#4 Fun Sessions
Training as play is cool! We do lots of relays and other novelty events, to make training as varied and as enjoyable as we can.
One type of novelty session I like to use fairly often when training on the track is the continuous relay. Every now and then I dream up a new kind of continuous relay, the more complicated the better!
How about -
A two person relay where each person runs 300 metres each, then has to jog back 100, wide on the track. Eight repeats. Good because it works with a small or a large turn-out;
Five person relays of 100 metres each by ten, making 5000m in all for each team;
And my personal favourite, the eight person four baton mad dash, where if you don’t run fast enough, the next baton coming up behind you has a chance of catching up. It’s a 12 x 200 with only 100 recovery … On the 400m track, the fastest four in each team of eight who start with the batons I call runners 1, 3, 5, 7; they start simultaneously at 100m intervals, A, B, C, D around the track. Runners 6, 8, 2, 4 initially wait at A, B, C, D respectively. Each runner sprints 200, then runs the next 100 keeping ahead of the runner with the baton coming up behind them. Batons are exchanged 1 -> 2 -> 3 -> 4 -> 5 -> 6 -> 7 -> 8 -> 1. We just keep going until everyone has sprinted 12 times. The more teams the merrier, and it can be amusing to watch the confusion early on as runners sort out how it all works.
I hope that's clear.
