I'm so sorry this series has put you in an awkward position with your coach. I will write more in a day or two, but let me say two things.

The barefoot running scares me and you will not find me advocating that or similar activities.

Two, if you go to the link below you will find a progression that would have the Vern Gambetta Leg circuit 4-6 weeks into the training. It looks cool on video and it's challenging, but it's also inappropriate for the first few weeks of outdoor track (for most athletes, unless of course they've done some GS work prior).

Again, sorry for this issue and let me ask for some help from some coaching friends.

- Jay

Coach Jay,
My coach got pretty upset at one of my teammates and me for doing the Vern Gambetta leg routine and some of the other stuff from the DVDs. He says that we don't know the benefits of the drills and thus shouldn't be doing it since it doesn't prescribe to his theory of training. This doesn't just apply for general strength work, he also didn't like how I was doing strides and barefoot running that he didn't ask us to. He'd rather have us work out the lower body with weights instead of circuits, but doing that in the past has caused problems for me. Any suggestions for finding some kind of common ground.
Thanks,
Kevin

qcrunner - IMHO there is no substitute for serious lower leg training for runners. That said, you don't have to go to the weight room and squat (though I love the squat and variations of the squat) to improve power. But the real problem is the people go the weight room before they are ready; they try to back squat with 1.25 times body weight before they can do 20 squats with just a 4k MB over their head. Again, it's like they go from algebra to calculus and skip pre-calc; if you skip the requisite General Strength (GS) you're setting your self up for either injury or a big jump in performance over 3-4 months but a performance plateau after that point.

Kyle - Vol.3 of the Building a Better Runner series will be lots of footage shot in the weight room, but also things like multiple throws with shot puts/med balls, all exercises that develop and train power. We have a nice hurdle mobility routine from Mike Vol.2 and we may or may not release that here (we can't release every thing for free) but I will shoot some footage this spring showing some simple HM work.

Thanks to you both for the questions and make sure to join as a fan of the page and then email me your address so I can send you a DVD.

I will write in detail later tonight - thanks for the questions and thanks for your patience.

Jay,

qcrunner thank you for reminding me about the weights. My question is, are you guys going to start to release any stuff on great weight lifting routines? And possibly more hurdle mobility?

Kyle

this videos are great, what is your opinion on weighy lifting for the legs for distance runners? is it a no-no or is a lil bit okay?

boos - yes, yes, yes - you're right on with this - we often more to resistance when body weight would suffice. to me it's like going from algebra to calc and skipping pre-calc.

that said, this is a good example of an exercise that is so easy that you can use the MB/resistance from day 1.

thanks for writing in - dvd in the mail this week.

Kyle - glad to know you're still out there - hope you're well.

This type of work has done a lot for me this season. I have the first DVD and I follow it with my kids at home. In fact, for some of the stuff I use my one year old as the resistance. He loves it. One note: I typically start any new routine with no resistance. Before I started winter weights, I spent several weeks simulating the actions with body weight only, such as squats, etc... I am going to take that approach with the atlas routine as well. It might sound overly cautious, but I have found that I don't get any of those "little" pains that seem to happen when I start something new. I use this same concept for hill work, drills, speed work, and others. Is this a common approach? Anyone else have any ideas on this?

haha im agreeing with ross, great intrew...likes a that could be a great new addition to the laura stirges tribute group