agip wrote:
this is a good example of inserting the randomness of true racing into training and selection. I like it a lot.
If I were a coach I'd be constantly throwing curveballs like this at my athletes. Changing workouts, cancelling warmups, throwing in a stadium stairs interval with some 400s...I think racing can be learned - we all have to figure things out and go hard even when things go really wrong.
kudos to your coach.
This is a modified version of the Cooper test. I always use it during my upstart of Cross. Does the coach run this below?
A true time trial is individual. It isn't a race where you send out all runners at the whistle. I have runners staggered every minute. The course is grass, mostly flat, measured to 100m increments. I have an AC work the starts and times while I rove on the gator with a radio marking splits and distance. When a runner hits his or her 15 minute click I blow the whistle at that runner, record the distance, and the runner continues on cooling down in the opposite direction. They are staggered from 'developing' to 'developed.
'. I always send the runners in an order that has my fastest returning runner last.
Randomness is good. One bread and butter technique I use I call 'pickups'. It's basically a fartlek modification. Full team run easy pace. I accompany on the bike and use a whistle to signal the start and end of pickups, where each athlete picks up the pace to 5k race pace. They have to hold this pace until I blow the whistle. The pickups can be anything from 20 seconds to six minutes in length. To be honest, I usually have zero rhyme or reason for picking each duration other than how much I want to make them suffer ;) but a few of these runs during the season really helps runners prepare for surges and overall pacing.