schedules

Every week we in the "magical Milers" sub-5-minute group get a schedule from our esteemed leader, Bobby McGee. Having written thousands of these things, Bobby has developed a system of abbreviations for specific workouts. He also has a policy of "continual improvements" -- yes, which means he keeps generating new ones. This is sometimes hard for us to follow. It makes it impossible for anyone else to know what the heck we are doing.

On the occasion of his anniversary of 25 years of coaching, I realised that in years to come, Bobby will be one of those coaches whose methods are analysed to death. You’ll find all sorts of runners and triathletes coming out of the woodwork claiming to have trained with him. There’ll be talk of 100-mile weeks and sessions of 40 x 400m in 60secs. So, for the record, I thought I ought to record an actual schedule Bobby gave me -- in this case the one I used when I first started with him. Don’t let anyone tell you different – this is what we really do.

Is the magic in the coach, the schedule, or the runner?

I'm beginning to think that the greatest gift a coach can bring to the table is the ability to encourage people to train consistently over time.

Yes, there is the technical aspect of knowing/feeling numbers and quality of reps and intervals and hills, but the most important thing is to keep people at it. That's where "the schedule" comes in. You get it once a week and know roughly what you'll be doing when... it makes it easier to find the time and to motivate yourelf knowing that there is a purpose to it AND a group of people waiting for you at 5pm!