Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 64, November 2014 | Page 38

Ma Training ‘Sweethoogte.’ Bruce knew he was ready for Comrades when he could run these hill repeats in 80 to 85 seconds. That was his benchmark. onitor to get M The protocol for a sprinter might look like this: • 10 minutes of easy jogging to warm up followed by 4 to 6 stride repeats over 100 metres. • Get someone to time you over an all-out 20m sprint, followed by a 50m all-out sprint, then a 100m or 200m all-out sprint. • Finish off with 5 to 10 minutes easy jogging and some stretching to cool down. The key to seeing any improvement in your overall racing times is to monitor your training and evaluate whether it’s working for or against you – but first you need to figure out what type of athlete you are. – BY RAY ORCHISON A s a running coach, it didn’t take long for me to realise that everyone responds to training differently. It’s why coaches still have jobs, and why online training programmes don’t always work. Give two athletes exactly the same training to follow and one athlete may see huge improvements, while the other may end up slower or injured. That’s why monitoring is so important. As H. James Harrington wrote, “If you can’t measure something, you can’t understand it. If you can’t understand it, you can’t control it. If you can’t control it, you can’t improve it.” WHERE ARE YOU AT? Recently I was approached by a client who, despite training regularly and pushing herself on the track, began to get despondent when she was losing instead of gaining places during Ma crossfit THE DOS cross-country races. In despair, she asked me why she was getting slower. I asked her what her times were on the various routes and how they compared with her previous times. Turns out that she had no idea what her times were and had no way to gauge whether she was getting slower or improving. It’s simply not possible to measure performance on how others around us are doing. We have to measure ourselves. Now there are hundreds of tests available, such as to determine how strong you are in a specific muscle group, and there are those designed for sprinters, long distance athletes or regular, sedentary people. You have to be able to interpret the data or result and apply the necessary corrections in order to see improvement, so I suggest you keep things simple. FIND YOUR BENCHMARK What you’re really looking for is some sort of benchmark that can determine where you are in terms of your current fitness and whether you’re improving or not. In order to create a benchmark, there’s one main ingredient needed: Consistency. For example, in the build-up to Comrades each year, Bruce Fordyce ran hill repeats on a 405m steep hill called These times will mean little by themselves, but as you keep track of them over a number of weeks, they begin to form a benchmark or indication of improvement. We’re looking for consistency, so it would be best to get to a tartan track, as it’s far more consistent than grass. A middle or long distance runner could do the following: • 20 minutes of easy jogging followed by some stretching and 2 to 4 stride repeats over 100 metres. • Then run a hard 1600m or 3200m, again on a tartan track. Cool down with a 20-minute easy jog. Try a time trial route every six to eight weeks, pushing the 4km or 8km as hard as you can. Personally, I prefer this kind of testing to be done on the fastest, flattest route, but wherever you run, use the same route so you can measure progress. It will motivate you to go harder! Ray Orchison is a Johannesburg-based USATF and NAASFP certified coach. Find him at www.runetics.com or [email protected]. Master the Deadlift CrossFit Flaming Heart instructor Pierre Ferreira goes through the do’s and don’ts of completing a deadlift, which you can use to build your strength. • Once you push out your knees, you can feel appropriate tension in the glutes. • Your weight should stay in the posterior (on heels and back, NOT on your front foot!). • Keep upright and look forward. Feet must point forward to feel tension. You will feel the torque being