Seven miles in 55 minutes around Sugarhouse. Spectacular! You know, I was thinking while I was out on my run today that I should put together my own training manifesto. Except manifestos are strident explanations of principles and beliefs and the older I get, the less certain I am of everything - politics, religion, teaching, training, racing, parenting.... I could go on. There was a time when I was much younger when I was much more strident on each of those topics. Now, uncertainty prevails in my mind. Still, I have been coaching for sixteen years and training/racing seriously since the late 70s. I've coached three state champion teams in track and cross country, many region champions, and lots of All State runners who have gone on to have successful running careers. I have advanced certifications from USATF and the USTFCCCA and I might have read every word ever written about distance running. I have even won state "Coach of the Year" awards. In short, I've managed to convince a lot of people that I know what I'm doing. But despite all that I can honestly say that I still have much to learn and there are days when I don't think I have a clue. Despite all that, I still DO NOT have a coherent philosophy of training runners that I believe in above all others. I agonize over the workouts my runners should do on a particular day when you would think it would be automatic by now. So I probably won't be writing "Murphy's Training Manifesto" which is sad because people like manifestos and eagerly follow those who write them (except maybe the Unabomber). Mine would say things like "high mileage is good but then again I've seen Sebastian Coe break world records on 30 miles per week". And "strength training is essential but many of the greatest runners ever never spent a second on it". People don't like that.They want answers!
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