“An absence of direction is usually better than bad direction” - Dr. Jack Daniels Dr. Jack Daniels won two Olympic medals in the modern pentathlon but he always likes to point out that running was by far his worst event of the five. It's the reason he ended up researching exercise physiology and becoming a [...]
By Dr. Jack Daniels I learned about strides (also referred to as striders) from the elite runners who were subjects in my 45-year longitudinal study on elite distance runners, which began in 1968, in preparation for the Mexico City Olympics (and ended in 2013). A Canadian runner I worked with referred to strides as having [...]
By Dr. Jack Daniels Of the many adverse weather conditions runners face, probably the only one that every runner is confronted with at one time or another is wind - and if there's anything that interrupts training or racing more than wind, I have yet to meet it. I consider myself fortunate to have coached [...]
The following are some pre-race warm-ups that you can experiment with to determine which works best for various races and conditions. Try before a few low key race and/or to prepare for Quality Sessions as well. Easy Running Warm-Up Easy running warm-ups are a good idea before very long races, especially when the intensity is [...]
By Dr. Jack Daniels The term "warm-up" is misleading because warming up the muscles is only part of the process. In fact, "prerace preparation" might better describe what a runner goes through during the 30 to 60 minutes before a race starts. Whatever you call it, this is a time to prepare yourself physically and [...]
By Dr. Jack Daniels There is often a discussion relative to the benefits of different types of training, and usually the “types of training” compared are slower/longer training sessions (Quantity) versus shorter/faster training sessions (Quality). However, both slower/longer workouts and shorter/faster workouts can be considered “Quality” relative to the benefits they produce in a runner’s body. [...]
For me, as a coach, the easiest way to detect hypertraining (a setback from overtraining), is by knowing my athletes, each and every one of them. Here's how I look for hypertraining: When a runner is progressing through a season of training, they have scheduled gradual increases in amount and intensity of running typically every [...]
Unlike contact sports, in which it's normal to know just how and when an injury occurs, runners are quite often unable to relate an injury to a specific incident. An injury is often the result of overstressing an imperfection in the body, such as a leg length discrepancy or tendency to overpronate. Many running injuries [...]
The message is simple but powerful. So much of the sport of running is mental. Most athletes realize this but still don't spend enough time training this side of the coin. We surveyed athletes on V.O2 and found some areas of opportunity for improvement... How often do you incorporate visualization (on average)? How often do [...]
What is the purpose of this workout? This is the one question every athlete and coach needs to answer on a regular basis. This question will dictate how much benefit you get in relation to the objective of the workout. It will guide how you warm-up, your target pace(s), mental strategy, terrain, fueling, etc. For [...]