songs of experience

I’ve decided to start an Ask the Expert section of my blog where anyone can write in and ask me a question.
I’ll take the best ones I receive and then respond on my blog.

I’ll start it off with a question that I frequently get asked:

Dear Joan,

If I don’t have natural legspeed, how can I develop it?

Signed, Turtle

Dear Turtle,
I don’t really agree with the moral of Aesop’s fable, “Slow and steady wins the race.” Rather, I think the sprint coach, Charles Foster, got it right when he told me, “Joan, the fastest runner wins” and then went on to share a secret work-out he learned from the wizened Uber-coach, Dr. LeRoy Walker. This is not a work-out for the faint-of-heart or the tight-of-hamstring, so be sure to warm up in full sweats before attempting this speed-boosting training program.

Here’s how it works:

- 10 weeks
- every monday (with a second, longer, interval session and long run still in your work week)
- 5 X 100m sprints, all-out, with turn-around “GO!” recovery (about 2-3 seconds)
done like this … sprint 100m, turn around and GO again, for another 100m, then again, GO, 100m sprint, etc. until you have completed 5 X 100m. Time the whole set of 5.
- walk back to the start
- begin the next set after a recovery time of exactly what it took you to run the 5 X 100m. So, for example, if it takes you 1:52 seconds to run the 5 X 100m, then you take only 1:52 before you start set #2.
- the series of sets over the ten weeks goes like this: 3,4,5,6,4,6,7,8,6,4

Plan your races on the weeks of 4 sets. Plan to spend the whole day on the toilet on the week of the 8 sets.

I believe this addition to my training in 1992 was what allowed me to break-through to an “elite” runner. It teaches you to process lactic acid quickly and it gives you the powerful weapon of gear-changing in a race. I highly recommend it for steeple-chasers, who must surge into and out of each hurdle and water jump.

I hope, somehow, that Charles Foster (current track-and-field coach at Clemson University) finds his way to my web site so he can read how he helped this one little turtle. Thanks!!