Training All Systems – Alberto Salazar (World Famous Coach)
In 1972, when I entered my freshman year in high school, I began to hear about the University of Oregon – Bill Dellinger and Steve Prefontaine, from my older brother Ricardo, who was a freshman on the Naval Academy’s cross country and track teams.
His coach, Al Cantello, was a former world record holder in the javelin and had been an Olympic teammate of University of Oregon coach Bill Dellinger.
Al Cantello used to get distance training ideas from Bill Dellinger, and those were passed on to me through my brother during his time at the Naval Academy.
The next influence on my high school running career was Don Benedetti, the Wayland High School coach, who was successful while not overtraining his athletes.
Equally important, he allowed me to train with Bill Squires, coach of the Greater Boston Track Club, starting my junior year.
At the time, the Greater Boston Track Club was the preeminent distance club in the country.
It included Bill Rodgers, who was soon to become the world’s dominant marathoner of the time.
After graduating from high school, I was coached directly by Bill Dellinger during my tenure at the University of Oregon.
My training programs and philosophies are a culmination of what I learned from all of these great coaches, as well as the knowledge I have gained in my capacity as a Nike employee.
Since 1992, I have had direct access to all of the top Nike distance runners in the world and their coaches.
Through them, I have continued to learn and modify workouts and overall training regimens for my athletes.
People often ask me what the biggest change is in training from my era in the 1970s and 80s, to the training that takes place in the 21st Century.
My answer is always that the primary reason why the athletes are running so much faster as a whole is not a result of drugs, but rather because of the advances in training knowledge.
The training programs for the most elite distance runners in the world is not just one of higher volumes, but programs of much greater complexity, breadth, and scope.
In the old days, running high miles, fast intervals, and small amounts of weight work were considered to be the only necessary components of a successful distance training program.
We now know that there are dozens of diferent elements, exercises, and activities that one must incorporate if optimal performance is to be achieved.
Training for two to three hours a day was once considered to be a maximum amount of time that could be devoted to one’s career.
However, it is now known that an athlete can clearly spend five or more hours per day doing all of the possible and necessary activities to maximise their performance.
The object of this chapter will be to briefly outline the different systems of the body, and the different training programs and activities necessary to fully develop the body as a whole.
Obviously, the majority of the people reading this article probably will not have the time to fully engage in the training of all the systems in the body and complete all of the necessary workouts that I am outlining.
However, all runners can decide which of these components they have the time, energy, and inclination to develop.
It may be that within the time available for training, the reader may be able to incorporate another 4-5 exercises or programs that they can use on alternate days to get better results.
Looking at the body as a whole
Twenty years ago, when I was competing, the primary emphasis was on the cardiovascular system.
The main concerns were to strengthen our hearts, increase blood pathways, and make our bodies more efficient at transporting oxygen to our muscles through training.
Success in distance running was a function of a continuously improving cardiovascular system.
Doing sufficient amounts of aerobic work meant high mileage run at a slow pace.
The anaerobic work consisted primarily of long or short intervals at race pace or faster.
Even tempo runs played a much smaller role than they presently do.
The concern was with simulating the exact cardiovascular requirements of races through one’s training.
The heart rate, lactic acid levels, and oxygen consumption had to be driven up to match the levels that they would reach during a race.
The key was to find the right amount of short and moderate length intervals to allow one to run long intervals, ranging from 1200 meters to 1600 meters at a pace just faster than race pace for 5000 and 10000 meters.
Once that was accomplished, it was believed that by doing more intervals at that pace, or more mileage, one would encounter great improvements.
Now we know that there are many systems within the body that need particular workouts to optimise their individual performances and your overall running performance.
Similar to an Indy race car, there are several systems in the body that need to be evaluated, monitored, and trained in order to have optimum performance on race day.
An Indy race car’s mechanics might be concentrating on the fuel system, the engine’s horsepower, aerodynamics, chassis, suspension, tire pressures, heat regulation, hydraulics, and a myriad of other systems in the race car.
Like the systems of a race car, all systems of the body must be honed to their optimum level and compatibility. Having too much power without adequate flexibility can lead to injuries…
Crucial to your distance running success: Psychology
In the old days, we used to say that your degree of mental toughness was inherently natural: you either have it or you don’t.
We now know that the even the best athletes in the world, in all sports, continually work on the psychological aspect of their event.
Lance Armstrong and Tiger Woods, two of the toughest and most “clutch” athletes in the world are always trying to improve their mental strength and other psychological components of their respective sport.
To begin, it is important to note that in everyday life, outside of sports, you are constantly subjected to stress, disappointment, sickness, and tragedy, along with joy, excitement, satisfaction, and happiness.
It is tough to deny the importance of having a positive outlook on life, and if you tend to dwell more on the positive, you will not be affected as much by the negative.
It has been proven and realised that the most successful athletes can become even better by training their mind just as they train their bodies. In particular positive visualisation was always something I always practiced and enjoyed doing.
While on training runs, I often daydreamed or visualised myself crossing the finish line first, setting a world record, or winning a gold medal.
Conversely, I often felt scared to death while warming up before races and questioned whether I could even get to the starting line. However, I knew that once the gun went of, all of my fears and feelings of anxiety would vanish and I would feel instantly energised.
Still, even during some of my most successful races, such as my 10,000 meter American record at the Bislett Games in 1981, I was beset with doubts. I had led most of the race, was doing all the work at world record pace, but was unable to shake the rest of the pack; and I felt horrible.
With 4,000 meters to go, I felt like I had run out of energy and couldn’t go any further.
Suddenly runners started to fall of the blistering pace and with 3000 meters to go, only Carlos Lopez, future Olympic Marathon Champion, and Henry Rono, a multiple world record holder at the time were left.
Because I was succeeding, my mindset quickly transitioned from one of despair to jubilation, and I started to attack again.
Although Lopez squeaked by me in the last 100 meters, I held of Henry Rono and finished only 3 seconds of the world record.
After the race, the great John Walker, Olympic champion and WRH in the mile, came and told me I was the toughest runner he had ever seen. I thanked him, but felt guilty and embarrassed because I knew how close I had come to giving up.
I now look back and see that I was supposedly one of the toughest runners in the World, yet I was running with many doubts and anxieties; had I addressed or dealt with these psychological issues proactively, I would have been even tougher!
One of the most important concepts in psychological strengthening is to develop a system or ritualistic pattern of thinking in a positive manner; the situation should feel as if you’re in control of the surrounding situation, as opposed to negative thoughts where you’re a victim of the environment.
Take the Bislett Games, for instance-rather than dwelling how much I was hurting and the fact that I wasn’t dropping any of the other runners, I should have told myself: “Even though I’m hurting, I have prepared myself for the pain through my training. If I’m hurting as much as I am, the other runners must be hurting even more because they have not endured the physical and mental training that I have. If the other competitors can keep going, I must be able to keep going as well.
When you start to doubt or become fearful, try to block the negative thoughts by visualising positive emotions and imagery that have been rehearsed in practice.
For instance, rather than think: “My legs are starting to feel very tired. I don’t know if I can keep going”, turn the thought around and tell yourself: “The feeling in my legs is normal for the corresponding effort and I know I can push through the pain because I’ve done so before in previous races and training efforts.”
By focusing on your positive emotions, your muscles will literally feel stronger, react faster, and perform better.
Dwelling on weakness, doubts, and fear has been scientifically proven to immediately weaken muscle strength.
Learning to relax before races is another important factor that must be mastered.
Unlike football players butting helmets in the locker room before kickoff, runners need to keep themselves relaxed and in a perfect zone where they are neither over-aroused or under-aroused.
The key in psychological training is to acknowledge your psychological strengths and weaknesses and then work on them accordingly.
This is not at all different from realising your physical strengths and weaknesses and adapting your training accordingly.
A pre-race routine of both physical and psychological components needs to be done consistently, in the exact same manner prior to competitions.
In watching pro baseball games, one often sees batters going through a ritualistic routine of certain acts – tightening batting gloves, moving their helmet, touching their brow, digging their feet into the dirt.
Any one of these gestures is unimportant in itself, but when done in an exact routine, they allow the batter to remain perfectly focused on the pitcher and the ball.
Runners need to have a pre-race ritual similar to baseball players – staying relaxed and focused in running just as important as the months of physical conditioning you’ve gone through.
[by Alberto Salazar for MileSplit]
