Hannah Peterson ranks as a star in Durango circuit training. Photo by Alan Versaw.
Special to Colorado Track XC by David McMillan
In the 1990s, under the coaching leadership of Ron Keller, Durango XC reigned as one of the top teams in Colorado,
winning State titles in both the 4A and 5A classes. Mike Freeburn, world class wild water kayaker, mountain bike stud, and recent rim-to-rim-to-rim runner (at 50!), developed the framework for Keller's lifting regime. These consisted of 30-45 minute circuits, completed daily.
In my first year of coaching (2012-13) we initiated circuit training twice a week, with a focus on legs one day and upper body the next lifting day, typically Tuesday and Thursday on our recovery days. We included Olympic lifts, and high repetition circuits. We generally did our lifting after practice, and I saw an atrophy of athletes as they stressed over homework, dinner, etc., and generally disappeared after 20-25 minutes.
This year, we decided to go back to the basics, and I involved Freeburn (currently an Assistant Principal at DHS) in redesigning our program. We now lift 4 days/week, from week 1 through our region meet.
Our routine involves a 30-station circuit with integrated legs, arms, and core. Early in the season, we do this for 20 minutes, with light weight and high reps. Athletes are at each station for 15-20 seconds and there is a 10 second change station break. As the season progresses, we add time at each station and weight to each of the lifts. My assistants, Brett Wilson and Mary Kate Jackson, run these sessions as I look for my missing stop watch, clipboard, and brain (typically seven days a week!). Our out-of-season lifting is similar, and we do this between seasons, with an additional emphasis on explosive speed drills, lifts, and movement.
For the last 3 weeks of this season, I invited Ron to join us to focus on our starts, which had become dismal. He also came to our lifting sessions and, after watching the kids for about 10 minutes, left quickly to take up his place at the starting line.
I found him there, chewing on a blade of grass and generally contemplating his navel - he had a somewhat sad look on his face, but goose bumps on his arms, as he asked, "Call that lifting?"
"Well," I stammered, "we do it 4 days a week for 30-40 minutes and the kids are getting stronger."
"Yeah, well," he muttered "but they're taking 15 to 20 seconds between stations and spending more time looking at themselves in the mirror... Would you mind if I showed them how we did it in the 90s?"
"Not at all," I responded rather sheepishly. After all, I thought, we were doing a great job. We'd been racing quite well, despite taking two trips out of state, and the kids were looking stronger...Shannon Maloney could do six or eight pull-ups!!"
The following Tuesday, I found my clipboard quickly (I have given up on ever finding my stopwatch...must've lent it to one of my assistants, I rationalized.) and joined the squad in the weight room....wow!!
There was a whole new sense of urgency, Ron had a whistle in his mouth and the kids were focused at their stations, machines were clinking away mechanically, rhythmically, and with a rapid staccato reflective of a heavy artillery gun in WW2.
Sweat was pouring off athletes doing crunches, Russians, kettle bell exercises, and a whole suite of hereto unseen body contortions. The whistle blew sharply, and the kids moved in unison and with rapid, purposeful strides to the next station, five seconds passed and the whistle shrilled again. The pumping, rotating, grinding, and mechanical clink of a well-oiled machine reached my ears. "My golly gosh," I thought, "this is how its done...this is how they won, this is the Keller-Freeburn method!"
I'd missed it by a mile, and these days, thats about 7 minutes of missing!!
So, what is the Keller-Freeburn method in the weight room:
Still the same 30 stations;
Circuit completed in a clockwise manner from one station to the next, efficient and logical;
45 seconds at each station, five seconds between...I repeat, five seconds between
whistle blows to set in the proper position at each station
whistle blows to start - and then the rhythmic clinking begins
whistle blows to stop and move...did I say five seconds between stations?
no lolly-gagging
no looking in the mirror
no pauses without meaning
weights appropriate to each athlete
kids pushing each other
Hannah Peterson lighting up the room with 12-16 pull-ups
Maloney doing 10, and making it look easy
Alastair McMillan doing plank with a 45lb weight on his back, and not just for 30 seconds, but three sets of 45 seconds
Raquel Hyatt attacking the heavy bag as if my face was on the leather (yes, we use a heavy bag suspended from a heavy chain just like Ali and Foreman did before their infamous rumble in the jungle in the 70s--and the kids pummel it to pieces)
Coaches joining in...well almost all as I suddenly remembered where I might have left my stopwatch and waddled off into the storage cage...
After an intense 45 minutes, the kids got a quick drink and headed directly into the hills for their fartlek, speedwork, or recovery runs. We had finally arrived at near-perfection in the weight room - maybe next year I'll get it right....just maybe!!
Our stations make up an integrated program that includes Olympic weights, core, upper body, legs, plyometrics, and dynamic stretches, with a number of core exercises thrown in.... We should be running faster, but it's all in the coaching!!
We also do pure core about twice a week - this is often done in conjunction with our morning runs or after workouts. We call it Ande-core, after one of our athletes who delights in the darker side of pain. It is a very intense 12-15 minutes with 2-3 second switches.