Team Coaches: When do you tell your athlete the details of the workout?

I send out the upcoming week's Mon-Sat general details on Sunday. Specifics are sent out the morning of.

Hard workouts are just that, hard. Not impossible. The kids know I don't give them anything they can't handle. Sure they may get nervous before some of the harder workouts, but it's more nervous excitement as opposed to nervous dread.

Based on their feedback, they like it this way. I always preferred that as an athlete as well.

My feeling is if you hide the workouts until the last moment, it doesn't build mental toughness, instead it causes anxiety throughout the day which is especially counterproductive/fatiguing when it's just going to be an easy/moderate day anyway. It's like being in a relationship w/someone you know can blow up at any minute. You end up always being on edge just waiting for it. Fk that.

And to be honest, most of the kids didn't really like the easy/moderate days as much as the harder workout days anyways. They always looked more excited showing up to practice on the harder days, which again is something I could definitely relate to as an athlete.

When I was a self coached post collegiate I wouldn’t tell myself the details till after the warm up.

deep man, deep.

My first college coach gave us the workout when we showed up to practice. We joked that he had a spinner wheel of workouts and he would spin it before practice and that would be our workout for the day. Then I had a new coach and also my current coach would send out the week's schedule on Sunday evening and each day would be detailed on total mileage each day and workout details. I think it's better to know what you have coming so that you can prepare physically and mentally.

The principle of specificity.

Do you know the exact date, time and distance of the championships of your season weeks in advance? Of course, so you design a season leading up to that specific task on that specific day. Therefore, tell your athletes the workouts in advance! They can mentally and physically prepare for that specific workout on that specific day. Rest, diet etc. I always ate a PB&J sandwich for lunch on hard workout days. Same as race days. I figured that out by puking in workouts after eating less ideal lunches (Tacos, milkshakes...) and realized I better dial in diet for race days to avoid that fate!

The only exception to this that I like is occasional workouts where the coach only tells you the workout rep by rep. That mentally prepares you to respond to the unexpected in a race situation. That should only be once every 4-6 weeks and it should be explained that the purpose of the workout is to train your mind to respond to challenges in an unpredictable race.

Too many coaches play games with workouts and do mental gymnastics to justify it. Tell them what's coming, why you are doing it and lead them to that specific task on that specific day to run fast when it counts.

True Story: When I self coached, I once bagged a workout. Just wimped out. I started my cool down, became enraged at myself, turned around, went back to the track and punished myself with wind sprints and pushups. My coach was such a jerk.

My college coach sent us the general workout at the start of each week and the fine details after warmup. Ex: tempo with surges @xxx. Then show up to find out its 4x8' w/ 2' surges.

Or 1500pace workout meet at track. Post warmup details: 6×500@xx

Most of us liked having a general idea of what to expect. It also helped us plan out weekly milage. Our coach prefered to not give details incase they decided to change a workout based on how we ran the previous session. Overall seemed to work pretty well.

More information = better.

Stop the non-sense.

I love this