As a follow up to the very relevant issues raised in Cindy King's article, "Comm Games: Where Are Our Elite Females?", I would suggest runnerstribe seek an interview with American coach John Cook, for the following reasons:

- He has coached several very high level female middle distance runners, and taken them post-collegiately from the level many Australian girls are at now (4:10-4:15) to world class performances.

- He claims not to have had an athlete with a stress fracture in 20 years.

- He has worked with several female athletes with complex injury histories and taken them to medals at global championships.

- His athletes perform brilliantly when it counts using approriate periodisation, at major championships and olympic trials, which has been a huge problem for Australian middle and long distance athletes male and female.

- His training philosophy represents a significant departure from the predominant Australian structure and train of thought which can be a very insular, and a fresh perspective is invaluable.

In summary we have many girls that hit that the B-Qualifier or subelite levels and fail to kick on due to injury or sheer lack of improvement at the post-junior stage. Cook has shown an ability to deal with these issues with simply stunning results, and I think his insight would be a fantastic addition to the site.

With all due respect to Bideau and O'Shaugnessy, hearing comments from the coaches and onlookers that are having injury issues to the effect of “the situation is not as dire as it appears�. or “It could be eating, or it could be a lack of general sport in the girls’ younger ages. Their bodies do not seem to be conditioned well enough to handle the stresses and loads of training. We need to do more work around this area.� with regards to the female middle distances is not really helpful and as in many scenarios it probably serves to look to and learn from those that are having success dealing with these issues.

It's very difficult to get anything concrete out of John Cook, I have tried many times myself. I even sat with Abdi Bile for over an hour one night asking questions about his training in 1987 when he was with Cook and got a bit out of him…probably more on what he did with de Oliveira in the mid 90's (which is very similar). Luis came out to Australia in 95 and gave heaps of hand out on Cruz's training…if you look on letsrun and search for Cruz's training, I have posted same sample weeks on there (might be easier to search JRinaldi and then click on the links as it will give you less hits)

There is a long telephone interview with Cook on letsrun but you really don't get much from that, plus there is a link on flotrack where Cook discusses his program during a USTF coaches conference (I think there are a few; training specifics and how to prepare an athlete to train hard).

Most of the top coaches don't give too much away, not because the are hiding anything, just because
a. they are too busy coaching
b. they probably like to tailor the training to individual needs and wouldn't like to generalise.

Not really sure my post has offered much really.

JR

What do you mean when you say "concrete"?

If by concrete you mean training logs then I don't think that's of much use to anyone bar the specific athlete in question. Individual needs as you say, Abdi's training was Abdi's training, Cruz's training was Cruz's training, which their individual coaches could apply effectively to the individual athlete in the individual setting.

He is more open with his principles and the way things tend to be structured (though that letsrun interview was quite poorly directed, and other stuff e.g. on athscanada has been a little more boigraphical and short on training info) and those are the more important things we can actually learn from and apply in our own settings which are different to Oliviera and Cook, I'm sure there are significant differences between Oliviera and Cook based on their backgrounds and personalities as coaches, as well as the backgrounds and personalities of their athletes and their environments.

I'll give a more detailed run down in another post of my perception of Cook's principles vs other methods but it is certainly worth noting his emphasis on proper periodisation and greater emphasis on multi-pace work vs just running the mileage all year/training like a marathoner with a mild taper. There are definite differences between his principles and those that predominate in Australia currently.

There is lot of talk in Australian running along the lines of:
"Focus on endurance, speed is easy and can be done in a few weeks of peaking"
"Get the mileage in and don't worry about pace on easy days"
"You can't improve speed by much so just focus on endurance and mileage"

But the rub is our athletes always end up moving up in distance, stagnating and getting injured and also perform terribly at majors and lack a kick, so it rings pretty hollow to say "speed is easy" when we produce nothing at the middle distances.

As I'm sure you're aware JRinaldi, the vast majority of top middle distance runners 800-1500 are not:

Running 100 miles week in week out, with easy days very easy 60 + 30min, and an easy 90-120min long run nearly every week of the year, with sessions mostly 10000 pace and thresholds.

but rather

Running 70-90 mile weeks moving to lower volume in specific phases, with easy days lower volume and runs often cutting down hard by the end (or sometimes from the start), long runs harder and shorter, short and fast reps most of the year if not year round.

And that goes for both those overseas and the Aussie guys that set the records that still stand from way back when. Mileage is important and easy to program, but it has diminishing returns in the middle distances. It is not great to see young athletes adopting this 60+30 jogs on easy days with a weekly 90min long run, and a lot of our top 1500 guys seem to be running a lot more general mileage than the all-time greats and current world class who are running seconds faster in actual races.

There is also a problem in that the A-Qualifier in the middle distances is a little soft as times are derived from making the semi-finals of major champs, where the running is tactical. Unfortunately that means that those who run a one off or marginal (say 3:35-6) A-Qualifier in a time trial in Europe or Australia, have very little chance of reproducing that time in a tactical major and qualifying for the semi's as the A-Qualifying time is supposed to suggest. A 3:34-36 PR gives you very little chance in a 3:34-36 semi with a kick down or a 3:38-40 heat with a kick down unless you have serious raw speed compared to your opposition, so often it isn't so much guys failing at majors as not being well qualified to start. There was a lot made of Collis Birmingham running 1500 qualifiers off distance work but a time trialled "qualifier" can be a bit misleading given how tactical the races (at major champs) are that the qualifier is based upon.