Coaching The Mindset of An Athlete

When I was younger, I did swimming, wrestling, cross country and track. On some teams, there were usually a few kids that clearly didn't want to be there or were just there to get some conditioning for a different sport. Most likely, their parents made them do it and they put in the least amount of effort possible just to get by. There will always be a few disinterested kids or adults on a team, but I think the biggest mistake of a coach, is to MAKE an athlete do more of an activity as a punishment. I believe this conditions people to see the activity as more of a job rather than a genuine personal endeavor and reduces motivation. Here are my experiences in getting people to be more motivated athletes.

"YOU DON'T HAVE TO RUN....YOU GET TO RUN!" - Change the mindset from the start

A coach I had in middle school wrestling was probably one of the most influential people I had in sports. At the beginning of practice, we'd have to go out in the cold and run 2 or 3 miles. A bunch of middle school kids certainly didn't enjoy running, but we had it drilled into our heads on day 1, "You don't have to run... You GET TO RUN!" That's probably the only sports team I have ever been on in which it was rare to hear a complaint. Everyone worked hard and learned to love it. Farmington, Missouri is well known for their successful wrestling teams, and I think this mindset is a strong contributor to that.

"GET SERIOUS OR GET OUT!" - Don't be here if you don't want to be.

My sister and I did swim team for several years, and I'll never forget one coach in particular who shaped my mindset as an athlete. At the time, the team consisted of over 100 kids. Most were serious and a few not as serious and just liked to chat. Our coach was a thick guy with a deep, echoing voice that you could hear from across the pool. A nice guy, but could definitely be intimidating if he was yelling at us. He ran a successful team and we won pretty much every meet.

There were several occasions in which we were supposed to be swimming, but a few were talking or just being fairly disrespectful and not listening to what the coach had to say. He always had one line that would shut everyone up and get us all back to work: "Get serious or get out of my pool. Come back later and pay a dollar (when the pool is open for rec swimming)." Of course his commanding voice was helpful in getting us going again, but the fact that we wouldn't be able to swim with the "serious kids" made us want to do it more. Essentially it was reverse psychology. If you don't want to be here with our group, get out! Nobody ever left that I can recall.

INJURIES INCREASE MOTIVATION - People want what they can't have.

There are two seasons out of the year when people often dislike to run. Winter and Summer. It's either too hot or too cold in the Midwest those two times out of the year for people to feel motivated to get outside. As a coach, it is sometimes near impossible to get some people out to run most days of the week within those seasons. It is frustrating but I do understand because I don't feel like running either.

I have noticed that regardless of weather, if an athlete gets an injury they cannot wait to finally slap on their shoes for a hard workout. People always want what they can't have. If they can't run, they want it more. A temporary running injury is in my opinion the biggest motivator of all. Sounds terrible, but injuries are sometimes beneficial for your mindset.

A couple years ago, I had strained a hip flexor in February when the weather wasn't super nice. I remember trying to get outside almost every day in hope that the hip would magically feel better. It took about 3 weeks for it to heal up. Finally when I could run again, I was probably doing too much too soon but not being able to run definitely gave my mind a boost to get through the winter and I really looked forward to getting out, even on the crappy days.

COACHING MOTIVATION

I think FORCING people to train hard only accomplishes two things:

  1) Causes the athlete to be reliant on the coach or others to get out the door and unable to create their own goals.

 2) Makes the athlete view the sport as a stressor as opposed to something they enjoy doing and being able to create their own meaningful goals.

Making this observation, I realize that there are a lot of people out there that need someone to yell at them to accomplish a task, but then I wonder if that person is doing the sport for the right reasons. The rules I like to follow when I'm coaching someone are these:

- Help direct an athlete's personal goal, but don't make the goal for them.

- Training schedules are Guidelines... Not Rules.

- Never make an athlete do a workout. If they want the results, they'll do the work. However, I usually recommend that the athlete attempt the workout before making their decision.

- Allow for variability. Give a range of distances, reps, paces as opposed to being precise. For example: "Get in 35 to 40 miles this week." As opposed to, "I want you to get in exactly 40 miles this week."

- Never punish an athlete by having them do MORE. If workouts are not going well, have them do LESS.

- Injuries have the benefit of increasing motivation and give time to reassess goals.

- Motivation tends to be cyclical and seasonal. Don't feel bad for having "down" seasons.

How To Do A Tempo Run Without Doing A Tempo Run

I am someone that dislikes the typical "Tempo Run." I think a lot of people, including myself, start off too fast and tend to gradually die towards the end of them. Ideally, they're supposed to be done at a moderately hard effort all the way through, but I think most people will get through the first mile or two of a tempo run, then start hurting pretty quickly and finish as if they had been racing. Doing this turns the session into too hard of a workout and sometimes takes more than a couple days to recover from. For those of you that this sounds familiar to, you should try ALTERNATING PACE RUNS.


How To Do An Alternating Paced Run

The goal of a regular tempo run is to increase the length of time you can hold a certain pace, specifically your anaerobic threshold which is the point in which you're starting to accumulate a fair amount of lactic acid. If you were measuring blood lactate, it would be around 4 mmol/L of blood. We can manipulate a workout to achieve the same 4 mmol/L reading without actually doing a straight through effort. This is nothing new and has been used by coaches such as Renato Canova and Steve Magness. If you haven't tried it, it's probably worth your time and you'll get a different perspective on training.

Example of an Alternating Paced Run:
4 miles of alternating 0.5 miles @ 5k effort / 0.5 miles @ marathon effort or slightly slower.

The fast portion will give you a nice little injection of lactate into the bloodstream, and the slower effort will let you clear it to get ready for the next fast segment. Also, mentally, it's easier to be able to crank out a half mile hard and you know there's some easy running coming directly after it rather than trying to hold on for 3 miles straight. It's also more similar to what you would experience in a race situation with pace changes and hills in which you have varying paces.


How To Progress An Alternating Paced Run Over Several Weeks:

Always start on the easy end of things and gradually build your workouts into more difficult sessions. You can also be creative and not necessarily follow this, but here's an example:

- 3 miles of alternating 400m @ 5k effort/ 1200m @ marathon effort

- 3 miles of alternating 600m @ 5k effort/ 1000m @ marathon effort

- 3 miles of alternating 800m @ 5k effort/ 800m @ slightly slower than marathon effort

- 3 miles of alternating 1000m @ 10k effort/ 600m @ slightly slower than marathon effort

- 3 miles of alternating 1200m @ 10k effort/ 400m @ jogging pace

I would recommend doing this type of workout every 10 to 14 days on your schedule and work on building the length of the fast segment and shortening the easier effort as you go.

Betsy after successfully completing her Alternation Workout.

How To Progress Workouts To Get A Desired Effect

We are coming up on Fall race time, and a lot of runners will begin doing workouts in order to achieve a particular race goal they will have at some point during the season. A lot of those runners that run workouts will often do the regular stuff like mile repeats, repeat 400's, the typical 20 or 30 minute tempo run, etc. All of these workouts are good to do in their own sense, but a lot of people will have trouble figuring out how to progress a workout other than just running the same thing faster on a weekly or bi-weekly basis or maybe just doing the random "WOW" (Workout of the Week).

I like seeing progression throughout time, because it helps to avoid injuries while at the same time helps the runner know exactly where their fitness is at that point in time and to see incremental improvement. There are multiple other ways to determine what to do with a workout and where to take it over a period of several weeks rather than just trying to run faster. Here are the steps I take:

Step 1. Define the Goal

What kind of race did you sign up for? A 5k and a Marathon are two entirely different events to train for. If you can run a fast 5k, it doesn't necessarily mean you can run a fantastic marathon, so specificity applies in this case. They are two different types of fitness. Be sure you are working specifically toward your event.

Step 2. Figure Out How Close You Are to Race Day

Are you 6 weeks away or 20 weeks away? Work backwards on your calendar and plan to do your most specific workouts 2 to 6 weeks prior to your goal race. If the goal is to run a marathon, you should probably get in a long run at or close to marathon pace within that time period. If the goal is a 5k, the workouts will probably be longer 5k paced intervals. Get as close as possible to resembling what the race will look like, the nearer you get to the race date.

Step 3. Apply Finishing Touches

You have been doing workouts for a while and are in good shape... now determine what needs to be worked on. Are you weak on Pure Speed, Stamina, or Endurance? You can figure this out mostly by racing once or twice per month. The first race of the season, most people will have a pretty good beginning of a race and die off toward the end, which would indicate stamina is lacking. Some people will be strong throughout, but get passed at the end which would indicate a need for extra speed while being fatigued. Endurance is something more desired for the last 6 to 8 miles of a marathon and assuming you've been doing some long runs and can handle the distance, it is best to add a stamina workout as part of your long run.

Variables that need to be changed for adaptation to happen:

Stamina: Lengthen speed, reduce recovery time, and work on turning sets into continuous efforts

Stamina for Half or Full Marathon Distance: Lengthen tempo run or marathon paced efforts every 2 or 3 weeks. Speed is not as important here.

Pure Speed: Shorten long efforts, increase pace, increase recovery time, work on power and efficiency.

Finishing Speed: Do stamina type workouts with speed changes, or do a stamina/interval style workout then finish with pure speed work.

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Here are some examples of how to progress a workout of 200's to increase stamina for a 5k runner:

Base Workout:

- 3 sets of 4 x 200m @ 1 mile effort with 200m jogs between/ 3min rest between sets

(Technically you are doing mile repeats with speed changes. I like to keep track of the pace for the full mile rather than the 200 splits.)

2 or 3 Weeks Later:

- 2 sets of 5 x 200m @ 1 mile effort with 200m jogs between/ 3min rest between sets. Finish with 400m slightly faster than 5k pace

or

- 3 sets of 4 x 300m @ 1 mile effort with 200m jogs between/ 3min rest between sets

Pre-Season to Mid-Season Workout:

- 12 x 200m straight through @ 1 mile effort with 200m jog recoveries between each.

or 

- 3 sets of 4 x 400m @ 3k effort with 200m jogs between/ 3min rest between sets

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Let's say you changed the goal to racing 1 mile instead of a 5k and your speed could use some work rather than stamina. We can take that same base workout and morph it into pure speed work several weeks later:

Base Workout:

- 3 sets of 4 x 200m @ 1 mile effort with 200m jogs between/ 3min rest between sets

2 or 3 Weeks Later:

- 2 sets of 4 x 200m @ 1 mile effort for the first set and 800m effort for the second set. 1 minute rest between each and 3 minute rest between sets.

or

- 8 x 400m @ 1 mile pace with 1 minute rests between each

Pre-Season to Mid-Season Workout:

- 8 x 200m @ 800m pace with full rests between each

or

- 4 x 400m @ 800m pace with full rests between each

Everyone wants quick results, so it's easy to want to skip steps in the training process, but the "slow cook" process in my experience has been better in terms of injury prevention, tracking progress, and keeping people from overdoing workouts that they are not quite ready for.