Coaching Young Endurance Runners 2

8/17/2019 Coaching Young Endurance Runners 2

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coaching young endurance runners

U K Athletics Lim ited,A thletics H ouse,

10 H arborne Road,Edgbaston,Birm ingham B15 3A A

T +44 (0)121 456 5098 F +44 (0)121 456 8752

W www.ukathletics.net E antidoping@ ukathletics.org.uk


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Coaching Young Endurance Runnersedited by B ruce Tulloh*

IntroductionMany readers may have heard of the H2GO initiative – an endurance activity sponsored

by Severn Trent Water in 2000-2002 which encoura ged youngsters from Midland

schools into training squads and ultimately into clubs, and supported a regional elite

squad of 14-16 year olds. One gap identified during delivery of the project was suitable

support material for coaches and teachers to help them develop young endurancerunners. Thus, UK Athletics approached Br uce Tulloh, a r enowned endurance coa ch

with a wea lth of experience from coa ching school age to elite Olympic level. The brief

was to look at best practice and to produce a booklet that would be a helpful guide to

those embarking on the endurance coaching pathway with young athletes.

I hope that readers will find this a useful tool; it is not meant to be prescriptive –

merely to light the way and to answer some of the basic questions that need answering

during the early vita l days of development. It represents the assembled experience of a

number of very knowledgeable distance coaches, all of whose input has been greatlyappreciated.

Zara Hyde PetersHead of Potential


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Preface

I was asked by the Technica l Director for Endurance to consult those Br itish coaches

who had a record of success with young athletes, not only in producing top-class

individuals but also in running successful club teams. I circulated a large number of

people within UK Athletics, including National Event coaches and Regional

Performance Managers, asking them to recommend those with a suitable track record,

and on this basis circulat ed a questionnaire to some thirty coaches. This survey cannot

claim to be tota lly comprehensive, a nd apologies are due to some excellent coaches who

were never circulated, but from the replies we have had we can get a good idea of theopinions of our best coaches, and the training our best athletes are doing. One

honourable omission must be mentioned – that of Alex and Rosemary Stanton, the

coaches of Bedford A.,C., whose success with girls’ teams over the years is second to

none. It was Alex and Rosemary who were responsible for the development of Paula

Radcliffe from 11-year-old beginner t o World J unior Cross-countr y champion in 1992

and eventually to World Champion at Cross-country and Half-Marathon,

Commonwealth and European Champion on the track and World marathon record-

holder . Since Paula is about to bring out her own book on running, they felt that their

methods would be dealt with there and did not want to clash with Paula.

Apart from that, errors and omissions are entirely the fault of the Editor, for which he

offers his apologies.

* The third edit ion of Bruce Tulloh’s book, The Teenage Runner, will be published la ter in 2004.Details f rom :B .Tulloh, The Gat ehouse, West S towell, Ma rlborough , Wilts, SN8 4J U ( email:btulloh@a ol.com)


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Aerobic Power

Children may be said to be aerobic creatures, being relatively poor at producingenergy anaerobically. However, they are also biomechanically inefficient, hence the

oxygen cost of wa lking or running is higher than tha t of tha t of adults or teenagers.

Anaerobic PowerFor efforts lasting longer than one minute, where the energy comes from anaerobic

sources, children are much less efficient than a dolescents or a dults. The child’s muscle

contains much less creatine phosphate and less glycogen, and consumes glycogen more

slowly. The child accumula tes much less oxygen debt a nd thus recovers from a short

effort more quickly. The implicat ions of this are that children are more aerobic thanadults, so that their efforts should be longer ra ther than shorter. They are meta bolically

more at home running longer ( over 800m) distances rather than shorter ( 50-400m)

distances.

Heat Adaptation and DehydrationAn 8-year-old has a bout 1/3 more skin surface per kg body weight tha n a young adult

and has less sub-cutaneous fa t. This means tha t they heat up more quickly in hot

weather and lose heat more quickly in cold weather. Children sweat less than adults so

tha t t he likelihood of overheat ing is further increased. Their higher breat hing rate and

high activity rate means that they lose a lot of water during long hot days in spite of

their lower sweat rate.

Perception of distanceThe shorter att ention span of children causes them to lose interest in long continuous

runs. However, in the context of running ga mes, where running is interspersed with

short breaks, children will run about for hours, covering several miles without distress.

InjuriesSeveral authors have reported on over-use injuries occurring in young at hletes. These

are more likely to occur when the athlete specialises, leading to frequent repetition of

the same movement. The great er the speed, t he great er the impact stress, hence running

long distances on soft ground is less stressful than, say, sprinting and jumping on a hard

synthetic track. There have been reports of damage t o epiphyseal growth plat es caused

by running long distances on the road before growth has finished. However, there is


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The model also proposed that while all systems are t ra inable, there are sensitive periods

or windows where there are accelerated gains. Failure to capitalise on these criticalperiods will result in a longer-term deficit that the athlete cannot ever fully recoup.

The two sta ges tha t span the teenage development years tha t t his booklet is focused on are:

Training to train stage (T2T)The tra ining to tra in stage addresses the critica l period of physical development. If

athletes miss the critical development windows in this stage of training, then they will

never reach their full potentia l. The reason many athletes plat eau during the later st age

of their careers is primarily due to an over emphasis on competition instead of training

during this critica l period in their athletic development. The sta rt of this sta ge (around

11- 14 in girls and 12 -16 in boys) coincides with the onset of the peak growth spurt

(PHV) that characterises the start of the

sexual development associated withadolescence. Due to cultural and climatic

changes, t he onset of P HV is now beginning

to occur much earlier, particularly in girls.

Menarche in girls typically occurs between

3-8 months after PHV and peak weight

velocity (PWV) follows PHV.

The onset of PHV provides coaches with a

key reference point - boys and girls can no

longer train together and squads need to be

divided into early, average and late

maturers. In addition to plotting annual

growth, standing and sitting height should be

measured once a month, increasing to once a

week during P HV. This will help the coa ch to

identify the all-important windows as well as

6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19+

FUNDAMENTALS

(F)

LEARNI NG TO TRAIN

(L2T)

TRAINING TOTRAIN

(T2T)

TRAINI NG TO COMPE TE

(T2C)

TRAINING TO WIN

(T2W)

FUNDAMENTALS

(F)

LEARNI NG TO TRAIN

(L2T)

TRAINING TOTRAIN

(T2T)

TRAINI NG TO COMPE TE

(T2C)

TRAINI NG TOWIN

(T2W)

GIRLS

BOYS


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Competition

All those polled approved of competition at District level for young (u.13) athletes, andmore than half thought that County level competition was appropriate for this age

group, but only four thought that they should be exposed to National level competition.

We must remember that national competitions can involve very long coach journeys,

which can be both tiring and stressful for a young athlete, as well as expensive for the

parents. For the u.15s, two-thirds of the coaches thought that competition was

acceptable at National level, but only 2 people approved of international competition for

under-15s (surprisingly, since schools internationals have been in place for over 30

years). Almost all those asked approved of putting u.17s and u.20s into National andInternational level competitions.

Specialisation

The questions asked were: “ a t wha t a ge do you a llow your a thletes to give up other

sports?” and : “ do you believe that t aking part in other sports has an effect on the

athlete’s running performance?”

The answers to t he first q uestion were a lmost identica l : “ af ter the age of 16, if they

want to” and there was a large measure of agreement about t he effect of other sportson running performance. All the coaches felt that taking part in other sports was

beneficial, in producing a more robust all-round athlete. Individual sports such as

swimming, yoga and gymnastics were part icularly mentioned. The negative factors,

which might affect performance in the short term, fell into two categories – the

limitations on training time imposed by taking part in team games, and the increased

likelihood of injuries, particularly in the case of football. However there was a strong

measure of agreement that the young athlete derives benefit from taking part in other

sports. Those who are pushed into specialising and chasing records at an early age are

seldom the ones who come through to success at Senior level.

6. Sample Schedules

Under-ThirteensThe coach: B ruce Tulloh is a former B rit ish and European champion at 5000 metres.

He has thirty years experience of coaching at secondary school level and has

coached English Schools winners in track and cross-country, as well as several senior

internationals.

Winter: training twice a week, plus occasional race at weekends

Day 1 5 mins. Jog, as a group

Stretching exercises

5 mins steady run

800m approx. fast run, 5 mins walk-jog to recover, 400m approx. fast run

Run back to star t, 1500m approx., jogging last section as a group


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Thu 6 x 200m fa st , wit h 3 mins recoveries, on t rack

Fri RestSa t Race or 45 mins run

N.B. Many coaches would regard this as very hard training, with interval work done

three times a week, but only two sessions a week are done on a synthetic track in the

summer, and very few in the winter. (Ed. )

Under-Seventeens

The coach: P addy McKillop has for many years been coaching the boys at S t.Malachy’sCollege, Belfast, the outstanding Ulster school team, winners of many Irish titles, both

team and individual

u.17 boys Winter training

Mon 45-50mins rela xed stea dy r un

Tue 3 x 1500m on grass (2 1/2 mins recovery)

Wed 20 mins easy run plus circuit tra ining

Thu 14 x 1 min on , 1 min of f, speed endurance training, on grass

Fri Rest daySat Race or 7 x 1minute hill reps. , 3mins walk back recovery

S un 60-70mins easy run on undula t ing t er ra in

u.17 girls Summer training

Mon steady running

Tue 6-8 x 600 on grass

Wed 30 mins easy run

Thu 8 x 400m on track

Fri Rest day

Sat Race

Sun Up to 60 mins steady

The coach: Tony Phillips has 20 years experience as a Senior coach with Tipton Har riers

and has coached numerous winners and finalists at English Schools and AAA

championships. What follows was done by a leading 800m runner

Winter

Mon 5 mins steady run – 10 mins fast, 5 mins easyTue Circuit training plus 20 mins steady run

Wed 30 mins Fartlek on paths

Thu Warm up, 3 x ( 300m fast, 3mins rest 600m fast, 6mins rest)

Fri Rest

Sat X-country race or hill training on parkland

Sun 30-40 mins steady run

Summer

Mon 20 mins steady runTue Warm-up, 3 x 600m in 101-102, 6 mins recovery

Wed As Monda y

Thu Warm-up, 5 x 200m fast ( 27-28 secs), long recoveries.

Fri Rest

Sa t Race or 4 x 300m , 46-47 secs

S un 30 mins st ea dy r un

Under-TwentiesThe coach: Roy Stowell has a background in mara thon running and was a B ritish

Veterans marathon champion. He has been coaching athletes to international level for

more than 20 years, his most recent successes being J uliet a nd J ane Potter, who finished

5th a nd 7th in the European J unior cross-countr y championships , Dec. 2000. What

follows is their typical Winter training.

Normal week

Mon 45-50mins, including 2 x 5mins fast ( 2mins. Rec.)

Tue 45-50mins, inc. 5 x 10 secs fast bursts

Wed 60 mins, inc. 10 x 400m 74/76 pace ( 75 secs. Rec.)

Thu 45-50 mins, inc. 5 x 15secs fast

Fri rest or swim

Sa t 60 mins inc. 4 x 1000m approx., hilly X-country ( 90 secs . rec)

S un 60-75 mis ea sy r un


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A typical workload in the Summer, for a 5000m runner, might be:

Mon-Sat mornings, 30-60 mins run, easy or steady, p.m. session as follows:

Mon 60 mins Fart lek on grass

Tue 5 x (800fast, 60 secs rec, 400 fast, 120 secs rec.)

Wed 60 mins ea sy

Thu 3 miles easy, 3 miles a t Threshold pace,then 4 x 400m in 55/56secs,

3 mins rec.

Fri 30 mins ea sy or rest

Sa t Minor race or 2 x (10 x 400m in 64, 60 secs rest) 2mins between setsSun 10-12 miles steady run, off road

Three tra ining progra mmes alow a number of different a pproaches, but a ll have the

same a im - to produce good senior a thletes. The coaches job is to produce a programme

that meets the requirements of the event but that takes into account the individuals

development. At this stage you can decide if coaching is an art or a science - it must be

both!

Documents

Coaching Young Endurance Runners 2