TheETG Training Principles
Do these things and you remove the major limitations that are embedded
in traditional training programs in track & field distance running.
1 — Standardization
Think standardization……Choose a group of workouts and stick with those workouts all year around.
In human physiology and the subject of training stimuli, variety is -not- always your friend.
Thus road workouts should be repeated on the –same– course. Tracks or
type of track surface should be the -same- from one workout to the
next. Workouts, rest days, and break periods should be
standardized…..rather than “making it up as you go”. And the presence
of potent training stimuli should be permanent in the training program.
Never “periodize” those workouts out of the training program across the
course of a season or year.
2 — Progressions
Base building
workouts should be designed in a standardized manner such that over
time, as the body responds via training adapations, the target times can
be reset for progression to faster target times.
Provides greater control to the coach to create a stepwise progression of the training stimulus.
This should be a permanent characteristic in workout design.
3 — Rest Days, Stay anabolic
Keep the body in an anabolic state.
If you get that done everything moves forward.
If you don’t get that done, nothing else matters.
Be highly aggressive at preventing the gradual pile-up of job time,
school time, travel, stress, lack of downtime, etc. And in this modern
era of distance running it goes without saying that you should
permanently place days off in your training program in a standardized,
non-“make it up as you go along” manner.
That’s days, as in the plural form of that word. As in more than 1 or 2 per week.
In a velocity oriented training program there should be 3 to 5 days rest between run training workouts.
In designing a training program, faulty assumptions are the mother of all screwups.
Training less requires less rest……is a faulty assumption.
Higher intensity training requires less training but more rest between workouts. That’s -not- a faulty assumption.
4 — Most or all training in interval form
Workouts designed in interval form increase the runner’s ability to
train faster. The faster you train the less frequently you’ll need to
train. The faster you train the lower the training volume required in
your training program to achieve the same level of fitness. Faster
training increases the potential for achieving higher levels of fitness,
and thus running faster times in races.
5 — Most base building workouts in 8 to 15 minute corridor
Targeting this corridor forces design of workouts containing relatively
high intensity sustained effort training. At the cellular level both
endurance and speed emanate from relatively high velocity aerobic
training. You’ll have “speed” whether you do sprints or not, you’ll have
endurance whether you do “long runs” or not.
And the multitude of
workouts in a traditional training program from the 8 to 12 mile fast
runs to mile repeats to 15 mile long runs, to the 6 to 9 mile
fartleks…..should -all- collectively be viewed as a multitude of
different ways a personal trainer has a client do sit-ups.
You don’t need a multitude of different ways to do sit-ups.
You can and should choose one or two effective ways, stick with those…..and ditch the rest.
6 — Stay ahead of tissue tightening, Stay ahead of tissue strength needs
Hamstring, calf, or quad issues occur at times when your fitness level
is moving forward. The rate of tissue tightening as your fitness level
progresses in any given week may exceed the rate [frequency of
stretching and strengthening] and/or effectiveness of your stretching
protocols. Strength requirements of tissues that are the weakest link in
the chain may exceed the frequency or effectiveness of your
strengthening protocols.