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| Arbogast: A super question and one that can be approached on two fronts: confidence and physical preparation. |
| Athletes in distance track or cross country in this situation can begin by looking at the pacing they are using as a guide during the race. The best distance runners are able to monitor their level of effort in order to arrive at the finish of the race with the vast majority of their energy reserves spent -- ideally with very little left over. If you are getting to the end of a distance race and still feel untaxed, you have been racing in what might be termed the "comfort zone," which is a level of effort that feels intense but is actually quite below your actual aerobic threshhold. |
| Battling out of this requires help from your coach in confidence and physical preparation, but both of those can be accomplished at about the same time. Obviously, you need to analyze the time goals you have in your race. Once that is done and you have set an appropriate and challenging goal, it is advisable to sit down with your coach and decide what splits are necessary in order to hit your time goal. A challenging time will require challenging splits. Next, have your coach take those splits to the track. They should become the pacing for intensive workouts, which also will build confidence in your ability to hit the new pacing, therefore arriving at the end of the race having given everything. |
| A good example would be a high school sophomore who would like to break 5:00 in the 1,600. He is stagnating at 5:10 and just can't seem to break through from this plateau. A good coaching move would be to sit down and analyze typical 1,600 splits for a sub-5:00 high school miler ... typically near 72 / 76 / 76 / 75. Next, workouts should be constructed to challenge that pacing, with legspeed work done at 68-70 pace so the athlete develops the turnover and confidence that he can hold the pace for the requisite amount of time. A good but simple example would be 6 x 400 in 68-69-70-70-69-69 with a 3:00 rest, but variance in the distance is fine as long as the pacing remains the same. This builds the muscle memory of what it feels like to run at a higher level of effort and works on the confidence level so that the athlete can train at a higher intensity for an even longer duration than the target distance and survive it. |
| Taking a lesson from the current world leaders in distance races, the Africans, we learn two things that don't routinely get attention in American high schools. We need to do a substantial amount of training faster than race pace, and we have to develop the ability to run fast when tired. Accomplishing speedwork at faster than race pace, along with ending the workout with several "all-out" 200s with a minimal 60-second jog in-between, will develop confidence and the leg speed necessary to drop the hammer when you reach the critical point of a race. |
| This approach will help you reach your potential, eliminate racing in the "comfort zone" and help you to develop a familiarity with the leg speed necessary to get you to the final stages of a distance race having given everything you have. |