Daniels' Running Formula

by Jack Daniels

In chapter 1, I review what I have often suggested are the ingredients of success (ability, motivation, opportunity, and direction) and also include my new laws of running.

In chapter 2, I cover key principles of training and running technique.

Chapter 3 delves into what I refer to as physiological profiles, specifically aerobic and lactate profiles.

Chapter 4 covers the various types of training available to runners and what each type of training is designed to accomplish.

Chapter 5 gets into the details of the VDOT system,

In chapter 6, I refer to the information presented in chapter 4 by suggesting some ways of setting up a season of training and how the season may be broken down into smaller segments (phases)

Chapter 7 gets into the specifics of training for fitness, from a very basic white program for novice runners, to red and blue plans for experienced runners, to a gold training schedule

Chapter 9 provides details of various workouts designed specifically for runners who are concentrating on racing the 800-meter event during track season.

Chapter 10 deals with training for and racing distances from 1,500 meters to 2 miles.

Chapter 11 presents training needs for runners who select the 5K and 10K distances as their favorites.

Chapter 12 covers cross country running, a type of training that applies to many runners who specialize in shorter events during track season.

Chapter 13 is designed to prepare runners for a half marathon.

Chapter 14 gets into considerable detail about marathon training.

Chapter 15 provides a description of supplemental training and how to return to training after some time off, whether as a result of injury, illness, or a simple decision to take a planned break.

These ingredients are, in their order of importance, inherent ability, intrinsic motivation, opportunity, and direction.

Inherent Ability

The second ingredient of success is intrinsic motivation, the desire a person has within to achieve success in running.

runners fall into three different categories: Those with great ability and high motivation to use their outstanding ability Those with outstanding inherent ability and little or no motivation to pursue the sport of running, for which they are nicely designed to be successful Those with little ability for running and high intrinsic motivation to achieve success as a runner

Coaches need to provide an encouraging environment for their runners,

Each runner needs to be positively recognized for every improvement that is realized.

12 percent of those who are pursuing running in our high school system. This is a sad

asking my runners to feel the workouts and to feel the same workout getting easier before increasing training stress.

A good approach to avoid overtraining is to always stick with the same amount and intensity of training for about four weeks before demanding or taking on more.

a good coach can always answer the questions “What is the purpose of this workout” and “Why are we doing this workout today?”

A good coach produces beneficial reactions to training, creates positive race results, and transforms the athletes she brings into the program into better runners and better human beings.

runners should spend a good deal of their training time trying to improve any known weaknesses, but when approaching important races, the main emphasis should be taking advantage of known strengths.

try to find positives in all training sessions.

takes months for muscle fibers to fully adjust to the stress of regular running).

Stress Reaction

Your body does a very good job of adjusting to the stresses placed on it, and you won’t even be aware of many of the adjustments made.

tissues being stressed are the ones that react to that stress.

The parts of the body being stressed become stronger and better prepared to deal with any future stress,

Overstress

If you overstress some body parts, they may not get tougher; in fact, they may get weaker or break down completely.

whenever you are not sure which of two training sessions to take on at any particular time, select the less stressful of the two.

Success in running relies on being able to make adaptations when necessary,

make adjustments to accommodate each athlete who is out there to work out.

have my top seven runners all healthy and a little below their capability than to have three of them in peak shape and the other four injured and not even able to start the championship

Reducing stress, be it physical or psychological in nature, is desirable going into championship events.

when a new level of fitness is desired, the training stress has to increase.

Workload, or total amount of work being accomplished, which is 3 kilometers in this case Intensity factor, which is a speed of 3:40 for each kilometer Recovery, which is 3 minutes after each 3:40 kilometer being run Frequency, which in this program is 3 times each week

All training sessions have at least three of these four components: workload, intensity, and frequency.

is not a good idea to change more than one of the training variables.

the number of repeats of a particular training distance in a training session should be a function of weekly mileage.

If a runner has a stable weekly mileage, the number of repeats will n...

everyone has seasonal limits.

The demands at work, at home, and of other things going on at different periods in a person’s life make training more or less difficult.

Training intensities should be determined by current fitness, which is best measured by race performances.

have designed a brief stress table that some runners find useful for tracking life issues (table 2.1