Red Hook, NY - We are competing in a curious time. It seems as if the higher echelons of our sport are competing against the traditional paths. While one of our harriers going pro is still the outlier, our top female harrier this year is coming off of homeschooling through her middle school years. In addition, our top male harrier has been competing for the club team Rolling Thunder since he was eight years old. And finally, the state's next rising talent, has been running CYO meets for years, coached by her father.
So does this mean that High School coaching is dead? Not even close. But it does raise some questions. Questions that have been raised before, when another Home Schooled athlete was the talk of the town. In 2005, Josh McDougal captured just about all the long distance state records, culminating with a 8:48.11 for the 3200y, and a 14:07.55 for an on-track 5000m run. Now almost ten years later, the questions come back.
In 2005, one parent set out to answer those questions, submitting to TullyRunners an article entitled, "Josh McDougal is a Perfect Example of What is Wrong With High School Track." The parent's name was John Raucci, a father with two son's running for Red Hook High School. Over the next season, we will be re-releasing his original articles, which almost a decade later, prove fascinating. You can note, that some of the ideas are a bit dated, but some of the things are spot on, before they came to be the accepted standard. I hope you enjoy the article as much as we have.
Josh McDougal is a Perfect Example of What is Wrong With High School Track
by John Raucci
I was at the Albany First Night Run where my two sons Joe and Dave ran. After the race, two Bethlehem High cross country and track graduates, Pat Shaffer and Evan Savage, came up to me and started conversing. Both were injured and unable to run in their freshman year of college throughout Cross Country and now into their Indoor Track seasons. Pat, at that time, told me something that went through me like a knife. He said, "Josh McDougal is the perfect example of what is wrong with High School Track". I assumed he meant that, the High School system by which we train and compete, is flawed and ends up in the destruction of many kids' careers - especially the more elite runners. I train the kids at Red Hook and some from Rhinebeck in the off-season, and I have been doing so for the past 5 years, and I knew that Pat was correct. Now, Josh is beating people who were ahead of him two and three years ago by 2+ minutes. Recently, he defeated Alan Webb and came within seconds of Tim Broe in a nationally acclaimed 4K race. He has been relatively injury free although not entirely, but far better than the non-home-schooled kids. He seems to improve gracefully whereas many others seem to grapple with injury and/or settle for small performance gains. That at least appears to be the trend.
I decided that night that I must write this article as an offering to all runners, coaches, and parents of runners in New York. The purpose of this article is to make us conscious of issues that are at the moment a blip on the screen - those issues that I believe lay behind Pat's statement. This article is not written in conjunction with anyone else including Josh, nor is it endorsed by anyone at the moment. It is simply a compilation of my own thoughts, experience, and research over the past five years. Long distance runners are of a special breed. They work hard, and receive little recognition.
I live an hour south of Albany. On the three local news stations, there are consistent and daily videotape highlights of football and basketball. It took the Saratoga girls to win a National Cross Country Championship to squeeze out 10 seconds on the Nightly News - the only 10 seconds devoted to running that I saw all Fall. How much work did it take to win that championship? How many hours day and night, winter and summer, did those girls train on those lonely upstate roads? I bet one could not count the investment, the dedication. If such athletes cannot be given recognition at least in relation to their effort, I believe they should be given good information, the kind of information that will help them reach their potential. It is in that spirit that I write this article.
As I see it, there are five problems with the way we train our runners, not only in New York, but also throughout the nation. None of the five are easy to correct because running, like so much else, is encumbered by cultural standards that not only impede progress, but also lead us to sickness and injury. The five problems thrive because of our culture. In any case, bringing the five to light is a first step to health and realization of potential. The five are as follows: the problem of running shoes, the problem of breathing, the problem of anaerobic activity, the problem of nutrition, and the problem of mind/body integration.
Part 1: If the Shoe Fits - Beware of It
Part 3: Breakdown or Breakthrough
In a recent conversation with Josh McDougal, he told me that we should study the ways the Europeans and Africans develop their runners as opposed to the way we do it here. Josh is apparently becoming a student of running as well as a champion, and I felt he was on the right track when he points to the Africans and Europeans. In America we emphasize anaerobic (interval training) from early on, and we give such training a place of centrality throughout High School and College.
Arthur Lydiard is highly critical of the American system. He teaches that by emphasizing anaerobic training, we are destroying the potential of our runners. According to Lydiard, anaerobic activity alters the bodies PH levels (acid vs. alkaline), and leads to a physical breakdown over time. What’s more, he boldly states that anaerobic training does nothing at all to enhance performance, nor does it increase human speed. (He sees speed development as a factor of increased muscle strength due to resistance running such as hill training). Anaerobic training simply teaches how to run in oxygen debt.
Lydiard goes on to say that anaerobic activity ultimately makes us run slower, due to stresses which compromise running form. He calls anaerobic training a limiting factor. He claims that the U.S. will never create champions on the international level unless anaerobic activity is significantly decreased and controlled. Though Lydiard is neither a scientist nor a well-educated physical trainer, I am afraid he has hit the nail on the head. If anyone doubts this, just look at the Africans. They run long, to and from school, and into their late teens before they race. Their aerobic thresholds go far beyond those of the U.S. runners. Lydiard teaches that when we run long, our bodies build capillaries, which fuel the muscles. The system of such capillary development has no limit and we can build billions and billions over time. When the body is subjected to anaerobic activity, it does all it can do to cope with the stress, and it grapples with recovery and repair.
When we go along aerobically, the body adapts and brings cardiovascular activity to higher and higher levels. There is no substitute for aerobic activity, and as Lydiard claims--once we conclude aerobic training, our performance level is set. In other words, it is solely through aerobic activity that we improve performance.
Some may see progress on the part of High School runners when they train anaerobically. However, I believe we should not confuse that progress with high aerobic thresholds to start off with, growth spurts, and improvements in coping with lactic acid production. Such a perspective as Lydiard's is an indictment upon the entire U.S. system of training. However, more than anything else, it explains why Josh has emerged and others fall flat or backwards. Josh was not subjected to the grueling High School schedule whereby six months a year are devoted to Track and the other three to Cross Country. Josh and Jordan were able to work at their own pace where they would practice more so at aerobic activity through their teens. They selected certain track events and races from time to time, but this was but a fraction of the typical High School anaerobic activity associated with practices and the racing schedule.
Marist College Track Coach Peter Colaizzo told me on various occasions that College Running involves one season too many. If this is the case for College, how much more so would it apply to High School where kids are younger and going through their years of growth.
It seemed like yesterday when I stood at the finish line at the Footlocker Cross Country Regional at Van Cortland Park. It was three years ago, and Josh as a High School junior, jumped into the lead pack of the seeded race, only to falter at the very end and fall to ninth place and out of list of national qualifiers. He could not help but to appear to be so broken hearted as he came so close to fulfilling a dream. I approached him and asked why he was so sad. I told him that he should never be so consumed by this one small moment, and that he among the others had much to look forward to in the future. I do not believe he was able to appreciate what I saw in that moment. But in this moment, there is not one among those who defeated him who could now come even
close to him in a race.
It is my sense that by participating in the High School system of running, those competitors unknowingly traded their future for that present. For Josh, it was the opposite. He is now blossoming whereas many of his competitors are struggling. As Lydiard teaches, the key to distance running is simply the extension of one's aerobic threshold. And the key to extending that threshold is the development of capillaries. And it is aerobic activity and no other which accounts for this aspect of cardiovascular development.
At the finish of the 4 X 8 at the New York State Meet last year, Lopez Lomong and Dominick Luka went up on the stand to collect their First Place medals. When I looked at their legs, I saw this bulging mass of blood vessels. It wasn't what I would call a pretty sight, but nevertheless, it was the mark a true long distance runner and champion. I believe they built up their blood capacity through years of African aerobic running.
A number of years ago, my own son David as a Middle School student started to feel pride as he saw development of his calf muscles. However, over time, that development was soon to be overshadowed by the continual and consistent appearance of veins and arteries in David's legs. It is just the way the body works if we let it. It will find a way to cope with our running. If we run long, it will simply create passages for the blood to help sustain the activity.
When Bill Rodgers spoke to David over the summer, he emphasized that he was not such a great runner in High School, that his 2 mile was a 9:37 which would be lucky to put him at 15th in a State Meet of today. However, over time with consistent running, Rodgers was able to break through. He never quite knew why or how he could come to stand with the best in the world. But I believe that he simply followed the pattern we are speaking of here. He was able to perform an abundance of aerobic activity sometimes carrying him to two hundred miles per week. And if he had reached a higher level in High School, he probably would have damaged himself so as to block his future development, and his attainment of his potential.
Look at Jim Ryun who ran a 3:55 mile in High School. Who would have dreamed that he had just about peaked there as a teenager? He would only run 4 seconds faster as he came to be plagued by illness and injury. Just recently, Alan Webb competed at the Millrose games where he ran a 4:00 indoor mile, a second slower than his best High School indoor mile of three years ago. Our athletes take one step forward and two steps back. True development takes time and cannot be rushed. As Lydiard would want us to understand, we build capillaries over time, and not at all over intervals.
I sense that there is no way to avoid the long run. Many innovative track training programs try to create shortcuts whereby we can arrive at being a champion by fitting into scientific schedules and fulfilling certain repetitive time trials over prescribed distances. We no doubt can always find a way to improve through such programs, but I do not think we can ever replace going long.
For Lydiard, the long run was the center of his system of training. He trained both middle distance and long distance runners with marathon type training. Can you imagine that? He had half milers running 100 to 150 miles per week. But his half milers were not ordinary half milers. They were the best in the world. He made them so.
When all sports are analyzed in terms of aerobic benefit, it is said that none can rival Cross Country Skiing. Those with the greatest aerobic threshold in the world are in fact cross country skiers. Some have been measured in terms of Max VO2 to be significantly higher than Lance Armstrong. When I thought about this, I asked myself why a sport like swimming, which utilizes every muscle in the body, couldn’t produce equal levels of Max VO2 measurements. I concluded that it is because Cross Country Skiing lends itself to going long. One can get on those skis, and move around all day long. One may go from village to village, town to town, and spend countless hours in transit. Other sports do not lend themselves to this all day type of activity.
Even great runners may simply train for an hour a day. The body simply adapts itself to extended aerobic activity, by thrusting forward its own aerobic threshold. Anyone in any sport can reap such a benefit by going long.
Nothing is more bewildering to me than the fact that we in the American running community do not take Arthur Lydiard seriously when he criticizes our own training methods and racing programs. As one may infer from the beginning of this article, I am not too fond of the shoe manufacturers of this world, yet Lydiard is one shoemaker I have come to cherish. He made running history, and created a slew of world champions simply by observing his own self and the sport in general. If there is anything to be inherited from him, it is just that. We should all pay better attention to what is going on. When Lydiard teaches that running performance can only be improved through aerobic activity, he has a host of physiological support. If we factor in the Africans, it should be clear that aerobic running, especially through the developmental years, is the key to the creation of true and healthy champions.
But it is Lydiard's treatment of anaerobic activity that should really make us ponder. We in America associate the building of speed with anaerobic activity. For Lydiard, nothing could be further from the truth. In the final years of his life, he traveled throughout the world chastising coaches and trainers who linked speed to anaerobic training. It does appear that we become faster after interval training. But in reality, we are not faster at all. We simply apply the speed we possess when we run with oxygen to a running that we do without oxygen. We train the body to go faster longer, but we are not at all faster.
Lydiard constantly emphasized speed work when he trained his runners, but that speed work had nothing to do with anaerobic activity. Lydiard rather focused upon building strength in the bones, muscles, tendons, and ligaments of the feet and legs. Lydiard never obsessed with how fast his runners could run, but rather that they could have access to the speed they were born with when it came time in a race.
If we should doubt Lydiard's expertise in this area, we may first want to consult with Steve Prefontaine. Of course Steve has passed away, but at the 5K in the 1972 Munich Olympics, Steve put on a most awesome kick as he led the pack with 600 meters to go. Although he gave it his all of alls, still, he was blown away by Lasse Viren who happened to be coached by, yes, Arthur Lydiard. In fact, Steve's coach, American coaching icon, Bill Bowerman, made it a point to spend time in New Zealand to learn from Lydiard and not the other way around.
When we link anaerobic training to speed, we mistakenly justify an activity that is both physically and mentally destructive. Lydiard constantly taught that the key to creating champions lay in the control of anaerobic training. He understood that peaking could be reached in a short period of time, and that backing off at that point allowed runners to race for months and be at their best.
Lydiard mastered this practice of backing off. Furthermore, he continually counterbalanced racing activity with a heavy emphasis on jogging, thus maintaining and strengthening aerobic power when it did not seem to be called for. While other coaches are sometimes obsessed with continual and persistent anaerobic activity, Lydiard always managed to keep his eye on the ball. He stressed aerobic activity even during racing cycles. He was aware that losing aerobic power meant losing everything.
I have to add some personal thought here about peaking. Since I have been working with the local runners, I am not sure if I have heard any single word spoken more often. Everyone seems to be concerned with this elusive element, which must somehow come together at exactly a certain moment for a certain race etc., and no one is ever quite sure if we are really there or not.
When we begin to falter, we often hear language such that we peaked too early. The language itself is extremely shallow, and shortsighted in my opinion. There are actually two peaks. One is the aerobic peak. This peak can be extended virtually ad infinitum, simply by virtue of consistent aerobic activity. It accounts for why some runners in their 30's and 40's run better than they did in their youth. This threshold however, cannot be extended during periods where we train anaerobically. That's why Lydiard declares that our performance level is established once we conclude our aerobic activity. The second peak is the one we are all referring to, which is the anaerobic peak. The body simply practices to generate energy without oxygen, and gets better at doing it over time. At some point, it reaches a threshold, the anaerobic threshold. However, unlike the aerobic threshold, there is a limit to the anaerobic threshold.
Human Beings can only go so far without oxygen, and we can never keep pushing that threshold forward, because ultimately, we will need oxygen in order to function. Lydiard wondered why U.S. coaches kept trying to push forward a threshold, which has obvious limits. Once reached, any efforts to continue anaerobic training will only serve to cause performance levels to decline and sometimes rapidly so. I have seen an incredible amount of flatness among High School runners related to this issue. I have even seen cases where runners have done better as say a junior than they have as a senior. The body will simply not allow us to perform anaerobically for extended periods of time without rebelling. I believe it is the body's way of telling us that such activity is detrimental.
That we have access to such energy does not mean that producing such energy is good. The body sometimes knows better what is good for it. So the body's shutting down of that mode of energy production should make us all aware that producing anaerobic energy brings negative consequences. Otherwise, it would never have to be shut down. This would not be the case if such production were done in those rare moments when we need access to enormous amounts of energy in a flash as in a life and death situation. Training and racing are not situations of life or death. So we are in reality improperly applying that means of energy production to athletics.
Conversely, the body thrives upon aerobic activity and will allow us to peak and peak further and further in terms of the aerobic threshold. I am not saying here that we should do away with anaerobic activity completely. But I am saying that we should gradually come to view anaerobic activity for what it is - inefficient at best, and unhealthy as we apply it. And correspondingly, we should endeavor over time to replace this form of energy production with, as John Douillard teaches, the natural and stress-less forms we all have access to when integrate all the components of our spiritual and physical humanity.
Lydiard devoted the final years of his life by attempting to give us all a wake up call. I trust his judgment because it corresponds exactly to what I have observed within High School Running as well as the greater USA Track and Field Community. Our long distance runners in general do not reach their potential. To begin to solve this problem, we may all need to take some strong medicine, and stop worrying about this or that race, but rather, what is best for the long term.