This is in regard to the article written by Mary Cain in The NY Times and video produced by Lindsey Crouse (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/07/opinion/nike-running-mary-cain.html)

If you haven’t been following the news.. I’ll sum it up in a few sentences. Mary Cain was done wrong by Alberto Salazar and Nike. His controversial coaching methods have finally caught up to him and he is now facing a 4 year ban. This has allowed former athletes like Mary Cain to tell her story of abuse within the coaching system backed by Nike. Her story involves her being mistreated and neglected by a male coaching staff who lacked the knowledge to provide female athletes like Mary Cain to grow and perform.

It’s a shame that many of the top athletes, such as Kara Goucher, receive improper training. This is especially important for the female athlete such as Mary Cain. In the current world we live in, coaching and personal training is dominated by men. This means that a lot of girls are already at a disadvantage due to different understanding of physiological differences. No matter how much training a male coach receives, we (males) can only understand so much of what it means to be a female and more importantly a female athlete.

Mary Cain, coming out with her story, is one step in the right direction. Her story has given awareness to the problem of misguided coaching systems that are unprofessional and unsafe. She is so brave, gathering the courage to speak on a big platform and let everyone know how dangerous of a person Alberto Salazar and staff is.

The emphasis on weight loss for female athlete is misplaced on the general idea that weight loss equals faster times for a runner. This idea is only true of the runner that is significantly overweight and could benefit from fat loss. Fat is essential, and fat is beneficial to runners. It’s where energy is stored and the primary source of energy for most average long distance, think marathon, runners. The ideal body fat percentage for female athletes can be anywhere from 15-23% and 10-18% for male athletes (from my experience). But before focusing on weight loss to improve peformance, here are some things to work on first (courtesy of @Laurenfleshman via twitter):

…“Advancing training
Mental tools for racing
Sleep & recovery
Sports nutrition
Biomechanics/form
Strength and mobility
Confidence
Listening to their body”…

I think this is a good starter list before advanced weight loss is started. For the high school or recreational level athlete, general weight loss should already occur if they are already overweight in order to adapt to the stress of exercising. Never have I come across a coach who targeted a weight for their athlete to maintain in a running (and sprinting) sport. I can understand why it could be a pro athlete thing, but if it costs the athletes to suffer then it is just bad coaching period. A good coach should be able to adapt on the fly. So if weight loss isn’t working it is the coach’s job to find an alternative route.

There’s a lot of people out there who are doing the jobs they really aren’t qualified for or even worse not willing to learn their role. A coach or trainer who is fixated on route A, B, C is worse than a trainer who doesn’t know know any routes or any thing, but is still willing to learn and make the right choices for their athletes/clients.