MIDDLE DISTANCE DRILL

9-Minute Drill

• Reps: 3 x 10
• Purpose
  Simulate race conditions of changing pace
  Develop surging tactics and condition athletes to hold steady pace
• Steps
  Begin running at steady state pace on track or grassy area
  On Coaches command begin appropriate speed
  Steady State Pace (10K pace): — 1 Whistle/Sound
  Tempo Run (Mile Run pace): — 2 Whistles/Sound
  Sprint Pace: 3 Whistles/Sound
  Coach controls pace based on whistle/sound commands
• Points of Emphasis: As speed increases, decrease time at paces
• When to Use: Conditioning circuit
  
  

Indian File

• Reps: 3 x 10
• Purpose
  Promote group running
  Develops ability to initiate surges, to move form behind the pack
• Steps
  Start group of runners in single file
  Run at leisurely pace for about three (3) minutes
  Back runner surges to front of line, taking over lead
  Run for 30 seconds
  Repeat until all runners have surged to front
  Return to starting place
• Points of Emphasis: Ability to turn on leg speed to get in front
• When to Use: Conditioning circuit; Early in season
  

Uphill Charges

• Short Hills: Sprinters Long Hills: Distance Runners
• Reps: depends on grade and length of hill
• Purpose
  Develop leg power and strength (especially quadriceps)
• Steps
  Take Hips Tall position and slight forward lean
  Charge hill
  Drive with arms and legs
• Points of Emphasis: Maintain Hips Tall positionGood knee drive and arm action
• When to Use: Fitness or conditioning exercises
  

500M Drill (Can also be used by 1600M runners)

• Reps: 3-4x
• Purpose
  Develop finishing sprint
• Steps
  Coach stands at beginning of straightaway
  Athletes takes off from there, running a 400M
  Then sprints to the finish.
  Coach determines pace that athlete needs to come by at, which usually faster than race pace.
  Once athlete passes finish line they keep jogging around track back to coach — 300M recovery
  Repeat
• Points of Emphasis: Increase in leg frequency at straightaway
• When to Use: Workout

DRILL FOR TRACK EVENT

HEEL KICK







BOUNDING DRILL

SPRINT LUNGE

ANATOMY

Build speed with these five lower body exercises

Single-leg Squat
Squat down on one foot until your leg is bent about 50 degrees; push back up. "Keep your hips even, and your knee over your foot," says coach Bob Larsen. Once you've mastered the move, add dumbbells (start with 5 pounds).
Reps: 2 sets of 10; build to 3 sets of 12
Strengthens: Quads and glutes

Balance Run
Stand on a flat-bottomed stability trainer (or a narrow board). Hold light dumbbells (2 to 5 pounds) and swing your arms in a running motion. Keep your knees slightly bent and your abs tight.
Reps: 3 sets of 30 seconds
Strengthens: Core muscles and hones balance

Heel Raises
Stand on a curb or platform with your heels over the edge. Lift up onto your toes, raise one foot and slowly lower. Once you have the move down, add dumbbells (start with 5 pounds).
Reps: 1 set of 8; build to 3 sets of 15
Strengthens: Calf muscles and Achilles tendon

Hamstring Push-up
Lie on the floor with your feet on a chair or Swiss ball that's against a wall. Lift your butt off the floor, then lift one leg off the ball. Slowly lower your body to the floor, using the hamstring of the supporting leg.
Reps: One set of 8 on each leg; work up to 3 sets of 12
Strengthens: Hamstrings

Plank + Lift
From a push-up position, drop onto your forearms. Focus on pulling your abdominals in. Then lift one foot about six inches (keep hips square to the floor), hold for five seconds, and repeat on other side.
Reps: Continue for 60 seconds, build to 3 minutes
Strengthens: Core and glutes individually

PACE CHART

STRETCHING

Tips For Stretching

The aims of stretching are to gently lengthen muscles before and after any form of exercise, and to improve tissue elasticity / flexibility. If done correctly, stretching will help prevent injuries and increase athletic performance.

The following key points should be remembered whilst stretching:

• Begin with gradual mobility exercises of all the joints, i.e. simply rotate the wrists, bend the arm and roll your shoulders. This will allow the body's natural lubrication (synovial fluid) to protect the surface of your bones at these joints.


• Always warm up the body prior to stretching, as this increases blood flow around the body, which in turn makes the muscles more supple.


• After exercise, slowly bring your heart rate down before you begin stretching in order to avoid blood pooling within your muscles, which can lead to cramp and dizzy spells.


• If you’re wet and sweaty, take a bath or shower then stretch, as the hot water will help relax the muscles, and prevent you from catching a chill.


• Never bounce whilst you stretch, unless you are doing specific stretches for certain sports, i.e. ballistic stretching for martial arts.


• Hold the stretch until you feel the muscle loosen off, then repeat for a further 15 seconds.
  Whilst stretching you should feel some slight discomfort, if you don’t feel anything, then you may be doing the stretch incorrectly, or simply the muscle has eased off.


• Stop immediately if you feel any severe pain.


• Remember to breathe regularly and rhythmically, do not hold your breath.
  If you have a bad memory, start with your legs, and work up the body, in order not to miss out any of the stretches.
  
  

THE PERFECT FORM: Running better, from head to toe.

Head Tilt
How you hold your head is key to overall posture, which determines how efficiently you run. Let your gaze guide you. Look ahead naturally, not down at your feet, and scan the horizon. This will straighten your neck and back, and bring them into alignment. Don't allow your chin to jut out.

Shoulders
Shoulders play an important role in keeping your upper body relaxed while you run, which is critical to maintaining efficient running posture. For optimum performance, your shoulders should be low and loose, not high and tight. As you tire on a run, don't let them creep up toward your ears. If they do, shake them out to release the tension. Your shoulders also need to remain level and shouldn't dip from side to side with each stride.

Arms
Even though running is primarily a lower-body activity, your arms aren't just along for the ride. Your hands control the tension in your upper body, while your arm swing works in conjunction with your leg stride to drive you forward. Keep your hands in an unclenched fist, with your fingers lightly touching your palms. Imagine yourself trying to carry a potato chip in each hand without crushing it. Your arms should swing mostly forward and back, not across your body,between waist and lower-chest level. Your elbows should be bent at about a 90-degree angle. When you feel your fists clenching or your forearms tensing, drop your arms to your sides and shake them out for a few seconds to release the tension.

Torso
The position of your torso while running is affected by the position of your head and shoulders. With your head up and looking ahead and your shoulders low and loose, your torso and back naturally straighten to allow you to run in an efficient, upright position that promotes optimal lung capacity and stride length. Many track coaches describe this ideal torso position as "running tall" and it means you need to stretch yourself up to your full height with your back comfortably straight. If you start to slouch during a run take a deep breath and feel yourself naturally straighten. As you exhale simply maintain that upright position.

Hips
Your hips are your center of gravity, so they're key to good running posture. The proper position of your torso while running helps to ensure your hips will also be in the ideal position. With your torso and back comfortably upright and straight, your hips naturally fall into proper alignment--pointing you straight ahead. If you allow your torso to hunch over or lean too far forward during a run, your pelvis will tilt forward as well, which can put pressure on your lower back and throw the rest of your lower body out of alignment. When trying to gauge the position of your hips, think of your pelvis as a bowl filled with marbles, then try not to spill the marbles by tilting the bowl.

Legs/Stride
While sprinters need to lift their knees high to achieve maximum leg power, distance runners don't need such an exaggerated knee lift--it's simply too hard to sustain for any length of time. Instead, efficient endurance running requires just a slight knee lift, a quick leg turnover, and a short stride. Together, these will facilitate fluid forward movement instead of diverting (and wasting) energy. When running with the proper stride length, your feet should land directly underneath your body. As your foot strikes the ground, your knee should be slightly flexed so that it can bend naturally on impact. If your lower leg (below the knee) extends out in front of your body, your stride is too long.

Ankles/Feet
To run well, you need to push off the ground with maximum force. With each step, your foot should hit the ground lightly--landing between your heel and midfoot--then quickly roll forward. Keep your ankle flexed as your foot rolls forward to create more force for push-off. As you roll onto your toes, try to spring off the ground. You should feel your calf muscles propelling you forward on each step. Your feet should not slap loudly as they hit the ground. Good running is springy and quiet.

THE ULTIMATE 5-K PLAN

Intermediate
To segue from finisher to racer, you'll need to add more weekly miles, yes, but more important, intensity in the form of timed intervals both at (pace intervals) and below (speed intervals) your 5-K goal pace, along with a crucial weekly hill-training session."Running hills once a week--a five- to six-grade is optimal--at a fairly hard effort for up to three minutes at a time is an ideal way to get stronger," says Sinclair. How come? Because hill training greatly improves leg and gluteal strength while increasing aerobic capacity and stride length, along with ankle flexion that enables you to "pop" off the ground more quickly. How hard is "fairly hard"? A classic study from years ago found that running up even a slight hill at a steady pace raises your heart rate up to 26 beats higher than the same effort on the flat. So 5-K effort (not pace) is what to shoot for. Again, regarding intensity as opposed to mileage, a recent study in the online journal Peak Performance found that you'll run your best races from 5-K up not when you've run the most miles, but when you hit a reasonable mileage level and then crank up your intensity.

Stuff You Need to Know

Pace Intervals (PI)
If your 5-K goal is 10:00 pace (31:02 finishing time), run pace intervals at 1:15 (for 200 meters), 2:30 (400m), 5:00 (800m). For 9:00 goal pace (27:56), it's 1:07 (200m), 2:15 (400m), 4:30 (800m). For 8:00 minute goal pace (24:50), it's 1:00 (200m), 2:00 (400m), 4:00 (800m). For 7:00 goal pace (21:44), it's 0:53 (200m), 1:45 (400m), 3:30 (800m).

Speed Intervals (SI)
For 10:00 pace, run 1:11 (for 200 meters), 2:22 (400m), 4:44 (800m). For 9:00 pace, it's 1:04 (200m), 2:08 (400m), 4:15 (800m). For 8:00 pace, it's 0:56 (200 m), 1:53 (400m), 3:45 (800m). For 7:00 pace, it's 0:49 (200m), 1:38 (400m), 3:15 (800m).

Recovery Time
For pace intervals, slowly jog half the distance of the repetition (i.e., 200m jog after 400m repetitions). For speed intervals, jog equal distance (i.e., 400m jog after 400m repetitions).

Hills and Easy Runs
For 9:00 pace, use the lower number; 7:00 folks move toward the higher. Interval and Hill Days Jog 2 miles, then run 4x100m strides to get primed before the workout. Jog 2 miles to cool down after, then stretch.



Race Day Rules
"It's all about negative splits," says Bob Williams. "Always." Which means you run the first half of the race slower than the second half. Tough to do when you're pumped up, but you must. Hold back in the first mile, Williams advises, then "seek out other runners to pass in the second mile, but don't push beyond a comfortably hard effort." Increase gradually to discomfort in the last mile, and over the final 400 meters, try to pick it up.

PEAKING, RESTING, AND TAPERING

In the world of athletics we often use words that have very different meanings in a variety of sports. Words are often used interchangeably. Three such words whose meanings are often confused are: Peaking, Resting, and Tapering. In the track and field setting each of these words has a very distinct meaning.


Tapering
The track season is divided up into phases. The longest phase of the season is called the General Preparatory Phase. This phase usually lasts one-half of the season. If your season is twelve weeks, the General Prep Phase lasts for approximately six weeks. During this phase your volume (yardage, mileage, etc.), steadily increases until you reach the maximum desired yardage for the season. At the end of the General prep phase you begin to slowly decrease the amount of yardage done on a weekly basis, hence the term tapering.


Resting
This word is often confused with the word tapering. The two happen at different times of the season. Resting comes at the end of the season in the two weeks leading up to the championship meet. Volume during this period is practically non-existent for sprinters and fairly low for distance runners. The focus in practice is more on technique, mental prep, and race modeling. At this point in the season coaches are looking to refresh the body and the mind for the main competition.


Peaking
This word is the product of the above two words. Tapering and resting produce a peak performance at the championship meet, meaning you run your fastest time of the year at the last meet of the year. The goal is not to run your best meet early on in the season. If the taper is done correctly, one should see time drops throughout, instead of waiting for a big drop at state or sectional. The mind and the body must be prepared to perform at an optimal level. A peak performance does not happen by chance. Appropriate planning can and does produce the desired result. Discuss the season's plans with your coach, or plan them ahead if you are training yourself, so that you can see the taper and the resting point, and know that you will be peaking at the right time.
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