How can you enjoy the upcoming off-season and still maintain your fitness? That was the question we posed to Doug Butler, who coaches both the cross country and track teams at Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy in Melbourne as well as hundreds of adult runners and walkers in his Set Goals, Not Limits training camps.

“I’m not sure my philosophy is worth anything”, said the humorous and modest coach who has led Holy Trinity to seven state cross country and three state track titles. “I am certainly not Socrates, Plato, or Aristotle, but here is what I have come to learn over the years.”

Know what you want
Butler first believes that all training should have a goal and a plan.

“Your goal should be challenging enough that you have to work hard to achieve it, but not so hard that is it unrealistic,” he said.

Phase your plan
Once Butler’s teams have picked their key race dates, he backs off 24 weeks and lays out the training into four distinct seasons or phases – this concept is also referred to as ‘periodization’. Below he gives an example of how he would coach his cross country team to peak for the November 22 state championship.

“We would back off 24 weeks from the (key race) date and begin a seven or eight week base cycle around June 7,” he said. “This is a mileage building phase and does not involve any timed distance repeats. As we gradually increase mileage we incorporate some fartlek for speed and near the end of the phase we add in steady state runs, of three to five miles, which are 40 seconds per mile slower than 5K pace.”

The fartlek and steady state efforts help prepare your legs and body for what will be coming up in phase two, which Butler describes as the ‘Lactic Threshold phase’.

“This six to seven week phase includes tempo runs at 20 seconds per mile slower than 5K pace,” he said. “We also continue to do fartlek for increased leg turnover.” Phase three, or the Max VO2 phase –which is also six to seven weeks long - is one of the most challenging and, without the proper build of the other two phases, the most likely in which to become injured.

“We include repeats of 800 or 1000 meters done at a two-mile pace as well as shorter intervals of 200, 300 or 400 meters done at mile race pace,” Butler said.

The final phase, peaking, is two to three weeks long and, if done correctly, brings the athletes to the starting line of their most important races in PR (personal record, also known as PB or personal best) shape. “Here we decrease mileage and shorten the intervals to 150 to 200 meters,” said Butler. “We decrease the pace of these intervals but increase the rest time.”

Taking Butler’s philosophy to heart means that much of the summer can be spent in base mode, knowing that this period is the building block of faster race times in the fall and winter. Butler will be running his popular Set Goals, Not Limits summer running camp from May 27 through July 5.

This year’s camp includes a special guest speaker, Suzy Favor- Hamilton, a seven-time U.S. national champion and three-time Olympian, on June 3. For complete information and registration for this camp, log on to www.setgoalsnotlimits.com