Workout Wednesday with Brian Winckler of Grain Valley

    Wednesday Workout- Grain Valley Eagles Written by: Brian Winckler When it comes to getting runners in shape, every coach has his or her "go to" workouts for building fitness that will usually include hill repeats, mile repeats, a long run, fartleks, speed at the end of the season, etc., but what about building mental toughness in your runners through a specific workout? Nick Small and I are now in our 4th year coaching together at Grain Valley High School, and we asked ourselves that very question our first summer coaching together and our initial response was, "Mental toughness is not developed through a specific workout, it is developed over time through a culmination of factors." Well, with this in mind, we thought back to our high school running days at Blue Springs High School in the early 2000s running for Coach Gary Parker (a 1996 MTCCCA Hall of Fame inductee), and we determined that he developed mental toughness in us through a very rigorous training schedule that included higher intensity efforts almost daily. His training regimen consisted of doing the exact same types of workouts every single day of the week (with variations in times and distances, of course), but we always knew what was coming each day when we showed up to practice. We weren't sure that our kids were quite ready to handle that type of a rigorous training schedule at the time, so we asked ourselves, "Is there one workout that we thought helped us build mental toughness more than others when we ran together at Blue Springs?" We looked at each other with smirks on our faces and a grimace in our eyes and at the same time replied, "Mondays..." And thus, the "Coach Parker Special," or "CPS" for short, was born at GVHS…

    The "Coach Parker Special" is a type of hybrid workout that consists of 2 very key components that work 2 different body systems throughout the workout that tests your mind as much as it tests your body. The first component of the "CPS" (after you are warmed up well) is to run what we call a "Kenyan Tempo Run" which is where our kids will do an out and back run with the first half of the run being at "Training Pace" and the run on the way back is at "Tempo Pace". Now, when we were in high school we vividly remember almost racing on the way back every time, so we do try to prevent our kids from doing this; however, we do let them get after each other a little bit on the way back which might result in a little faster than Tempo Pace. When the kids get back from the Kenyan Tempo they have about 7-8min to get a drink, do strides, and transition toward phase 2 of the workout: repeat 800s on the track. Now, the 800s can be as few as 2 and as many as 6-8 depending on the time of year and how quality they are. We generally have our kids running these 800s at around current 1600 pace, and we give them 1:1 rest between the 800s at the beginning of the season and take rest away as the season progresses. So, the "CPS" is a Kenyan Tempo run with repeat 800s after with 1:1 rest on them, so let's look at what this has looked like for one of our athletes this season.

    

    The first time we did this workout this season, Mariah Lister (a sophomore runner for us who finished 3rd in the Green Division at Forest Park this year) ran a 6 mile Kenyan Tempo with her first 3 miles being at 22:35 (or around 7:31 pace) and her last 3 miles ran around 19:15 (or around 6:25 pace). She then headed to the track and did 2x800 with 1:1 rest and ran 2:42 and 2:40. Now, when we do this workout this coming Wednesday, she will do a 6 mile Kenyan Tempo run in similar times (perhaps slightly faster on the way back) and then head to the track for 4x800 in similar paces with similar rest. Now, will this workout alone make Mariah, or any other of our athletes into an All-State runner? Of course not, but this is the workout that we turn to when we feel as though we need to "shock the system" a little bit and put our athletes into a position where they have to make an important decision in the middle of the workout much like they will have to in the middle of a big race, and that question they have to answer in both the "CPS" and the big races is: "How bad am I willing to hurt to accomplish my goal?"