I saw this article on Joe Vigil. It certainly warmed my heart. I am privileged to have Joe as a mentor and and a friend. He is an amazing individual, a role model for all teachers and coaches.‘Dean of distance’ discusses OlympicsBy Mike Touzeau, Special to the Green Valley NewsThough he was impressed — as the rest of the world was — with the pageantry, what legendary dis [...]

Apparently, the greatest cyclist of all time, Lance Armstrong, is making a comeback. He intends to ride in the 2009 Tour de France. This is interesting and provides for some more discussion material on the differences between seemingly similar sports. Like track, cycling is a physical performance based sport (rather than strategy, gamesmanship, team oriented sports, etc) that is generally quantita [...]

Approximately eight years I had the opportunity to consult for one year with North Shore Country Day School in Winnetka, Illinois. Patrick McHugh, the Athletic Director brought me in three different times during the year to do staff development and work on up grading their physical education and athletic program. Patrick is also the track coach and as you know track and field is my passion so we c [...]

In distance running, the deload is one of the most resisted concepts by coaches and athletes alike. The argument often sounds something like this: “If I drop my mileage a bit this week, I won't average 75 miles per week this month.” My opinion is usually that “75” is just a number and an athlete can keep hammering away, but the accumulated fatigue will prevent optimal pe [...]

I asked Jack Blatherwick to address his viewpoint on establishing an aerobic base. Jack is with the Washington Capitols and was conditioning coach for six American Olympic Ice Hockey teams including the 1980 “Miracle Team”). The following is his response:Establishing an aerobic baseby Jack Blatherwick, Ph.DThis question comes up often: is it appropriate for young sprinters and athletes [...]

For some strange reason the myth that you must build an aerobic base for sprinting still lives. All over the country now as high school track practice is starting sprint coaches are working hard to get their sprinters ready. I have had several emails in the past ten days asking me about the need to build an aerobic base for sprinters. It is not necessary to build an aerobic base, you need to build [...]

I rarely do continuous runs over 20 minutes anymore but sometimes I'll throw one in on Sunday evenings. Tonight was such a night. Whenever I'm out on one of these runs, I always wonder what it would be like to run with someone like Morcelli, Bekele, Hachim, or better yet, Geb. Would they even be winded at my modest pace (~6:00-6:40 / mile). Heck, Geb can run 26.2 consecutive miles slightly [...]

I recently was reading the latest edition of a popular running magazine, and stumbled across a quote from an elite runner, who just medaled at World Champs in Osaka, that perpetuates the myth that distance runners need not lift weights.  The quote rips on lifting for distance runners as the athlete gained twelve pounds of mass during a forced break where her primary cross training modality wa [...]

Joe is one my mentors and acontinual inspiration to me. Tuesday evening I got a call from Joe. Itis always great to hear from him. He is a precious resource, a greatcoach, scientist and person. I wanted to ask me some questions about training, specifically the origins of the SAID Principle. I was takenaback, because here is the guy I learn from asking me my opinion. Thebottom line is here is PhD c [...]

It's not too often that blog posts on ET discuss endurance oriented topics but this is certainly worthy of an exception. Only one week after his American Record mile, Alan Webb today ran a 1:43.84 in the 800m taking 2 seconds off his PR and showing he's got the speed and the race fitness to be a TRUE medal contender in the middle distances for the US. Could he be the savior of American tra [...]