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The Athletics Thread...

Good luck mate. Sounds like you'll need it!

One of them (under 15 girl) has the most natural talent of any kid I've ever coached. When she runs she looks like it's effortless, which is always a good sign. She's only been training with me for about a year, but from what I've seen so far she could be as good as she wants to be. She'll probably eventually be a 400m runner, if she sticks at it and is prepared to work. According to her parents she absolutely loves it, but for girls the problem is keeping them interested in sport once they get to 16/17. If she's still training and running then she could go a long way in the sport.
 
Just keep them enjoying it and there's little more you can do. If they want to stick at it, they will.
 
Just got back from Sheffield, Jess Ennis was indeed there but only did the shot, which she won easily. She is so nice, one of the athletes I coach asked to have her photo taken with her, which she did, but the girl's mom pressed the wrong button! They saw her a little while later and said what had happened so Jess offered to have her picture taken again, and spent 2-3 minutes chatting to her and wishing her good luck in her race. Total star!

The under-15 girl I coach fiinished 2nd in her heat but was the 4th fastest qualifier so made the final and finished 4th as the race ran pretty true to form. She was a little way behind the first 3 but still ran very well and equalled her best ever time, in her very first race of the season. Another one of mine also beat her 400m time by over a second, and given outdoor times tend to be faster than indoor times it augurs well!
 
Toon, you seem a pretty good guy to ask about improving my speed! I'm not slow, in fact I'm fairly quick sometimes but I'm not very good off the mark and as a midfielder I think that would help me a lot to improve that area. Any tips?

Probably a bit ofd a random place to ask but I remembered you were an athletics coach!
 
I live in Walthamstow, don't worry about that.
 
It is... I live in E17 :)
 
I heard they are the reason Frank knows Waggy.... ;)
 
Geoffrey Mutai ran the fastest ever marathon at Boston last year, but is still not sure if he will get a place in the Kenyan marathon team at the London Olympics. They must have some amazing athletes. I know of Kipsung who used to hold the record, but I do not know much about the others. Suffice to say that the Kenyans will be the ones to beat in London.
 
Haile Gebrselassie has failed to make the Ethiopian Olympic team. Is this the end of the great man as a long distance runner?
 
Haile Gebrselassie has failed to make the Ethiopian Olympic team. Is this the end of the great man as a long distance runner?

Mmm, probably but you never know. Distance running will be poorer if it is.

In other news, it's the first outdoor competition of the season for some of my athletes this weekend. Looking forward to seeing them compete. High hopes for one or two of them this year, though many of them have moved up age groups and so are competing against older athletes, which means next year is really the target for most of them.
 
Mmm, probably but you never know. Distance running will be poorer if it is.

In other news, it's the first outdoor competition of the season for some of my athletes this weekend. Looking forward to seeing them compete. High hopes for one or two of them this year, though many of them have moved up age groups and so are competing against older athletes, which means next year is really the target for most of them.

Is there a lot of difference in training during the winter, as opposed to the Summer when they are in competitive races?
 
Is there a lot of difference in training during the winter, as opposed to the Summer when they are in competitive races?

Are you talking generally or for distance runners? The distance running season is a lot different to a track athlete's season since they will compete a lot in the winter on the roads and over cross-country. That said, the principles are the same: lots of hard work in terms of volume of training, distance run, pace of training etc in the winter. In the summer the training is much more about intensity (ie smaller amount but done at a very high quality), technique and speed. So for instance a typical winter training session for my 400m runners would comprise of what we call a pyramid- 200m, 300m, 400m, 500m, 600m, 500m, 400m, 300m, 200m. With about 3 minutes recovery between them. A summer pyramid session for those same athletes would be something like 100m, 150m, 200m, 250m, 200m, 150m, 100m run extremely quickly and with about 6-7 minutes recovery between them. Both of those sessions are very tough but in different ways. If I was what we call 'tapering' before an important competition the sessions in the 2 weeks prior to the competition would be a lot lighter, maybe for instance some block starts over 30-60m or say, 5 x 100m run at about 75% effort and with about 8-10 minutes recovery.

Does that answer your question?
 
It does answer my question, thank you. In my younger days I ran a few marathons, and plenty of 10 mile and half marathon races. Our training was similar, doing the hard miles in the winter months, but shorter and sharper sessions once we got into the season. We used to do a few cross country runs in the winter. My goodness they could be tough, but they got us ready for the road running.
 
daley-thompson4.jpg


love this pic ! down and out !!!!!!!!!!!!
 
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