If you had the opportunity to, and had a rookie runner to train (whose aspirations went only as far as 5K to 8K in terms of possible racing...10K a very shakey maybe and marathons OUT) how would you do it?
If you had the opportunity to, and had a rookie runner to train (whose aspirations went only as far as 5K to 8K in terms of possible racing...10K a very shakey maybe and marathons OUT) how would you do it?
The simplest method might be to do what Mary Decker's coach (Dick Brown?) had her do coming off of surgery:
Run a mile a day for a week.
Run 2 miles a day the next week.
Run 3 miles a day the next week...and so on up to the point where, in your hyothetical case, your rookie is running 10K a day.
(In Deckers' case she went up to 10 miles a day, then went back to the track for speedwork to prep for racing. I believe that was '77-79 or thereabouts.)
I'd suggest that AFTER that, and maybe a race or two to get some performance data, you could mix things up a bit.
You COULD go further, but if your subject wants to stick at shorter distances, and has no previous experience, that might be a modest genesis.