At VDOT, we know every runner and coach has something to share. Knowledge comes from science, experience, and the stories we live every day. Now, we are expanding how we share that knowledge. You will find new content focused on training, recovery, and insights from the running community. Because every runner and every story brings something valuable [...]
“An absence of direction is usually better than bad direction” - Dr. Jack Daniels Dr. Jack Daniels won two Olympic medals in the modern pentathlon but he always likes to point out that running was by far his worst event of the five. It's the reason he ended up researching exercise physiology and becoming a [...]
We're thrilled to sponsor a new high school coaching series produced by podcasting extraordinaire Lindsey Hein. You can listen to each episode on her show, I'll Have Another, wherever you catch your favorite pods. Our goal with this series is to shed light on best practices for managing young runners so that as many coaches [...]
Think Long Term It's a long road to reach your full potential as a runner and longer term adaptations depend partly on how you treat your body. When planning out future racing/training always think long term and consider between training cycles as just as important as each training cycle. How you recover, learn from your [...]
By Dr. Jack Daniels I learned about strides (also referred to as striders) from the elite runners who were subjects in my 45-year longitudinal study on elite distance runners, which began in 1968, in preparation for the Mexico City Olympics (and ended in 2013). A Canadian runner I worked with referred to strides as having [...]
By Dr. Jack Daniels Of the many adverse weather conditions runners face, probably the only one that every runner is confronted with at one time or another is wind - and if there's anything that interrupts training or racing more than wind, I have yet to meet it. I consider myself fortunate to have coached [...]
The following are some pre-race warm-ups that you can experiment with to determine which works best for various races and conditions. Try before a few low key race and/or to prepare for Quality Sessions as well. Easy Running Warm-Up Easy running warm-ups are a good idea before very long races, especially when the intensity is [...]
By Dr. Jack Daniels The term "warm-up" is misleading because warming up the muscles is only part of the process. In fact, "prerace preparation" might better describe what a runner goes through during the 30 to 60 minutes before a race starts. Whatever you call it, this is a time to prepare yourself physically and [...]
By Dr. Jack Daniels There is often a discussion relative to the benefits of different types of training, and usually the “types of training” compared are slower/longer training sessions (Quantity) versus shorter/faster training sessions (Quality). However, both slower/longer workouts and shorter/faster workouts can be considered “Quality” relative to the benefits they produce in a runner’s body. [...]
For me, as a coach, the easiest way to detect hypertraining (a setback from overtraining), is by knowing my athletes, each and every one of them. Here's how I look for hypertraining: When a runner is progressing through a season of training, they have scheduled gradual increases in amount and intensity of running typically every [...]