Monday, July 23, 2018

What would you like to ask Coach Chris Puppione?

I moved this to the top as many of you are not familiar with this series since they were first posted in 2009. While Chris is now retired from coaching, the links below are still full of useful information that could help you or your team during the upcoming season.

You can also see what Malmo posted in the comment box in regards to the long run. Good topic of discussion.

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Some of the most popular posts on this blog have been the training articles that were posted during cross country season by former Miramonte Cross Country and Track and Field coach, Chris Puppione (pictured to the left during his coaching stint with UC Davis). What we did in the past was for me to ask the questions to Chris pertaining to topics that you can see linked below. Some of you are familiar with them already but for those of you that are new to the site, they are definitely worth a look.

We would now like to open up this process to the coaches, athletes, parents and fans out there and ask for your input on topics for Chris to tackle next. YOU come up with the topic and from that topic, you ask the questions. Once we have enough choices, Chris and I will choose the best topic and post the answers on the blog.

Use the comment box below to list your topics and questions.

Peaking (Part I) by Chris Puppione...

Peaking (Part II) by Chris Puppione...


Peaking (Part III) by Chris Puppione...


Nutrition (Part I) by Chris Puppione...

Nutrition (Part II) by Chris Puppione...

Threshold (Part I) by Chris Puppione...

LT Training (Part II) by Chris Puppione...

The Long Run (Part I) by Chris Puppione...


The Long Run (Part II) by Chris Puppione...

27 comments:

a1k said...

One topic I was thinking of was easy days/recovery runs... basically what your thoughts on these are in general, the importance of them, etc.

Another topic could be double days (when to do them, effectiveness, and so on).

malmo fan said...

Interesting that this guy says that long runs are the most important runs whereas malmo says "Absolutely wrong. Long runs are the least important aspect of training. So unimportant, that you could get away with not doing them at all if you wanted."

Hm who to listen to, this guy or an AR holder?

Anonymous said...

How about listening to both of them and then deciding what's right for you!

Albert Caruana said...

Thank you a1k for your suggestion.

malmo fan, there is more than one way to correctly train distance runners. You brought up two point of views about the long runs and both are probably right. It would be interesting to get malmo's point of view and why he feels that way about the long run.

Anonymous said...

malmo fan, get a life. chris wrote some great stuff last fall. the vast majority of the greatest mid-distances runners of all time have done long runs. malmo is far from being in this group as there are 17 year old Kenyans who can kick his butt.

Anonymous said...

Interesting discussion of training methodology. Thanks for the info. However, I believe that Coach Puppione is no longer the head coach at Miramonte. There has been a change.

Albert Caruana said...

Interesting indeed.

Any more suggestions for topics and questions?

Albert Caruana said...

Coach Puppione is still at Miramonte HS assisting Brian Henderson during cross country.

As is the case with most discussions that go astray, let's get back to the original intent of this post which was to ask you out there for suggestions for topics.

Anonymous said...

i'd like to hear chris's opionion on supplemental training, strength training, cross training and the like as it relates to added strength, stamina and injury prevention. typical workouts and frequency would be helpful

Coach Pup said...

To be clear, I am still at Miramonte as the Head Track & Field Coach, and I will again assist one of my old coaches, Brian Henderson, during the XC season.

Having met and chatted with Malmo myself, I respect his opinion and his knowledge-base. I never claimed to be The Oracle here--just offering my thoughts to foster further conversation.

Speaking of conversation...

I agree with Albert--back to the point of the post, and that is to send in questions and topics for us to hammer out.

So far we have:

1. Recovery/Easy days
2. Double days

The more topics you give us, the more articles that will be generated, meaning the conversation will grow! Let's get to it! Speak up!

Coach Pup said...

Oops, I left out the post above mine--sorry!

So now we have:

1. Recovery/easy days
2. Double days
3. Ancillary work (strength, drills, cross training, etc)

Good list so far!

malmo fan said...

Okay but just saying both have totally different points of view (so you cannot really "listen to both"). One says that the long run is the most important run, one says that the long run is the least important run. Two completely opposite ends of the spectrum

Anonymous said...

Malmo-fan, Request a topic for discussion so everyone suspects you can think for yourself. It's what Malmo would want you to do as a loyal cult member.

Albert Caruana said...

Different coaches emphasize different parts of their training. In most cases, that doesn't make any of those coaches wrong.

Peter Brewer said...

This is for the Malmo fan:

I just leafed through the "Letsrun.com" discussion board for all the references to "Malmo" and most of what he says as far as conditioning (http://kemibe.com/highschool.htm) seems to focus on terminology more than actual training differences. The emphasis mentioned in the above link was on duration, not distance. The runner is encouraged to run for a set amount of time, and to do so with increased intensity as conditioning built up. The emphasis is on duration, but the net result is more distance over that time -- hence, distance is the goal but only as a progression of training.

He further goes on to talk extensively about miles per week, and there are other references in the discussion board about his legendary personal workout ethic (120 mile weeks, double days 7 days a week). All of those indicators point towards a remarkably distance-oriented training scheme.

Your contention with Puppione's statement seems to avoid dealing with the fact that the aim of both is distance racing ability, and the training required to maximize that ability. Whether a run is measured in minutes or miles, it still is a distance run and is on the training program. If the distinction is emphasizing one over the other, that is a different topic entirely.

I don't think that "Malmo" and Puppione are espousing "completely opposite ends of the spectrum. I don't think Malmo had in mind the Iglo methods of all interval training for distance running, which would represent a widely divergent training stance.

Peter Brewer
Northgate High School

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure that 'malmo fan' really understands what I've said about long runs.

I've said that long runs are the least important piece of the puzzle. It doesn't mean that I'm telling anyone not to do them. I certainly have never avoided them myself. What I'm saying is to focus on the other six days of the week FIRST. Then, and only then, bother with the long runs.

Most people sacrifice the other days becasue they've been wrongly convinced that long runs are important. They are not really important. The are just another piece of the puzzle.

malmo

Anonymous said...

I believe the most import run is at 6am. Cold, windy, rainy and dark. I've done thousands of those.

Anonymous said...

I believe the most import run is at 6am. Cold, windy, rainy and dark. I've done thousands of those.

That was me again.

malmo

Coach Small said...

I want to echo what Albert has said earlier. Everyone is different. There is no cookie cutter program that works for everyone. For some people a long run may be that missing ingredient, for others it may be the thing that breaks them down and is something they cannot recover from. What works for one American record holder may not work for another.

I agree that I would like to see what the thoughts of other coaches are on recovery. Personally this is the first thing that I plug into my program. I strategically put in my rest days just as I do my workouts. To quote Malmo in reference to the long run, "they are a piece of the puzzle" but I think can often be overlooked by the elite and taken advantage of by the less motivated.

Double days will be a great conversation too. Personally as an athlete I have done both. The doubles (5-6 in the morning; 8-10 in the afternoon) and the singles (just 12 in the afternoon). Personally I increased my speed through double days but struggled with being tired ALL the time. I ran some great times but had some great jumps when I started running singles and got more rest. Of course that was for the 5k and up…

I struggle as a coach with how hard to push my athletes. I don’t want to be the coach who gets them to peek in High School and then in college they fall of the grid, or get slower. I want to build and develop so they have a great career in college and beyond. As a coach I have never been one to push doubles, so I would be interested in how it has worked for others. It is a delicate balance between being at peek performance and injury.

I am interested in the following topics for discussion:

1. Injury prevention
2. Cross Country Race strategy
3. Creative workouts (I am not talking games but creative speed workouts that are fun)
4. Cross Training (pool, bike, etc. Include some workout ideas) is it an equal supplement?

Albert Caruana said...

Excellent post Josh and thanks for adding some more topics for us to consider.

Coach Pup said...

First off, too cool seeing malmo here...

I like the idea of looking at recovery, as I think it is often overlooked, and when given attention, I feel that it is not addressed properly.

The idea of "saving something for college" intrigues me as well, having been on both sides of this as a high school coach and college coach--that could be fun to examine.

As for your list, Jason, those are some good ideas, with #1 jumping out at me, as I try to be proactive as a coach, using ancillary work to address injury prevention. I feel many coaches limit work to avoid injury, while I try to do intelligent work to prevent it.

Thanks to all for the input.

Coach Small said...

I just wanted to clarify, I don't mean "save it for college," but rather develop a good mileage base building strength, endurance and speed so that they continue to develop in college. Some athletes I see are pushed to the max, where the focus is only speed. When they get to college there is no base, and no improvement.

My personal coaching philosophy is I would rather see a female athlete run 2:10 in high school with the right progression and training foundation that will allow them to go on and run 2:02 in college than run 2:08 in high school but never improve collegiately because they were pushed too far. I have seen it all too often.

As a former member of the Farm Team I saw many athletes that were pushed to the brink in college to not see improvement after graduation. Others like letsrun's WeJo and others are prime examples of improvement after college. Of course there's the other side of the coin: Meb, Abdi, Legat who continued to improve. It is an interesting subject.

I think the question here is: Can / How do you do both?

Anonymous said...

The NCAA system kills with all the racing for points, emphasis put on points and so on.

Jordan Hasay should go pro. Which she will probably do soon.

Anonymous said...

Should go pro and leave the NCAA system I mean.

Anonymous said...

do you eat crayons?

Anonymous said...

When you are recycling content from 7 years ago, time for new material.

Anonymous said...

I, for one, would like to congratulate Coach Pup. He took the Newman girls team, who were 5th in their league with no girls in the top 20, to 3rd in league, 4 girls in the top 20, and a new school record in one year. They recorded some of the top Empire times on many course this year, including Stanford. From what I've seen, his methods work just fine.

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