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Welcome to the first Edition of 400-800-1500 Training Ideas
The aim of this periodic message is to challenge athletes and coaches to develop new ideas in their training. You have subscribed to this newsletter from the Training for 800m page at
Developing Efficiency at Race Pace.
One of my favorite areas of discussion is to do with developing an athletes movement at race pace. There are many ways this can be targeted.
1. Optimize the athletes sustainable body position. This goal is a huge challenge in terms of what can be done.
Posture is the habit an individual has in holding their body up against gravity. So they will need to be taught in variety of ways what is ideal e.g. pictures , videos of other athletes and comparing them to pics and videos of themselves. It seems that posture can be shaped slowly but may take persistent focus. (Often this challenge is only taken up when the athlete faces injury because of bad posture). In summary the athlete needs to be able to picture and FEEL what is correct.
The advantage of having ideal body position is increased ease and therefore maintenance of knee lift resulting in higher power and stride length. Also many injuries come about because of athletes compensating with other muscles for lack of the correct body position.
Initially an athlete may not be able to actually get into the correct position at all. This may be due to lack of flexibility and/or lack of specific strength in postural muscles.
My latest idea has been that all of this challenge may be best attacked from many areas at the same time with the aim of helping the athlete to develop the specific muscles and the co-co-ordination to use them appropriately. Some very organized areas of conditioning exist with expertise in this area. e.g. Pilates, Alexander Method
A good book about Pilates is
Body Control: Using Techniques Developed by Joseph H. Pilates
by Lynne Robinson, Joseph Pilates, Gordon Thomson
by Lynne Robinson, Joseph Pilates, Gordon Thomson
The athletes in my personal squad do a combination of Standing Med Ball catches and throws, balance challenging activities using Foam Rollers , Wobble Boards, Swiss Balls etc. They also combine catching Med Balls while balancing etc. The approach has been to do small amounts often. Warm-up during track sessions and sometimes warmdown has included some of these activities. The athletes have also been encouraged to have their own equipment and do some balancing while recreating at home.
The idea is that balance challenging in a variety of ways will develop better control of core postural muscles and by conditioning these muscles an athlete will be able to maintain ideal body position for longer in the race, Komen, Kipketer, El G etc Do this brilliantly. These athlete's body positions are so good that even in the final 100m of a World Record an observer could suggest (incorrectly) that they are not running with 100% effort.
(Compensation and the development of good or bad body position will be discussed again in a future edition)
Strength Training is a great opportunity to challenge balance and support the above concept. All exercises with free weights do this. Especially single leg exercises. A great exercise for runners are single leg lunge squats. Another challenge could be to do squats on two wobble boards or a foam roller.
Ab/Back Conditioning. It seems that a variety of exercises performed perfectly is best. My athletes follow the program that is outlined in the book Stronger Abs and Back. I have suggested to them to do 9 exercises each day. about 2-3 sets of 15 perfect reps.
Stronger Abs and Back : 165 Exercises to Build Your Center of Power http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0880115580/sydney2000trac00
So in summary so far. Athletes need to optimize body position and develop the specific endurance to maintain it for the DURATION of their event.
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2. Lactic Tolerance work and its effects on body position and biomechanics.
Often it seems that endurance athletes think that the only speed work worth doing is anything that produces extreme fatigue and a lactic effect! This could be a common mistake.
Any sort of speed work will challenge the maintenance of good body position. The trick is to do it in such a way as to not let an athlete have too much of an opportunity to practice bad positions often a habit may be formed and bad biomechanics acquired as habit.
Top athletes Michael Johnson, Wilson Kipketer etc can run long speed repetitions and would be if observed at training maintaining perfect body position through-out the majority of sessions. e.g. If Komen and El G do repetitions like 4-5 x 1500 in 3:40 they would BE ABLE to hold great form. My bet is there are many athletes who approach their "lactic" work in such a way that their backside gets 5 closer to the ground with each successive rep due to loss of body position. If this type of session is performed often, the result will be negatively effected biomechanics and injury, as well as a steady decreased performance due to lower efficiency. Some athletes may improve physiological fitness from these sessions at the same time as they lower their efficiency. The Long Term effects of damaged biomechanics would be the biggest concern. It is likely that regular track sessions performed with bad form will develop an athletes technique toward injury.
My approach has been with my 400-800-1500 athletes to give them frequent amounts of practice at Race pace while holding good body position all year. Often this means that unless the distance is short they cannot maintain body position in the way I am comfortable. The long term plan in each year and in each athletes career would be to develop the ability to go "perfect" for further. Recently a common session in our first third of the training year for my 800-3000m athletes has been something like 3 x 6 x 200 rest 30s at a pace where they are capable of good form (Usually between 1500 and 3km pace).
The 400 athletes do 10 x Flying start 100m reps at "back straight of a 400 race" pace with the same attitude. The recoveries are as short as possible but allowing good form.
I would love for my MD athletes to be able to churn out solid longer reps with good body position e.g. 1500s at 3000m pace but I know that they would spend an unacceptable amount of time running with loss of form. We do these sessions only occasionally due to the explained trade-off. If the athletes could do them (longer reps) more often (and effectively) large performance gains could result, so in the meantime they are steadily working on the position specific exercises so that in the future they can work perfect over longer distances.
400m athletes need to have higher amounts of maximum speed so that they can relax and be efficient for as far as possible in the 400m event. The ability to maintain body position is critical. Lactic work for 400m needs to be at race specific speeds. Loss of form every time it occurs is practicing a weakness. Many 400m athletes tend to work hard in the gym and on hill sprints. If an athlete is strong and has had practice utilizing their strength in a perfect way when under lactic challenge then they will finish faster.
The 400m athletes in my squad do tempo work at what would be 600m race speed and have more than enough recovery eg 6 x 200 in 27s rest 5min with hurdle jumps and/or Med Ball activity in between runs. The goal is to relax and run perfect but challenge this with the recovery and the activities in the recovery.
Hill reps can be a place where loss of form is practiced e.g. knees out , short steps etc. But hills can also be a great challenge to overcome by staying tall, knees up and in the center, arm drive powerful but relaxed.
Track sessions can be either successful or disastrous in their long term effects. The difference being attitude to movement. A session of 20 x 200 in 26s rest 30s for an elite International 800m athlete could be fantastic in terms of fitness and efficiency at race pace or for an athlete who almost died keeping up to complete the same session with the same statistics a damaging session due to the practice of loss of form. The above session has been reported to have been completes by Wilson Kipketer (2 x 20 x 200 rest 26/30s). A fantastic session for athletes that are capable of maintaining body position a disaster for everyone else.
A good simple way for athletes to practice racing form is to complete some relaxed race pace efforts during every run e.g. 6 x Flying 60m runs at Race pace. Many of my squad do these after the completion of each aerobic run and often in the warmdown phase after races or track sessions.
3. More maximum speed potential should convert to greater relaxation and efficiency at Race pace.
Any 400m athlete would recognize that greater sprinting speed will nearly always make them faster over 400m. The trick is being able to develop the ability to maintain speed over the last 150m of the race.
800/1500+ Athletes often fail to recognize that more maximum speed potential will allow them more relaxation and efficiency at their race pace. The way to develop this speed is not to train with higher lactic levels and "flog" in extra speed. It is simply a few things and is the same for every athlete.
1. More Power.
2. Better movement patterns - higher relaxed cadence
Now everyone can improve their strength in the gym and convert this to more power using plyometrics. This would aid MD athletes greatly as increased free energy from gravity and increased relaxation. EL G and Kipketer train with plyometrics that is most likely specific to their event. I have seen in Sydney Wilson Kipketer doing low intensity bounding. Many MD athletes have been convinced that speed is not a problem as they only have to run at say 14.5s /100 for a 3:37/1500 and have because of this failed to develop the power to make running at that speed even more efficient. The last Marathon WR set is the product of a Sprint's Coach. The goal that was set involved improving efficiency at just above WR speed ( as well as putting in the Miles).
My opinion is that if MD athletes did more low lactic training at higher than race paces then efficiency would improve and result in faster times, less injuries and faster finishes.
Relaxation- How often do athletes practice relaxing while running at race pace or faster? It is a practicable skill. The benefit that comes from it is increased efficiency.
4. To be ideally efficient we need to be at minimum (but powerful weight).
Athletes need to develop the experience in attaining ideal weight at the right time of year. Every kg has been calculated to cost 3s / km. Many athletes train well for years but turn up at their National Championships slightly overweight.
In winter this may be OK as being slightly over may offer immune system benefits but during summer they need to hit minimum healthy weight and maintain power.
A challenge we will face in Australia next year preparing for the Olympics will be for our athletes to be at racing weight so close after Winter.
regards
Steve Bennett
Blue Mountains,
Athletics Co-ordinator - Western Sydney Academy of Sport
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Steve Bennett
Blue Mountains,
Athletics Co-ordinator - Western Sydney Academy of Sport
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Enthusiasts in the Countdown to the Olympics
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