The day off yesterday was just what the doctor ordered. Just a little patience for this patient. Went out and hit a full dojo loop this morning and felt like the young buck I once was.
Very many of us will begin gearing up for Boston and Lincoln in the next two weeks, hope everyone has had a good winter base of training. The McLatchie Method is 15 weeks of guaranteed hard work, most of the athletes I work with will utilize that program. Jim McLatchie was my original coaching mentor and I still have 100% faith in what I have learned under his tutelage. His program is nearly as old as many of you readers and has developed athletes of all abilities including Olympic Steeplechasers Justin Chaston and Jon Warren and Olympic Marathoners Sean Wade and Warren. Jon qualified for both the Steeple and the Marathon under the program.
I’m excited to see what Killer Coach’s marathon regimen consists of, I’ll be using that for Grandma’s in June. Any coach worth his/her salt subscribes to the notion of life time learning, once you think you know it all you begin your decline in effective teaching. And the best way to learn is by doing. So Killer, here I come.
The McLatchie Method is well known for the sequential build up of speed on Mondays, Pick Ups on Tuesdays, Tempos on Wednesdays, distance on Saturdays, and easy days the rest of the week, it isn’t magic. I will give you one small hint that the 1st Monday of the program is 10 X 1:00 fast with :30 recovery, jog 10 minutes, Repeat. Very similar to the Hansons and McMillan programs by the way.
Dylan Wilson and Kaci Lickteig both knocked 17 minutes (!) off their prs at the 2009 Lincoln Marathon under the McLatchie Method. Mike Reilly took 17 minutes off his pr in Houston in 2010. I’m sure the number 17 is a coincidence but the results are amazing nonetheless.
Three keys to the program: patience, honesty, faith. Patience with your development, honesty with your current fitness level, and faith in the coach/program.
No matter who coaches you or what program you follow I think you’ll need the above ingredients to be successful. Have a well thought out plan, stick to it, believe in it. And never stop learning.
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