V 12 N. 36 'Destination Runs' by Russ Ebbets

 

Here is Russ Ebbet's second article on childhood running that we think you might enjoy and see some ways of making it fun for your kids and other people's kids.  It is sport's  A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson.  Why start a six year old reading Shakespeare to develop a love of poetry and verse,  start with Stevenson.    Following is a link to an article that appeared in The Guardian by Melissa Jacobs about a guy who had a varied route into the NFL and perceived a need to get out while he still had all his marbles. You will see Russ's thesis replayed on a different stage.    Enjoy.

Destination Runs

                                                                    by Russ Ebbets

Can you remember your first day ever of practice? How about the second day?

Chances are they were not pleasant memories. The doubt of “Can I do this?” followed

24 hours later by the soreness of newfound muscles leaves one to wonder how you ever made 

it to the  third day of practice. The use of “destination runs,” a simple training method to 

gradually introduce the concept of distance running may simplify this whole process.

Freihofer’s Run For Women has long had a program where they conduct clinics for elementary

schools in the days leading up to the annual race. As a community service national and world

class runners take time to interact with local kids introducing the how’s and why’s of running. 

The sessions routinely end with questions from the crowd. Questions are usually simple and

straightforward about pets, favorite colors and foods. Recently one of the runners returned

laughing how she was embarrassed to be at a loss for words after she was asked, “When you

are running, if you know you are going to lose – how come you don’t stop running?”

Obviously, the kid didn’t get the point. I can say that as an adult with 40+ years involvement

in the sport.

But what if I am missing the point? Although we do run to win, the results are often different.

There is always the possibility of a personal best but that is often not the case either, especially

with age. When you give the kid’s question a moment’s thought – that’s a really good question. 

The fact of the matter is racing would take on a whole new dynamic if people were stopping

as soon as winning hopes were dashed. There would be the occasional sprint to the finish for

but after that the ranks would be thin and the fund-raising aspect of the sport would be lost. 

The transition of child to adolescent presents a dichotomy of growth and development v.

training and competition. Ideally childhood should be a time of discovery. Life should be

spent doing a little of this and a little of that. And mostly the “this and that” is accomplished

with games. 

I use games in the general sense. Read it as unstructured play. The best goal is that there

should be no goal. Winning and losing are of negligible importance. When you get tired you

stop. The important thing is to have fun and to move. 

Concepts like persistence, dedication, drive and always giving your best effort are not on the

radar screen of a child. Competition and the need to win do not play such a central role either.

Simply put, they are kids. They think like kids and should be allowed to act like them.

But a problem arises when the child has to transition to a more organized setting. The journey

of 1000 miles begins with a single step. Organized training has to start somewhere. The challenge

is to transition the child into the adolescent athlete in such a manner that the fun of the games

can morph into the fundamentals of the sport that will serve one for a career and lifetime. 

But think for a moment, that first day of practice must be terrifying for most newbies. No

doubt there has been talk of five-mile runs, hill work and the like and all the newbie knows is

that they want to stop after one lap of the track. 

There is an obvious ability gap here that needs to be bridged quickly or the newbie will soon be

on other things. And these doubts and fears only escalate after one day of practice when the next

morning dawns with legs so sore it is difficult to walk. 

The point of running is to get to the finish. Conceptually for an adult they can manage the

uncertainty of the mid-race void with the faith and confidence that comes from training and

experience. The newbie is quickly lost in the void of breathless uncertainty of an unseen

finish line.  

So the question arises – how does one get the newbie through the void? 

What I have successfully used is what I call a destination run. From the first day of practice,

after the initial warm-up, we run destination runs. The distances vary from 200m up to about

one-half mile I would gather the group, point out a landmark (a tree, bench, backstop, etc.)

in the distance and give the command to run to the landmark and back. Things were not timed.

Speed was at the pace the runner was comfortable with. No walking was allowed.

The newbies returned. I’d have them find the carotid pulse on the neck and count six seconds.

Mentally I would start to record exertion and recovery rates. We would walk for a few minutes

until everyone “caught their breath.” I’d do another carotid pulse check making sure everyone

was under 12 beats (120 beats per minute) and send them off to a different destination. This

cycle was repeated 6-8 times. 

Most will see that this is simply a less structured form of interval training. And doubtless they

will be quick to add that this is an unconventional way to do interval training, especially on the

first day of a season. 

I’ll grant the unconventional sentiment but what are the other options here? Most of the runners

have never trained. I suggest that any form of distance runs would be counter productive. Even a

“short” three miles is a long eternity for a newbie that is too difficult, exhausting and destroys

any shred of confidence the athlete may have arrived with. So I would counter with – what is

the point?

At least with a destination run there is an accomplished goal that is repeated throughout

the practice. With regards to practice the athlete establishes an inventory of successful efforts.

They have faced a challenge (“run to that telephone pole and back”) and succeeded. Granted,

it is a small goal, insignificant when compared with the work of a marathon but it is a brick

that forms a base from which greater building can come. A feeling of “I can do this” is the

thought of a winner. 

Two other points bear mentioning. The rest interval between the destination runs is critical

for coachingpurposes. No doubt my athletes would remember this as a time for “stories” if at all. But this is

where I repeated stories that were lessons on technique, how to act at a meet, what to eat, what

to think before race or how successful varsity runners struggled as freshmen and the personal

doubts they mastered allowing them to go on to greater things. The list of topics was planned

and presented in 2-3 minutes, a fair rest interval. 

And then the first race comes. After the obligatory 15 days of practice, team uniforms

and pictures freshmen are ready for the first competitive effort. In the 15 practices of

destination runs they may have run some 75+ intervals with nothing longer than an 800  

(sometimes we did do a mile time trial). 

Inevitably the frosh captain would approach with a team concern about the fact that most had

never run the full race distance, usually 1.5 miles. I’d allow him to verbalize this momentary

crisis in faith and send him on his way with two quick thoughts. Firstly, I would remind him

that the team had completed every workout I had asked them to do in the last two weeks –

why would I ask them to race today if they were not prepared to do it? Secondly, I would tell

him not to stop

until the finish. 

Growth and development is an evolution with a little of this and a little of that. The transition

of the child to adolescent athlete can be organized in such a way to provide the direction,

fundamentals and motivation necessary to create the dedication, drive and desire that will

evolveinto successful competitive efforts.

Definitely words to dwell upon.  Now here is the story of a multi-gifted athlete's unconventional journey to the NFL and his choice to retire early.

Ali Marpet, A Multi Sport Path to the NFL  (Link)

Amen to brother Russ.,    Joe Rogers

Kids can have more than one interest and can display good character in sport.  I'm reminded of dear friend now departed,  Phil Scott, telling about some of his cross country runners.  One kid a biology student who came in rather poorly in a cross country race.  He went up to him to ask what happened and noticed the runner was covered with preying mantises .   He told Phil when he saw all those bugs out on the course he just had to stop and collect some of them.   Another child who was raised on manners and politeness always said,  "Excuse me." when she passed another runner.    George

NFL guy who valued his education.  smarter than the average athlete.  Bruce Kritzler