Rick Karboviak believes that most high school running coaches in this country are training our kids incorrectly, and that it is hurting the sport. He believes that we need to do more to develop the next generation of runners, and provides some solutions and strategies to do so in his book, “Endure!”
This book is not for everybody. In fact, I think that its appeal will be for a very small segment of the running community. For that small segment, though, it is probably worth taking a look at given its low cost. The book is delivered electronically, and includes a couple of bonuses including a 20 page “bonus” section, a phone consultation with the author (a certified coach) and a month free in a training club. I have not made use of the phone consultation or the training club, so I can not offer an opinion on either of those.
The book recommends that we take a different look at how we train our children, and offers up the experiences of the author as he has grown as both an athlete and as a coach. The book is divided into 7 sections.
Chapter 1: What this book is NOT
The book begins by pointing out that the author is not a marathoner or long distance runner. He is a 5k and 10k runner who trains kids to race between 3k and 5k. He does not believe in high mileage running for multisport children, and does not believe in blindly offering mileage charts without any strategy behind how to develop a proper training plan.
Chapter 2: Real-world discoveries
Rick believes that children these days (and Americans in general) have a problem with obesity and terms this the Play Station Generation. He also notices that some of the best runners in the world grow up in areas where there are a lot of hills and no transportation options beyond the pedestrian for most kids. Lacking a fitness base as children makes it more difficult for Americans to compete on the world stage as adults.
He also points out that most children are multisport athletes, and that cross country or track tend to be conditioning seasons for their other sports. These kids do not benefit from long, slow distance running because their sports do not involve a large component of aerobic conditioning. In fact, even the sport of cross country does not involve endurance running.
“I think the true cross-country racing style is not just some ‘long endurance’ event: it’s a series of random sprints, surges, adjustments in pace, and adaptation to the environment they face, all put together in a set distance for a race.“
Chapter 3: GPS Technology
The third chapter is devoted to GPS technology. He explains what they are, the basic differences between the different brands, and how to use it when coaching.
He would use the GPS tools to easily craft workouts and distances on the fly over varying terrains, and to help the kids maintain set paces during workouts. He also believes in training the kids to race in meters and not miles for metric-measured races.
Measuring a course in kilometers instead of in miles gives the kids more feedback on how they are doing, and they get it earlier in the race than the kids who have to wait for the first mile to get to where their coaches are waiting for them. It also makes it easier to plan workouts and prevent overtraining the athletes.
Chapter 4: The Kettlebell
This chapter does not have a whole lot to it. Rick believes that strength training is an important part of a developing athlete’s training regimen. I tend to agree. He also believes that the chaotic movements of kettlebells are a perfect complement to simulate cross country running. Kettlebell swings have the same caloric burn as running and are great for hill training in the weight room.
Chapter 5: Running workouts
In the fifth chapter, he describes the different types of workouts that he has his kids run, and why he develops those workouts the way that he does. His general plan is to include hill workouts, fartlek workouts, interval training, and long runs that are no farther than twice the race distance for a specific athlete.
Chapter 6: Strength workouts
The strength workouts vary from pretty good to less than ideal.
The descriptions for the kettlebell exercises vary quite a bit in quality and are not all complete.
The body weight and the medicine ball exercises are all fairly well described.
Chapter 7: Creating strategies
Rick believes that the strategy is more important than the racing plan. You need to find out the strengths and weaknesses of your runners and you need to build around that. You have to also make sure that your athletes understand how to race.
There are 3 steps to developing a strategy:
- Figure out the athlete’s needs
- Figure out the athlete’s conditioning levels.
- Plot out the training plans on a workout calendar.
He offers a typical workout calendar template that he developed at the beginning of a recent season and shows a chart graphing the racing performance throughout the season for his athletes.
He also offers suggestions on how to fit a strength component into your workout schedules and presents some example circuits that can be accomplished with groups of 15-30 kids.
Closing and Bonuses
The book’s closing is one big block of uninterrupted text where he returns to the general philosophy of his training regimen and coaching style. He includes the instructions on how to play a running game that he invented, and the 20 page “Road Warrior Training Program” that includes more specifics on different types of running workouts than he provided in the main book. This “bonus” book is intended more for an individual athlete than for a coach.
Who will not benefit from this book?
Most endurance athletes are not going to find much that they can use in this book.
There are much better sources of information about how to implement strength workouts into your training regimen, and most experienced endurance athletes are not going to learn anything new in here that they can directly translate into their own training.
The strategies for bringing together a workout calendar are not going to translate for marathoners very well, and the author never pretends that they will. The book really is centered on young athletes that are running shorter races.
Who do I recommend this book for?
I think that for the low price, this book is worth picking up and looking at for any high school coaches. You may not be convinced to change your entire training philosophy based on what is in here, but there are a few good nuggets that would be very simple to implement into an existing training program.
I also think that this book is useful for some ideas on how to implement GPS technology into a training plan. I have just recently gotten a new GPS watch and this book has given me some good ideas on ways to best use it during workouts.
I feel as though I got more than my $17 worth of value out of reading it, despite not being the demographic that the book is aimed at.
Click here to learn more about the “Endure!” eBook. From the sales page, you can download a free report on why kids are not running any more and you can read more about the book itself.
Blaine, it’s pretty clear that you earn money if someone clicks your link and buys the book, do you not think it’s wise to disclose this?
Andrew, per my terms of service, I will add affiliate links where I can in an effort to help defray the hosting costs for the website.
I was not paid by the Speed Dial Coach folks to write this, and my policy is to explicitly state when somebody has paid for me to write an article.
This was a product that I bought from them a couple of months ago and that I have read through a couple of times. My thoughts and opinions above are my own.
You will find quite a few reviews on this website. Some of them will cause me to earn a small commission if somebody purchases the item, some of them just link directly to a product. Some reviews did not have a commission link added until a year after the review was written when one became available. You will find that whether something provides a commission or not has no bearing upon what I thought of it.