Below is how Jay Johnson describes a typical week for the
athletes he coaches. Johnson’s most notable runners are Brent Vaughn
(13:18 5,000m/1:02:04 half marathon), Renee Metivier Baillie (15:15
5,000m) and Sara Vaughn (2:03 800m/4:11 1500m).
Sunday: With
the long runs we do, Sunday’s a hard day. [On a 20-miler, Johnson’s
runners start very easy, are moving well by 8 or 9 miles, then run from
14 to 19 at about marathon race pace effort, and use the last mile as a
cool-down.] We don’t double on Sunday, but Brent goes to the pool after
and gets a massage, so if he shows up at 8 a.m., he’s not done until 1
p.m. He’s not running that whole time but he is focused on getting
better for five hours.
Monday: One
run, easy, but we do strides Monday and Thursday, copying the
[University of Colorado coach Mark] Wetmore system. If the runners feel
like shit, they always have my permission to omit the strides. Now,
[Mammoth Track Club coach] Terrence [Mahon] would say you’ve gotta set
up the Tuesday workout to go really well by doing uphill strides or flat
strides really hard on Monday. Brent hasn’t missed strides on Monday in
forever, even when he’s tired, because he knows he’s going to feel
better on Tuesday.
Tuesday: Hit
it hard [a track workout or repeats on the road], including all the
ancillary stuff. [After the hard running, Johnson’s runners do several
non-running exercises, like medicine ball tosses and backward shot
puts.]
You can’t use the term “easy” if you wait a day to do the
power and strength stuff, and you can’t use the term “easy” [for the
afternoon] if you wait to do the power and strength stuff. To me, the
shot puts are power, but rather than go to the weight room, we’re doing
the shot. And I would not put off the [ancillary] workout the way
Mammoth does (waiting a few hours), because why wait? Now the power
output’s going to be lower [right after a hard running workout], but a
few hours later you’re not going to be recovered anyway. If Tuesday
morning is really hard, Tuesday night is slow as hell. That’s the
recovery workout before Wednesday.
Wed/Thu/Fri/Sat... go to article
