“Coaching Middle and Long Distance Runners” – Part Three
Article by Nic Bideau
Key elements
• Regular long runs
• Fast distance runs at around the anaerobic threshold
• Intervals or repetition work
• Speed work
• Recovery runs
• Gym sessions
FAST DISTANCE RUNS
These runs are usually called a tempo run or an anaerobic threshold pace run. In the 60s and 70s athletes regularly ran at this level unplanned in the 2nd half of training runs just by feel and were generally uncontrolled. These days I plan them as specific sessions and often ask the athletes to use a heart rate monitor to control them. After a warm up athletes will run for 20 minutes and up to 45 minutes and even longer for marathon runners at an intensity monitored pace by heart rate. The aim is to run at a level just below the point where any increase in effort will dramatically increase the anaerobic production of energy. We determine this as a result of physiological testing to determine at what heart rate their blood lactate content has reached around 4mmol of lactic acid. For most athletes this is normally the pace an athlete could run at for a half marathon or between 85 and 90% of the pace they can currently maintain for a 5000m track race.
These runs are one of the best indicators of performance level for events in which aerobic endurance is a factor. I could probably find several athletes in Australia who would be able to run shoulder to shoulder with Mottram during an interval track workout such as 10 x 400m with 2 minutes recovery. An ignorant bystander could be no better equipped with knowledge if asked which of such a group of athletes would win a 3000m race. But line the same athletes up for a 20 minute run and ask them to run at a pace equivalent to 85% of their 5000m race pace and Mottram would finish 400m ahead of most Australian athletes and it would be clear who has the superior fitness for a 3000m race. These fast continuous distances runs were ‘bread and butter’ training for much of the year for athletes such as Ron Clarke and John Walker, although they just did them by feel or intuition.
While I prefer athletes beginning this sort of training to control the work by heart rate, experienced athletes such as Mottram or Johnson have done so much of this type of work they are now very much in touch with how it should feel, and are able to do it just on feel without the aid of technical equipment such as heart rate monitors.
Nic Bideau "Coaching Middle and Long Distance Runners: A Commentary" - Modern Athlete and Coach, Volume 44, Number 3, July 2006.
To be continued …
FOOTNOTES
1. Highlights from last night’s track would be Trevor Cobbold running ~5:02, and Kevin Chamberlain ~5:08, in the 1500m.
2. I ran ~11:27 in the 3000m which is a season’s best and only 4 seconds slower than my best 2006 time. I did a 7km warm up because a hamstring cramped up all day. Thought it might be cooler but the sun came out for the 3000m, and the wind did not abate.
3. Nic Bideau's words on "fast distance runs" are timely as I have been experimenting with these "tempo runs" over the last few months and am finding them valuable. My plan is to try out the heart rate monitor next, as Nic suggests, to see if I can fine tune these runs that way. It won't hurt!
Article by Nic Bideau
Key elements
• Regular long runs
• Fast distance runs at around the anaerobic threshold
• Intervals or repetition work
• Speed work
• Recovery runs
• Gym sessions
FAST DISTANCE RUNS
These runs are usually called a tempo run or an anaerobic threshold pace run. In the 60s and 70s athletes regularly ran at this level unplanned in the 2nd half of training runs just by feel and were generally uncontrolled. These days I plan them as specific sessions and often ask the athletes to use a heart rate monitor to control them. After a warm up athletes will run for 20 minutes and up to 45 minutes and even longer for marathon runners at an intensity monitored pace by heart rate. The aim is to run at a level just below the point where any increase in effort will dramatically increase the anaerobic production of energy. We determine this as a result of physiological testing to determine at what heart rate their blood lactate content has reached around 4mmol of lactic acid. For most athletes this is normally the pace an athlete could run at for a half marathon or between 85 and 90% of the pace they can currently maintain for a 5000m track race.
These runs are one of the best indicators of performance level for events in which aerobic endurance is a factor. I could probably find several athletes in Australia who would be able to run shoulder to shoulder with Mottram during an interval track workout such as 10 x 400m with 2 minutes recovery. An ignorant bystander could be no better equipped with knowledge if asked which of such a group of athletes would win a 3000m race. But line the same athletes up for a 20 minute run and ask them to run at a pace equivalent to 85% of their 5000m race pace and Mottram would finish 400m ahead of most Australian athletes and it would be clear who has the superior fitness for a 3000m race. These fast continuous distances runs were ‘bread and butter’ training for much of the year for athletes such as Ron Clarke and John Walker, although they just did them by feel or intuition.
While I prefer athletes beginning this sort of training to control the work by heart rate, experienced athletes such as Mottram or Johnson have done so much of this type of work they are now very much in touch with how it should feel, and are able to do it just on feel without the aid of technical equipment such as heart rate monitors.
Nic Bideau "Coaching Middle and Long Distance Runners: A Commentary" - Modern Athlete and Coach, Volume 44, Number 3, July 2006.
To be continued …
FOOTNOTES
1. Highlights from last night’s track would be Trevor Cobbold running ~5:02, and Kevin Chamberlain ~5:08, in the 1500m.
2. I ran ~11:27 in the 3000m which is a season’s best and only 4 seconds slower than my best 2006 time. I did a 7km warm up because a hamstring cramped up all day. Thought it might be cooler but the sun came out for the 3000m, and the wind did not abate.
3. Nic Bideau's words on "fast distance runs" are timely as I have been experimenting with these "tempo runs" over the last few months and am finding them valuable. My plan is to try out the heart rate monitor next, as Nic suggests, to see if I can fine tune these runs that way. It won't hurt!
Superchicks. The female category winners of the 2006 Vets Half Marathon.
W30 far left, ascending left to right
W30 far left, ascending left to right
