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Full Video Transcript

The Importance of Individualized Training

One of the biggest mistakes we make in training is not individualizing it. We pick a system and then apply that to everyone. You see that at the high school level, the college level, the postcolgate level, and everywhere in between. You even see it in the training books.

And often when we think of individualized training, we think of it only for the event that we are taking on. and we say, “Oh, you’re a 800 runner, so you’re going to do X, Y, and Z. And you’re a 10K runner, so you’re going to do this program.” There is no perfect system. And when it comes to training, what we need to understand and know is a vast array of systems so that we have a number of tools that we can apply for the person sitting in front of us.

That

Historical Examples of Training Variability

is why if you look historically there are people like Peter Snell who ran 144 on grass on a grass track for the 800 and was Olympic champion in the 800 as well as the 1500 doing tons of mileage. He was a lineard athlete 100 mile weeks marathon type training in the base phase before sharpening up and getting faster but he did a lot. Similarly, we contrast that with Sebastian Co, someone who did lower volume, way more intensity year round. And no quote unquote super long runs or 22 mile long runs like Snell did.

Both were or were amazing 800 runners, best of the best, world record holders, but they got there in different ways. And I’m sure if you look at athletes nowadays, we have many examples. If you look at the high school level, we have many examples of athletes succeeding in a variety of training even though they’re training for roughly the same event. So when it

Understanding Athlete Physiology and Psychology

comes to individualizing, we need to consider two things broadly. the event you’re training for that gives you the demand that you need to meet plus the individual sitting in front of you and that includes their physiology and their psychology. Do we have a Sebastian Co or do we have a Peter Snow to talk in broad terms? And you can really see this differentiation in middle distance.

But even when it comes to events like the marathon, we have people who are more speedor orientated or more endurance orientated because their individual physiology and biomechanics bring different things to the table. So the way I like to set it up is for each event we have someone approaching it from the speed or fast twitch orientated side or the slow twitch oriented side. Which way are you coming from? Right?

Are you Sebastian Co or Peter Snell? Now what we know is that fast

Training Approaches for Different Athlete Types

twitch type athletes if we look at them for their event let’s take a 1500 runner who is more fast twitch oriented their aerobic development is going to be different. So for each race we tend to think of oh this race is this percent aerobic this anorobic whatever have you that’s going to differ based on the individual that you bring to the table. So if you have a really strong aerobic system then to run that 1500 or that 800 more of that aerobic energy is going to be supplied when you have that strength of the system. Alternatively if you have more speed or anorobic or fast twitch type fibers then guess what your anorobic capacity is going to cover more of that energetic demands.

it fits into the thing into the race. So what does this all mean? We can divide athletes individualized based on the characteristics they’re bringing to the table and to the race that we have. So let’s talk about some broad differences and what this means.

So the fast twitch type athlete, okay, their aerobic development is going to be different. Why? because their system isn’t quite as strong. So, we can’t go out and say, “Hey, I’m going to run a bunch of straight threshold runs and go Jack Daniel style 30 minute thresholds, 25 minute thresholds, and just ride that line.” Our system isn’t that strong compared to someone who’s more aerobically developed, more slow twitch oriented.

So, what does that mean for our threshold or aerobic development? We need more split up runs to keep us from going over that edge. We need more progressive runs, progressions. Why?

Because it helps us again not go over that edge and run and ease our way into it. We need more aerobic style intervals. This is why iglooy system worked really well. I just did a YouTube video on aerobic intervals.

that works well not only because the aerobic system isn’t developed as much but because of that we don’t recover as quickly when we’re doing our intervals. So often we need shorter intervals and more frequent breaks to make sure again that we don’t go over that edge cuz that aerobic monster that slow twitch oriented guy or gal is going to bounce back even if they go over that edge. One of the reasons more slow twitch fibers we’re able to utilize and clear lactate better. So during our harder interval sessions or even our threshold sessions if we go over and start accumulating lactate the fast twitch athlete starts digging into a hole a little bit more and says hey I can’t utilize and clear this stuff out.

The slow twitch athlete is like, “Ah, we’re a little over the edge, but I can handle it. I can bounce back.” This is why slow twitch athletes tend to do better with alternation workouts. So things like 800 on, 800 off, where the 800 hard might be at 10k or 5k pace and 800 off might be a still steady kind of marathon type pace. That’s twitch athletes can’t handle that well.

Okay, the aerobic system isn’t developed enough to handle still going at a steady pace. In addition, we have to consider how do we balance their strengths and weaknesses. So, if we have a fast twitch

Balancing Strengths and Weaknesses in Training

type athlete and we say, “Hey, I’m going to do a lot of aerobic longer stuff, longer runs, long threshold workouts.” What happens is we tip that balance of seessaw so that it’s heavily in towards the thing that they’re not that good at which might make that a little bit better. But we take away some of those anorobic enzymes, that ability to produce force quickly, our anorobic capacity or power and all the sudden the thing that made us really good, it’s no longer there. You can see this often if we take maybe a fast twitch 1500 runner and we do a lot of long stuff and all of a sudden their sprint speed declines, their 400 goes down and even their ability, their max ability to produce lactate goes down as well, their anorobic kind of ability. All of the sudden the thing that made them really good is no longer there.

We don’t have the gap between let’s say their 400 and their 1500. We can’t run 400 and 50 48 but now only 50. So that gap between that and our 1500 pace is worse even if we improve aerobically a little bit. So the point is we need to look at the balance we have on the flip side.

If we have a slow twitch athlete and we load them up on let’s say anorobic capacity, that high lactate work, the stuff where we’re getting really tolerance oriented. Guess what? That shifts that seesaw balance and all of a sudden we lose some of those aerobic developments and aerobic enzymes that allowed us to handle that and we peak early and sputter out and we’re not in a good spot. So it’s this balance approach towards things.

So what do we have to do is we have to consider again the event we’re training for and then which side of the table are we coming to it from coming speedor oriented enduranceoriented or some mixture of both. Sometimes we have a specialist who’s in between and that shifts the type of training and the emphasis we do whether we go a little more towards linear a little more towards co utilize some iglooy style aerobic intervals utilize more Jack Daniel style straight thresholds or anything in between based on what they’re bringing to the table. We can also see this just to hit this home. We can also see this in their easier long runs, right?

A slow twitchoriented athlete is going to be able to use more fat as fuel. So those long runs aren’t going to use as much glycogen at around the same effort or same pace. The fast twitch athlete is going to dip into their glycogen reserves more because their system fat burning system isn’t as good. in that long run, even if it’s at the same relative or same intensity for this athlete, is going to dig a hole a little bit more.

So, we have to pay attention to the volume of training or the long run, the length and volume of that and how long it takes to recover off of that work. Their physiology shifts what they can handle. Okay, you got it. We have to change based on the athlete and the event they’re training for.

How do we

Identifying Athlete Characteristics

decide are you more fast twitch or slow twitch for an event? You could go get a muscle biopsy, but I would not suggest it because you need a comparison as well and it’s invasive and hurts a whole hell of a lot. But we can use simpler metrics. If you have lactate, you can measure lactate.

Most people don’t, but for a fast twitch athlete, if we were to have them do allout 400 or 600 or something relatively anorobic, what we see is higher lactate levels produced. They have a higher capacity to produce lactate. So after that 400, a more fast twitch middle distance runner might see their levels reach 17, 18, 19, 20 plus mill mole. more slow twitch athlete maybe 12 13 maybe even less.

Okay. So we can use lactate but even more so we can use simple metrics. We can say okay let’s compare above and below your race distance. If you’re a mileer how does your 800 compare to your 3k or 2 mile or 5k?

How does that match up? Are we able to retain more speed or retain the speed longer as we go or do we have a bigger drop off? So, one of the ways I like to do this is almost create a speed decline chart. So, track their 400, their 800, their mile, their 5k, whatever distance you have, and you can plot it out and you get a line of how much speed they essentially retain.

And if you do this with all your athletes, you’re going to start to notice, oh, this athletes line is a little flatter, right? They’re only losing a couple percent as we increase in distance. This athletes falling off a freaking cliff. Tells you speed or endurancebased for that event.

So, plot out their various events. This is why I love for high school and college runners especially to go run some 4x4s, go run cross country, try different events because it gives you more information on where they are strong and where they’re weak. We can also look at various tests that tell us a little bit about their physiology and biomechanics. So, not surprisingly, a speedoriented athlete will have more spring and pop in their step.

Their biomechanics are normally more reactive or powerful versus more slow twitch athletes tend to be smoother, more economical and have more of that sometimes that more kind of marathon shuffle type stride. Why? They rely on economy instead of power to get them there. We can see this in tests.

So, if we do a standing broad jump or a triple jump, we’re going to see fast twitch athletes have more power behind them and reactivity often. We can utilize these tests to understand. We can also look at workouts. Just run your athletes through

Practical Tips for Individualizing Training

a variety of workouts from hill sprints to short intervals to tempo runs. and generally what they excel at gives you an idea of where they’re oriented at for their physiological characteristics. If you train a high school or college team, guess what? You’ve got a lot of people who are probably around the same kind of performance zone.

And you see, well, how does that this athlete handle the long run or the threshold run or the speed work versus another? It gives you a clue into where their physiological makeup is. Now, the key here is this isn’t set in exact stone, right? These might be their strengths and weaknesses, but we can nudge them in different directions.

Now, it’s important to remember or to understand where they start at because that gives us an idea of where their kind of qualities are. Their fast twitch orientated matte matte makeup of their fibers. There’s so Twitch fiber makeup, but we what we know is we can’t shift it completely. Can’t say, “Hey, I’m going to take Usain Bolt and make him Elliot Kipchig, but we can nudge it along the lines.

So have us be a little bit more slow twitch oriented, a little bit more fast twitch favoring to use this model. We can see it at the fiber level, but it’s not just about muscle fibers. It’s about physiological systems as a whole. And that’s how I individualize training.

I take their characteristics, their strengths, their weaknesses, and say, “Hey, this is what you’re bringing to the table. This is the event we’re training for. Let’s mix it together and see, okay, what does that mean for the workouts you need to be able to handle in terms of long runs, in terms of splitting workouts up, in terms of interval styles, whether we need shorter reps or longer reps or short rest or more frequent rest or break things into sets. That all depends on their makeup and what their strengths are and what they can handle.

So, that’s how you individualize training. And it comes back to again an important part. There is no magical training system. There is none.

Liyard won’t work for everyone. Kenova won’t work for everyone. Co won’t work for everyone. Daniels won’t work for everyone.

We need to understand these systems so that we can take the parts that say ah for the athlete sitting in front of me given their development stage and the events they’re training for and their physiological and biomechanical components I need to utilize this tool a little bit more than this one over here. It’s why we need a broad understanding of training instead of just shoving our athletes into the system that we prefer and hoping it works for them cuz some athletes it won’t. We need to individualize based on what they bring to the table. So there you go.

Thanks

Conclusion and Final Thoughts

for listening. I hope you found this valuable. If you did, consider liking, subscribing, and most importantly, sharing it with other coaches, runners, athletes who might find this valuable. In addition, leave me some comments on other topics you’d like to cover.

I pull from the comments all the time to come up with ideas to cover, both in depth from a science standpoint, but also with history and practice involved to give you insights that hopefully make you a better athlete and coach. Until next time everyone, take care.