Too bad it won't count. The course, which begins at Derryfield Park (site of the Manchester XC Invitational) and ends at Pulaski Park, has a net elevation drop of 188 feet. The race is organized by Millenium Running, the same outfit that directs the New Year's Day Millenium Mile, another downhill dash.
Here's the elevation profile for the Manchester Mile:
I wonder what the splits were for that first half mile... maybe Gags had his eyes on Johnny's Gray's AR in the 800, too.
According to the story posted in the Manchester Union Leader, Gagnon was one of eight men to go under 4:00. The women's winner, Julie Cully of Clinton NJ, ran 4:14, which is under Mary Slaney's American record.
7 comments:
hey jon, i ran with brian today and we discussed the race. He said he was 1:50 @ 800m which was 2 seconds behind the leaders.
The meet paid bonus awards to people who had the lead at 400m, 800m and 1200m
As always, great job with the writing.
Scott Ouellet
Thanks for the comment, Scott.
I noticed that Brian also won the John Carson 2M race in Tyngsboro, with Keith Gill in second. I would have liked to see that!
I have to think this is good training - running faster even with the assistance of gravity has to condition the body to go faster.
i have to figure a way to incorporate this into training.
I think that's an excellent point, Mike. I remember reading somewhere of a coach who used downhill running as part of his training for sprinters.
I have actually incorporated downhill running into XC training, but with an emphasis on learning how to run downhills properly and efficiently. Of course, this was done very carefully over a period of many weeks. After working on it for a while, we would sometimes finish our downhill training with a hill workout in which the recovery was a fast downhill run, rather than a jog.
This would would be a great subject for a longer post.
Downhill running can be a huge component of middle distance training if you're looking to find a simple way to improve basic speed in the form of leg-turnover, if you don't have better means to do so. This is usually the case with many high school teams in the winter months.
Arthur Lydiard would suggest in his hill phase that you find a moderately steep hill -- roughly 800 meters long with a flat top and bottom -- and do the following: 15 minute warm-up, dynamic and flexibility drills, bounding drills up the hill (much harder than it seems if done properly), jog on flat part at top of the hill, run aggressively hard down the hill - opening your stride and letting go, jog a little, 4-5 short sprints on flat part at bottom (anywhere from 50m-200m), repeat 4-5 times.
Downhill running should always come into the picture well into a training phase as you need your body to be conditioned to meet its demands. If you've developed the aerobic capacity and the musculoskelatal strength properly, you will get faster incorporating downhill running in some shape, way or form into your training plan.
Over the years I've developed some highly effective workouts using hills, things that I know no one else out there is doing, so now that I'm done coaching high school, feel free to e-mail me if you're looking for advice on these types of workouts.
How do you know no one else out there is doing them? Did you really ask EVERYONE?!?! :)
I know in the 80's the Russian sprinters were training on downhills alot (that and steroid sandwiches). They can be very effective for teaching turnover, but there have been cases where the downhill running can cause lower leg (particularly shin) injuries if not done with proper form and without proper recovery.
It's best with HS kids to do anything in moderation. A huge downhill workout for a HS athlete could have more costs than benefits. Be sure to gradually increase volume. This can be easy to forget when athletes seem to be really excelling during one.
Just curious- in regards to the theories and workouts mentioned, what are the purported benefits, did you see that result as a coach, and is there research I could look at on the subject?
Clay
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