CHOOSING YOUR PATH

Now that cross-country season is over it is time to turn our thoughts towards track.

It has become clear to me (once again) that there are a lot of different reasons why people run and what they hope to gain from their running. If this is true, as I believe it to be, then it makes little sense to coach every runner as if he or she had the same motivation. Just as each runner’s different physiological make up requires different training for optimal performance, so too their different psychological make-ups likely require different coaching approaches as well.

So, for now, I am going to create two different paths for the coming track season. Let’s simply call them A and B. I am going to ask you to choose the one that you think best suits you – the one that will make your training and racing enjoyable and will best help you reach your goals, including the big one – why is it you engage in this activity called running. Let me describe them to you.

  1. This approach path is more demanding of you and your energies. It assumes that your running is, next to family and school, your most important activity. It assumes that you want to do everything possible to reach your running goals. It assumes you want to leave no stone unturned in your quest to meet your running goals. I guess it assumes that, within limits, nothing comes before your running. This is a holistic approach which will include the traditional physical aspects of running – the workouts – but also will include: nutritional factors, strength factors, rest factors, mental factors, more extensive goal setting, more extensive record keeping, more extensive communication with me. In general, it assumes you will want to develop what I call the lifestyle of a champion.

    2. What is the lifestyle of a champion? Imagine your ideal runner. How does he or she go about living life? How does he or she approach their sport? Think of all the factors that go into training a champion. How would your ideal runner handle them: nutrition, rest, strength training, flexibility, cross-training, running workouts, social relationships, spiritual matters, educational responsibilities and any other facets of life.

     

    Make no mistake. Living the life of a champion is difficult. If it were easy, it would be crowded on the medal stand at championship meets. However, it is not even as easy as living the way champions do. In order to benefit from this approach you must firmly believe that the life style of a champion is worth living. You must have unshakable confidence that this is the way you want to live life – that it is the best way for a person to live his/her life. If you don’t firmly believe this, it would be a mistake to choose this path. You will soon tire of it, become burned out, unhappy with it and likely cast it aside. In order to benefit from this approach, you must also have an unshakable confidence that the training and coaching I will give you will be successful. It will take a great deal of focus to stick with this approach. The sacrifices are many and the rewards – at least to non-runners – seem very few. However, if you want to learn a lot about yourself, if you want to see just how far you can go, if you want to dare see how great you might actually become, then this might be the path for you. STOP RIGHT NOW! I know some of you are saying, "That is well and good, but I am not an elite, world class talent and it makes no sense to train that way." Let me tell you about a high school junior who ran 2:13 for 800m and 4:25 for the 1500. Exactly 10 years later, he ran 1:41.73 and 3:31.95. In addition, Sebastian Coe won Olympic gold and silver. That is what I meant when I said people often do not have an accurate idea of what kind of talent they really have. Seb Coe might not have even qualified for the state meet in Georgia or for the OFSAA meet when he was a junior in high school. Who would have thought that he had the kind of talent that he did? Along with his coach he set out a 10 year plan that resulted in the incredible performances listed above. He realized he was not the most talented runner around – his best 400 was only 46.2 while others were running 45’s and 44’s (Juantorena and Cruz). However, he dared to see how far he could go. He was willing to risk failure to see if he could succeed. And he went to university and was an honor student, so he didn’t just eat, sleep and train. He still managed to live the lifestyle of a champion.

  2. This path assumes that while running is important and your goals are important, they are not the central focus of your life. This path is for people who want to improve, want to meet their running goals, yet want other things as much or even more. This path is for people who do not want to adopt the lifestyle of a champion – for those who can get enough satisfaction simply out of improving, out of interacting with their teammates, and any of the other many satisfying aspects of our sport. If you choose this path it probably means you do not think the lifestyle of a champion is the best way to live one’s life. It probably means you do not have an unshakable confidence that this is the way life is meant to be lived. It probably means you do to want to be single minded about meeting your running goals. This approach has a lot to offer – but it is very different than A. The path I call B does not involve such extensive goal setting. It does not involve as detailed an effort at record keeping. It does not require as much self-evaluation on the part of the athlete, nor as much evaluation of the athlete on the part of the coach. It does not involve as much interaction between coach and athlete. I think you can run well if you choose B, but I don’t think you can run your best.

Let me tell you a little about why I am bringing up the concept of choosing a path. I have 25 years of college teaching behind me. In that time, I have seen thousands of students who are functioning well below their potential. I see what they are capable of doing and it saddens me to witness this waste of ability. I also feel the same way about athletes who waste unbelievable amounts of potential. It may be that they do not even realize how much potential they have and what they could accomplish if they would just focus on what they were doing. Even worse, I don’t think students, athletes and non-athletes alike, realize that this failure to utilize and develop one’s potential has negative implications for their mental health.

 

Part of the reason I am asking you to choose a path is to make sure I am on the same page with each of you. I do not enjoy "making" people do things they do not want to do. I get enough of that in class every day. Rather, I enjoy helping people reach the goals that they have set for themselves. As I mentioned above, it is very frustrating to me to see talent being wasted. It also frustrates me to work hard arranging training schedules, getting up at 5:00 AM to be at school at 6:00 AM, evaluating the week’s training for a large # of people, spending my Saturdays driving to and from meets, spending my Sunday’s compiling statistics and doing the things that, in other schools, are done by others – in general making coaching the central focus in my life – just to have people miss training, not get enough sleep to perform well in training, not bother to eat well enough so they can train well, or not even take a few minutes at the end of the week to think about how their training has gone and communicate it to me. In all honesty, when these things happen, they make me want to coach other people.

I believe I can avoid this frustration if I am clear about what each of you wants from your running – what goals you have – athletic and personal. It becomes easier to coach someone when I know pretty much how they want to do things and what they want to accomplish. So, I am asking you to choose your path for the coming track season – A or B. Either is fine. I have passed out some material to help you decide. This material is what anyone who chooses A will work with this coming season. Please realize that if you choose A, you are committing to a very difficult path. I use the word "commit" advisedly – that is what it will take. A strong commitment on your part. In return, I will make an equally strong commitment to do all I can to help you reach these goals you have identified as being central in your life.

If you choose B, you are not alone. I will still train you. I will still help you academically. I will still arrange workouts for you. You will still go to meets and race. There will be minimum requirements for you to meet, like attending practice, lifting weights and weekly reports. Much will be unchanged from the way it has been during cross-country. But it will not be the same. One thing that will be different is how I go about coaching you. If you choose B, I will not be as inquisitive about your diet, your rest, whether you are lifting or how many pushups or pullups you do. I will give you my suggestions on what to do and my encouragement for what you do. But just as running isn’t central in your life, your running won’t be as central in mine. It will be important to me, but not central. I will still coach you, but not in the same way I coach someone who chooses the A path.

In some ways, the fewer athletes who choose the A path the better. It will leave me more time and energy for those who do. In some ways, the fewer who choose it, the sadder it will be. It is wonderful for me to see you all work together, help each other, care about each other. You are like no other team on this campus, and, believe me, I know more than anyone on this campus about each of the other teams. Whether you know it or not, you are very special. Less than .1 of 1% of people on this campus can do what you do. That is special. And even fewer of them can do it in the way that you do it – with enthusiasm, with cheerfulness and with character. I hope all of you choose the A path – but that is unlikely. I would like nothing better than having a large group, all pushing to the max to help everyone become the best they can be. I have seen it in action before and it is a wondrous thing to behold. Just look at the photo on the cover of Joe Vigil’s book. It is worth a thousand words and explains the A path better than I ever can. Think about how you want to approach the coming track season and let me know. You can do it by e-mail if you wish or you can come by and see me. By the time we start our pre-competition training on November 11th, I would like for you to choose your path and let me know which one you have selected.

 

M To me, the lifestyle of a champion certainly does not necessarily mean going to bed at 8:00 PM every evening. It doesn’t mean giving up a social life or becoming a hermit. To me, champions live with a balance, a balance between the physical, intellectual, social and spiritual aspects of their lives. How would your ideal runner balance these parts of his or her life?

So, whatever path you choose, A or B, I am looking forward to the coming track season with great anticipation.
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