Name: James Farley
Age: 17
School: Monsignor Farrell
Coach: Thomas Cuffe
Personal Bests: 400m - 48.7 (relay split); 600m - 1:23.1; 800 - 1:53.7 (relay split); 800m - 1:55.1
Accolades: CHSAA Intersectional 600-meter champion; CHSAA Intersectional 800-meter champion (outdoor); Intersectional 4x400 indoor and outdoor; Sectional 800-meter champion; Staten Island 600-meter champion; Staten Island 1600-meter champion; Staten Island champion 4x400 and 4x800
Typical Training Week
a. Pre-Season
Monday: 30 min warm up, drill and strides, 3x1mile uphill at 6:30 pace. Weight training.
Tuesday: 6 mile run; drills and strides
Wednesday: 20 min warm up, drills and strides; 6x800 uphill. Weight training
Thursday: 60 min run; drills and strides
Friday: 30 min warm up; drills and strides; 3x1000 at mile pace. Weight training.
Saturday: 60 min run; drills and strides
Sunday: 60 min run; drills and strides
b. Season
Monday: 15 min warm up; drills and strides; 6x400 hill – progressively faster. 6x50 sprints uphill. 15 min cooldown. Weight training.
Tuesday: 45 min run; drills and strides at mile pace
Wednesday: 15 min warm up; drills and strides; 4 sets of stairs and 4x5min plyometrics. 10 min cooldown. Weight training.
Thursday: 45 min run; drills and strides. 2 mile tempo
Friday: 15 min run; drills and strides
Saturday: Race
Sunday: 60 min; drills and strides. Weight training.
Goals: 400: Run 47.xx in the outdoors
600: Break the school record of 1:21.53 set by Matt Frawley (now at the University of Kentucky)
800: Run 1:49.xx during outdoors
1000: Break school record of 2:29.41 set by Matt Frawley
1200: Break 3:00.0 on the lead-off of the DMR
Help the Monsignor Farrell track and field program as much as I can in all team championship events and run some really fast 4x400’s, 4x800’s and DMR’s. And to be a good/great teammate.
Coaches’ Philosophy (by Cuffe): The foundation of the Farrell training system begins with our principles and standards which equate to our personal and team values. We speak daily about the Monsignor Farrell Success Formula and the many facets that go into making the total Farrell Man: academically, athletically, socially and spiritually. The athletes come into our program as boys and they graduate as men – and we ask the question: “How many men out of how many boys?”
Our Values
Value #1 – that all members of our team are treated equally whether you run 1:52.xx or 2:52.xx. The team rules and our Team Code of Conduct is the foundation of what we do and all athletes are held to the same high standard of excellence. No exceptions.
Value #2 – “Work is the weapon of honor he who lacks the weapon will never triumph”. The bottom line is work hard and good things will happen to you in all facets of your life; this holds true especially on the track.
Value #3 – You must be confident in your team, your teammates and your coach and contribute to the development of a positive training environment. Be proud of your team and teammates. Be proud of our Farrell Traditions and work hard to uphold them.
Most people when they read these articles are looking for specific workouts (some may even be looking for “magic” workouts, let me know if you find any!). I know that I am looking to learn whenever I see “How They Train” articles and coaches philosophies, they are great tools. I love reading each of them to see how other state and national level programs “get it done”. But the first objective is to fit the training to your team, to your individuals and to your particular conditions.
Here is what we do at Monsignor Farrell:
Everything we do is based off of progression.
Base – Hills – Pace – Drills – Tempo Runs – Plyometrics – VO2 Max – Race Modeling
Our Training System and my personal background has been influenced by many tremendous coaches: Arthur Lydiard (who I had the honor to work with); Mihaly Igloi; Percy Cerutty; Jack Daniels; Seb Coe/Peter Coe; Tom Tellez as well as great high school coaches such as Joe Newton – York; Matt Jones – Shenendehowa; Lou Vazquez – Bishop Ford (now the director of Icahn Stadium); Pete Whitehouse – Tottenville; George Kochman & Denis Donovan – my high school mentors while at Monsignor Farrell and John Underwood – one of the best Exercise Physiologists in the United States (if not the world) who runs programs out of the U.S. Olympic Training Center to name but a few.
We work off of a two week cycle in which we will do two of our benchmark workouts on the various courses, hills or specific track workouts that we have devised over the years. We then record our times in our Team Training log and analyze each athlete’s growth and development over time = progression.
The most important belief that we have on training is that it should provide a realistic challenge to the athlete and in turn that athlete will respond. The training should be varied and kept interesting, we also workout in different places to keep our routine fresh. The other most significant tenet which we subscribe to is that it is essential to develop runners into better athletes, complete athletes, and versatile athletes. Simply enough better athletes will run faster times.
Goal setting is huge and recording and charting progress is essential. But in the final analysis training and racing must be fun. This one simple ideology is something which I feel is at the heart of any successful team, athlete or coach; make it fun and success will surely follow.
Previous How They Train's
Aisling Cuffe - Cornwall
Brianna Welch - North Shore
Max Straneva - Chenango Valley
Caroline O'Hea - Ward Melville
Shelby Greany - Suffern
Mike Hickey - Pearl River
Caitlin Hudson - Bronxville
Evan Bloomberg - Northport
Emily Lipari - Roslyn