. Attendance at HARC is dependent upon mileage and competitiveness.
At the end of the summer, any runner who has completed summer training (established with a sliding scale dependent upon experience in our program) is eligible for our out-of-state trip. . .usually the Oregon Trail Invitational in Vale, Oregon, featured in Harrier Magazine.
Cross Country involves substantial racing, a dramatic reduction in mileage, strictly controlled speedwork and up-tempo running, and increased mental training, using imagery, relaxation, and performance anxiety drills. We try to avoid racing "burnout" by using our JV in most Conference settings, holding varsity runners for important Saturday Invitationals.
Bingham's "secret" to training during this macrocycle is the breakup of the standard 5000m race into 6 segments, each roughly 800 meters long and drilling on the racing of each of those segments through closely monitored speedwork of 800m length and varied interval.
The summer mileage base prepares the athlete for the rigors of this and we use mental challenges along with our 800m repeats. It is common for us to push athletes who are stagnating by showing them that they can average 2:15 per 800m repeat (4:30 mile pace) so they should easily be able to hold 5:15-5:30 during a race by sacrificing rest but gaining a slower leg turnover.
Bingham usually runs from the front as our legspeed is generally superior. Our athletes control the pace at a much slower speed than they are used to on the track, maintain a good position near the front of the pack, then unleash a kick at the end of a race made possible by greater legspeed and an easier comparative pace at the start of the race.
Indoor Track follows a mandatory rest period after the Footlocker West meet in Fresno, California. Although most all of our athletes object vociferously, we do not coach. monitor, or otherwise get involved in training until we come back to school after Christmas. Most athletes take advantage of this time to relax on any intensity, recharge emotionally, and rest tired legs.
All of our indoor track work is done voluntarily, at 5:30am in the halls of our school prior to the arrival of the student body. Our athletes divide up into training groups of throws, jumps, hurdles, sprints, and of course, distance. Speedwork becomes shorter in duration and intensity, with common workouts being 3x500 followed by 3x300, given once per week.
Racing is done at unofficial "statewide" meets at local colleges every Saturday although many schools in Utah do not involve themselves to any degree.
Our training is lower-key with overdistance runs always fluid due to the weather conditions which could turn nearly unrunable in a matter of hours. Again, we train "hard-easy" with T-TH-S our hard days (with Saturday a race situation.)
Our season culminates at the Simplot Games in Pocatello, ID as a reward for those athletes who have attended morning practices faithfully. Bingham has dominated the distance races. . .most notably the 4x800, an event that is not even on the outdoor State Meet schedule in Utah, and we usually establish the national best in Track & Field News in early February.
Indoor Track prepares our athletes for the Outdoor Track macrocycle. . .our last of the year.
The tendency throughout the year has been to develop greater and greater legspeed through shorter speedwork as the year progresses, coupled with year-long circuit-weight work, push-ups, and sit-ups.
This philosophy continues but we alter one aspect of our training in that we split all distance athletes into two groups. . .1600/3200, and 800/1600. Speedwork is adjusted slightly according to whichever group the athlete most naturally belongs in, but all athletes need the benefits of legspeed. . .so it is stressed.
Mileage is again reduced to an average of 30-35 miles per week for boys and 25-29 miles per week for girls, but quality rules for each runner! "Junk miles" are virtually non-existent except for "lactic acid dumps" after speedwork.
The athlete is then rested for two weeks after the State Track Meet until we start the Summer Base macrocycle again. Changing focus throughout the seasons, changing goals, and new challenges keep the athletes "mentally fresh". Following the outdoor track season each athlete carries with her or him a new legspeed which makes the summer base cycle even more productive!!! Base miles are now performed at a higher VO2 threshold, muscle "memory" allows the athlete to feel comfortable at a much higher pace, and confidence is bursting from a speedy season on new PRs on the track. They cannot fail to run at a much improved level!
All through the macrocycles we maintain a "carrot". . .whether that be HARC, a trip such as Oregon or Simplot, or track invitationals. All are fun, and we make sure activities support this fun every week.

Next Week

Next week "Coach Arb" talks about parent and administration participation, cross-country for the common kid and his plans for the future of his program.