Can Middle distance runners learn from sprinters?
When I was in high school, my high school coach, Steve Polley, had me workout with sprinters once a week. Longest work I did on those days was 350 meters. It was tough to run so fast, and also take the proper time to warm up and cool down. I learned about proper warm up and cool down, and noticed that when I took an hour to warm up, my races were much better.
Noah Lyles, showing the love with his fans, photo by Jeff Benjamin, 2022 NB Indoor GP
Last weekend, at the New Balance Indoor GP, 2021 Olympic bronze medalist, and 2019 World Champion at 200 meters, Lyles Noah set a PB at the 60 meters and won the race! His 6.56 PB gave Noah a big smile when he spoke to the media. Noah told the TV media that his coach (Lance Brauman) and he had been working on fine-tuning his start. Well, it worked.
What do we learn from this as middle distance geeks? Lyles Noah and his coach worked on tiny changes, and they made his 60 meter run a PB and a win. Middle-distance runners know that focusing on the small details can make a huge difference.
What details are you missing?
Today’s Workout: Friday, February 11, 2022, Friday: warm-up, 40-50 minutes moderate running, 5 x100m stride outs, cooldown
Learn from Noah Lyles, this SoundCloud interview was done after his 2019 World Championship gold medal at 200 meters, is a good start: https://www.runblogrun.com/2019/10/noah-lyles-gets-the-runblogrun-interview-at-the-doha-2019-world-champs-200m-gold-4x100m-gold.html
2022 RunBlogRun Spring Middle Distance Daily Track Training (800m-5000m), Week 5, Day 5
Monday: warm-up, 40-50 minutes moderate running, 5 x 100m stride outs, cooldown
Tuesday: Warm-up, 55 minutes running on trails, 15 minutes easy running, then, 6 times 2 minutes hard, 3 minutes easy, with 10 minutes moderate running, and cooldown, (hard running at 1500m pace)
Wednesday: warm-up, 40-50 minutes, moderate running, 5 x 100m stride outs, cooldown
Thursday: warm-up, 55-minute fartlek, 10 minutes running, then 14 x 1 minute hard, 1 minute easy, 17 minutes running, then cooldown
Friday: warm-up, 40-50 minutes moderate running, 5 x100m stride outs, cooldown
Saturday: warm-up, Racing on the relay, 4x400m, plus a 1000m, or an 800m, cool down
Sunday: 60-65 minutes moderate pace, on trails
