Category Archives: Topic – Training

Speed Workout

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This speed workout video was shot in June before we departed on our world tour. I was doing some 250 yard sprints on the track and some 6-10 second incline sprints up the Ringling Bridge.

Our three general points on speed at www.OneMileRunner.com

  1. Body stays erect for maximum knee lift and to allow the trunk to stabilize and brace
  2. Bent arms move from the shoulder, but without further flexion from the elbows
  3. Mid-foot strike – striking the ground with the heel first is like putting on the “brakes”.

This style of running promotes stiffness throughout your body. This is what enables you to be fast and diminish your time on the ground. Many running coaches talk about staying “relaxed.” I am not sure what this means for form. Relaxation in my form promotes more sinking of my heels, more flexion from my elbows, and a lack of bracing in my trunk. Stiffness in my trunk and mid-foot landing propels me down the mile course optimizing my efforts for speed.

See what it feels like to stiffen your entire trunk when sprinting. Try a mid-foot strike if you have not before. Experiment with your arm movement to give you the best rhythm, balance, and power possible. And most all, enjoy what your body feels like when going fast – one of the best feelings in the world.

Full Warm Up Program

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This final warm-up video shows the full program with all three parts of the program: blood flow, mobilization, and power preparation. Why should you warm-up anyway before strenuous exercise? Warming up your muscles and joints will not only help you avoid injury, but also it will give your body a chance to peak perform. Instead of elongating your muscles, or stretching, before your next event, try to mobilize your muscles and joints. Squats, lunges, and balance reaches are the best combination to mobilize your lower body muscles and joints. The punching matrix is a great way to mobilize your upper body muscles and joints. You will know when you are adequately warmed-up when your skin is moist and you can run at top speed freely.

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Warm Up – Advanced

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Here is video of the Advanced Warm-Up program. Be certain to have the beginner and intermediate warm-up moves down before you add these high intensity steps. Next week, I will be showing you the entire program in a concluding video of our warm-up exercises.

Power Preparation – Advanced

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Our warm-up series continues at www.OneMileRunner.com with the addition of this Advanced Power Preparation video. These are the final bounding exercises added to your beginner and intermediate programs. These plyometric drills, bounding exercises, are an integral part of your warm-up program. The exercises are not something you do once in a while, but before every speed activity. Enjoy the workout!

Power Preparation – Intermediate

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Here is the Intermediate version of the Power Preparation. The intermediate version adds a few more difficult drills to the basic bounding moves. I hope you can add these speed drills to your warm-up program.

We will be posting the parts of the Advanced Warm-up Program over the next couple of weeks. You will be able to have some fun preparing your body for your best summer performances.

Warm-Up (Intermediate)

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Here is the video of the Intermediate Warm-Up. The intermediate level takes you deeper into the squat, lunge, and balance reach warm-up. Before you begin the intermediate level, please be proficient in all the essential movements showcased in the beginner video. I hope you can use it to warm up for your next event.

Have a great week of training!

Power Preparation

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We posted the first phase of the www.OneMileRunner.com warm-up program last week featuring how to mobilize your joints and muscles. This week we share another part of the warm-up: Power Preparation. The Power Preparation follows your mobilization and gets you ready for speed for any sport. The beginner version is in the video below and we will add the intermediate and advanced videos in the weeks to come.

Every injury I have had I have done to myself. When I get injured from an exercise, it is due to bad form or bad habits –  unknowingly. When my orthopedic doctor reviewed my MRI, he said that I did something to cause trauma to my left leg. I did not accidently fall or trip in any of my various workouts. So I was wondering how did I traumatize my leg? We felt if I remove the trauma – I would remove the source of my injury. So I searched in every workout I did. I did not come up with the answer until my return to the track this past week since I strained my left knee and right hip flexor in March. Whenever we begin our track practice we warm-up in the opposite direction of our speed training. Most athletes who use the track go counter clockwise with the left leg on the inside to practice their speed training as every race takes place in this direction. I decided to switch it up a bit this week as I was trying to find how I traumatized my body as seen in the MRI. And I found the answer. The trauma occurred on repetitive workouts with my left leg taking a pounding on every turn. I felt a huge difference when I practiced my speed in the opposite direction (clockwise) with my right leg on the inside – no pain.

After years of training my speed in only one direction. It was only a matter of time that my left leg would break down. It felt strange at first to run speed with my right leg on the inside, but my body loved it. I thought warming up in the opposite direction was enough, but it was not. Please learn from my experience and be mindful of your workouts in whatever sport you do. Repetitive habits must be good ones to build your body, form, power, and speed properly. The best way to train speed is straight ahead without any turns at all.

This is the ideal way to keep your body in balance.

How To Warm Up For Any Sport

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My 8 week training program has begun. The countdown to our first race in the North American continent (The Boom Box Mile in Connecticut) is just 7 weeks away on July 4th.

At www.OneMileRunner.com, this is the start of our new video series. We will be sharing videos on how to warm up, how to cool down, and how to train speed and power in our movements. We begin with how to warm up for any sport for the beginner – part 1 and part 2. In these videos you learn the basic and essential moves for muscle and joint mobilization. Whatever sport you participate in, preparation is the first step to a great performance.  We believe that the warm up is not about elongation (stretching), it is about 3 steps: blood flow, mobilization, and then power preparation.

We hope this helps in your training programs. We will be adding a new video every week. So we look forward to hearing how you use these movements in your life and/or in your children’s lives.

Webb Visits Our Practice Session In Sarasota

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Escaping the cold of the northeast, Tom Webb and his girlfriend Betsy Suda came to Sarasota to visit our good friends, Kim and Mark Sheffield. Tom came out to our track practice last Saturday morning. He was nice to pull me through my 3/4 mile time trial and workout with everyone who attended that day. Tom (no relation to Alan) is currently finishing off his senior year as a captain of the Providence College track team. He has been searching across the country for the best location to train after his graduation. On his trip to Florida, Tom visited Gainesville (home of University of Florida and The Florida Track Club). Tom aspires to become an Olympian in 2012 and beyond focusing on the 5K and 10K. Tom currently holds a personal best of 14:12 for the 5K and looks to break the 14:00 minute barrier in a meet this spring. If any of our readers know a place Tom should make his home base for training after his May graduation, please let me know and I will pass on the news so he can make a visit there soon. It would be wonderful for Tom to find the “right” place to maximize his potential and accomplish his aspirations. Combining the geographical location, an inspiring coach/mentor, and a great group of training partners creates an invaluable base for his pursuit of excellence.

To my right (in order) is Tom, Betsy, Lauren Lumely, Kim, and Wayne Johnson.

We travel to University of Florida to race an indoor mile at the 3rd Annual Jimmy Carnes Invitational on January 31st. Stacie Nevelus, the www.OneMileRunner.com Massage Consultant, will be in attendance. After the race, the next blog will feature the role of massage therapy in post race recovery.

Back In Sarasota

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In 1997, I traveled about 35 weeks that year coaching on the professional tennis tour. When I came back home, I actually had forgotten where we kept the plates. This year I had a little deja vu…when we returned home to our Sarasota home, I actually went to the wrong cabinet to get a glass for water. I love being on tour for an event, but it is nice to be back in our home after racing so much this summer. I am being careful on my return to the tennis court. Last year after completing 20/20/20<5@45, I tried a new pair of tennis shoes and this brought on plantar fasciitis for 5 months. This year I was a bit smarter…

We returned to Florida just before Labor Day. 13,000 total miles on my car from the end of June until early September. We went all over New England and enjoyed visiting and racing in so many cool towns and cities. Sekyen and I took off to Dublin, Ireland for a little getaway before I started coaching. It gave me time to decompress after finishing the event. I am in the midst of preparing my body for the toll in 2010. I have increased my strength workouts and I am only doing easy running every other day. My speed workouts will begin in mid-December to prepare for the Masters Indoor National Championships in Boston on March 27th.

To my surprise in 2009, I had no injuries throughout The SmoothToe New England Marathon…One Mile At A Time. I think this is a testament to my new training program, the recovery products that I endorse, and to the dedication of Sandra Bello (my massage therapist in Tyngsboro, MA) and Dr. Brian Bigelow (the Chiropractic Consultant to the www.OneMileRunner.com based in Nashua, NH).

I will be announcing in November the six host cities for our 2010 event, “Around The World In Less Than 30 Minutes.” In December, we hope to have my new book, Creating Amazement, released and ready for the public. And in early 2010, we will be shooting our new One Mile Fitness video.

I will keep you up to date on all that is happening every week throughout the end of the year.