Programs 201: Good stuff...

It's happened again.


A coach cut-and-paste a program from the internet over the weekend. He asked, "Is this a good program, Fordy. Could I use it?"


"Of course", I replied, "you could use it!"
More to the point, simply by using it because you can doesn't mean it is good. So...I had him think about if he 'should' use it. Very different question.


Back to what makes a "good" program. You may recall that what a program is depends upon your perspective, experience and, importantly, your expectations. Therefore, your judgement of "good" (or not) depends upon who you are, your running and training (and injury) background, your running capacity, what you know or have experienced, what you value, your lifestyle, and what you're aiming for, at the least.

It depends upon your context, and how you go about framing your view of a program.  The coach had began to frame the program in terms of accessibility, clarity, and presentation. All understandable given the practical and practicable nature of us coaching-types. But....no context.

Helping the coach appreciate what he'd found in a more relevant context, I explained the three fundamental elements of a program (1) it's a journey - a planned, reflective, reactive, respectful, and robust trip; (2) as a journey it has a destination; it considers your/team's current situation; and, considers your/team's past; (3) it must be planned - providing direction and based upon fundamental training principles.

The program he found had no reference to his larger sport's program nor was it directly relevant to the athletes he coached. Knowing what existed, it couldn't have been relevant to the elements or outcomes of his program. It wasn't a journey for him to take, yet simply a snap-shot of part of someone else's journey. It had taken no stock of the past, current and future situation of his athletes.

He got it! He needed to plan his program from the bigger perspective first: at 5, 3 and 1 year levels. He had to consider and map out what his juniors (12-13yo) and seniors (17-18yo) were to achieve as young people, as athletes, as runners. Then consider the backgrounds of his athletes, the resources he'd have, and what time frames were available.

Once he knew where he was going, who was likely to take the journey with him, and what resources he had...he could construct a program. Implementing it, and reviewing it against objectives and criteria over time, would bring it to life. And, a planned, living, breathing and effective program is a "good" program.

A "good" program is not one to cut, copy and paste. It is one to plan, implement, individualise, review and re-work...all with the destination in mind. It is all of smart, knowledgeable and wise.

Nor is a "good" program a simple routine of increasing distance, repetition numbers and speed, and reducing rest periods.

Dependent upon why you run and what you're aiming for, a "good" program is determined solely by meeting the objectives it sets out to achieve for you. It is likely to require you to complete a developmental sequence of progressive and varied sessions and activities relevant to you, your capacity, and the demands of your event. This developmental sequence will be based upon the creative or artistic application of scientific training principles over time.

Yet, you can have the most scientific based, most comprehensively thought out and planned, intricately detailed, varied, colourful and expensive program in the world yet, if you are unable to follow it, don't like it, give up on it, get injured through it, or it is too hard, too easy, or too boring for you, then it isn't worth the little bit of cyberspace you cut-and-paste it from.

Of course...it's 'no good' if it doesn't work for you.    Don't let that happen...again.