Mike Scannell coached Grant Fisher to two bronze medals (5000 and 10,000 meters) in the Paris Olympics--a feat no American runner had achieved previously. Which brings up a good question: Who is Mike Scannell?
Turns out he is a forever-friend of Grant Fisher's family, and coached Fisher to 2 Footlocker XC Championships victories back when Fisher was a Michigan high schooler. Then he sat back and watched Fisher run 4 years at Stanford, and 4 years with the Bowerman Track Club.
A year ago, Fisher called Scannell to say he was ready for a change of location and coaching. He moved to Park City, UT, and Scannell wrote up a training plan for the long pre-Paris buildup.
In this Pod, Scannell sketches his personal background in running (2:16 marathon!), and describes how he and Fisher designed their successful Olympic plan. Some major topics:
# Scannell's 4 key workouts for every training week
# How to build speed with a minimal amount of speedwork
# What Scannell thinks of Fisher's marathon potential
# Can Jakob Ingebrigtsen be beaten at 5000 meters?
# The current state of American running
And much more.
On X.com, Scannell posts a daily motivational tip. Here's a great recent one: "We always save something for ‘another day.’ That’s in part why I don’t do, ‘last one, fast one.’ The other reason is that I don’t want kids to ‘fail’ in practice, and running all out means you run until your body fails. I like kids to walk away with success on the brain."
WHERE TO FIND "RUNNING: STATE OF THE SPORT"
Use your smartphone to download podcast apps from Apple, Spotify, Pandora, or YouTube Podcasts. Once you've selected your favorite app, search for "running state of the sport."
With your computer, tablet, or smartphone, you can also listen direct to “Running: State of the Sport” at the below internet links.
"Running: State of the Sport" is brought to you by MarathonHandbook.com and RunLongRunHealthy.com.
Marathon Handbook is the world’s leading marathon website, with a special focus on trustworthy running information and free, runner-tested training plans for all ability levels.
"Run Long, Run Healthy" is Amby’s weekly newsletter with the newest, most scientific, and most useful training advice for runners.
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