- Home
- Anthony Whiteman Coaching Column
CITY RUNS
Intro to Anthony:
Anthony Whiteman knows a bit about running, as you will see from his impressive CV below!! We at City Runs are really pleased that Anthony has agreed to pass on some of his knowledge through a monthly coaching column. You may think if you are a novice that this will not be relevant to you. Well your wrong! What ever level you are running at the principles of training and most importantly improving are the same.
An interesting fact regarding Anthony is that Kelly Holmes credits him with helping her massively in her final preperations before her historic Olympic gold double.
Preparing For Your Big Race
With the European outdoor athletics season well underway an athlete's short term attention begins to focus on the Olympic Games in Beijing. The challenge for British athletes is to better the qualifying time/ distance and fulfill the selector's criteria. In my case I would always do my utmost to avoid the need for selectors. During my career the policy has always been first two past the post, in the Olympic trials athletes would gain selection as long as they have the 'A' standard (Each country can send 3 'A' standard qualified athletes or 1 'B' standard qualified athlete.) I would aim to gain the 'A' standard early in the season to then allow me to concentrate on arriving at the Olympic trials and the Olympics without having 'chased races', meaning doing races not as preparation for a goal, but just to gain the relevant qualifying time.
Prior to the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta I had just completed a successful indoor season and had therefore done more speed-work than I would normally have done. A high quality early season 1500m race in Lille against the soon to be Olympic 5000m Champion gained me the Qualifying time needed. For the 2000 season I went away to South Africa to compete in their summer season, I completed a number of races to try and get some track speed. With the help of a trusted training partner as a pace-maker I gained the 'A' standard in Cape Town.
In contrast to these two successful seasons 2004 was the exact opposite, short of training after injuries and illness I was left 'chasing races' when I should have been training and in the end had to rely on the dreaded selectors who decided that I had not shown enough form to warrant a place in the team.
Having gained the 'A' standard the pressure was then off and I could then concentrate on competing in races that would aid my Olympic performance, one such race was an 800m at Crystal Palace in 2000. Despite being billed as an Olympic Development race it contained a good international field including the then Olympic Bronze medalist over 800m. I had always wanted to do more 800m races but struggled to get in to the right races because my time was not fast enough. This race was one of a very small number I had in my career where the feeling in your legs and race execution are close to perfect. I hope we all have days like that, to me it is why you race just in case today is the day that you get that feeling! After a tight victory and taking one and a half seconds off my best time I gained great confidence to go to the Olympic trials and then the Games themselves.
So the question is how can we give ourselves the best chance of having 'one of those races' where it all goes perfect. From memory I had not long returned from an altitude training camp (whilst this is not available to most it was a period of consistent training, which we can all achieve). I had just returned from running a season’s best in Stockholm so my race confidence was high. I always tried to eat as healthily as possible the night before a race, slept well, went out for a nice easy jog in the morning and few strides and I do remember feeling full of energy. Like most I would normally feel lethargic and nervous on race day so this feeling was an indication of what was to come. I made sure I prepared well for the race, a long slow warm up, all my stretches done properly, Drills and fast strides done energetically. I had a plan in the race to lay off the early pace as I knew it would be fast and trust my strength. Whilst I was competing in a high class race the fundamental thought process I went through can be used by runners of any level and I encourage you to do so.
Hill Training
For this month's column I have decided to cover something you either love or hate, but most of us hate - Hill Training!!
The first pre-requisite for a decent hill training session is the hill itself. Some of us are blessed with excellent long hills right outside the front door whilst others, namely me right now (based in North East Lincolnshire), a decent drive is required to find a worth-while hill. Choosing the surface you want to run on depends on what your goals are. I was never a particularly keen cross country runner, preferring the higher speed I could run at on the road compared to the relative 'slog' of grass hills. But if cross country is your thing then they are essential. Despite not doing much hill running these days I still find myself rating hills I come across by how good they would be for running up ( I know, I should Get a Life!). I look for the following; a wide pavement or quiet road, I hate it when a pedestrian or car ruins a good rep, the gradient should be challenging but not impossible and long enough to fit the needs of the intended session.
I was blessed with an outstanding hill whilst living in South-West London, the hill in question was Nightingale Lane in Richmond-upon-Thames. Well known to local runners it took me 50 seconds to get up, getting steeper as you went up, and eight reps with a 90-120 second jog back recovery would be more than enough for a good workout. I credit this session with my break-through onto the World scene, coupled with a 4 mile warm up and then the same home it is a tough old session! The success of this session meant I used the same structure on hills wherever I trained, namely 8 x 45-50 seconds with jog back recovery and it was a staple part of my training alongside the varied interval sessions I covered last month.
With a track season approaching the emphasis of hill training can be changed with the use of shorter hills. They are normally done in sets of 10 with a jog back recovery, any more and you lose count! 2 sets are ideal with 3 to 5 minutes recovery in-between. I enjoyed this session because I would often run it with a group of 400 metre runners. They would have a slow walk recovery and I would jog back as normal allowing me to fit in an extra rep as they rested. I tended to run the extra one 'steady' a couple of seconds slower enabling me to push the rep with the 400 metre guys. So with a little lateral thinking even unlikely training partners can become beneficial to the distance runner
At the other end of the scale are long hill reps, namely 3 x 3 minutes hills with a full jog back recovery, these are run hard and it's the kind of session you can not really build into. You have to go full throttle from the outset. To find a 3 minute hill is a challenge in itself but if you want a tough, tough session then look no further.
The final style of hill training was one I did whilst training in South Africa. It was given the well earned name 'Hill of Pain'. It entailed a hill, 900 metres long, marked every 100 metres, the idea was to run 200 metres up then 100 jog down allowing you to slowly work your way up the hill. 8 reps will take you to the top then you come down by running 100 metres up and jogging down 200 metres. It was made even worse by the fact we were at Altitude, but the principle would work on any long hill. Lamp posts, cones etc can replace our road markings.
So far I have built a pretty good case to never do any hills as they are far too tough, so what are the benefits to you as a runner? They certainly improve a runner's efficiency forcing them to concentrate on driving arms and legs especially at the end of a steep hill. This will hopefully lead to an increase in stride length allowing the runner to run faster per mile with the same effort. The cardio-vascular benefit is strong as all hills are real lung-busters, you certainly get a real sense of achievement when you finish a tough hill session.
More Next Month...
Interval Training
I am pleased to join the ranks of city-runs. I will be endeavouring to pass on my training experience, gained from training with athletes and coaches around the world.
This month I am tackling the subject of interval training both from my past career as a professional athlete to my current role of advising and training my personal clients.
On the subject of the novice runner (for me a novice runner runs a 10km in 40-60 mins) I was very surprised how little interval training would enter into their training programmes and then thought why? Is it a lack of relevant knowledge? But when I thumb through running magazines I see plenty of articles on Interval training. Does the novice runner see little value in intervals when they have little time to fit in training around work and family and think a 45 min run is the best thing to do? Do they think that they are not fast enough to warrant doing intervals? I hope I can answer all these questions; with my novice runners I keep things simple, always 5 repetitions in a session and the first session is always 5 x 3 mins with 90 seconds recovery. Using a loop is best, a park is ideal, if you use a road loop make sure you do not cross any major roads. We then progress to longer repetitions with shorter recovery times. The toughest novice session is 5 x 1 mile (8-9 mins) with 45 seconds recovery, usually done when building up to a half or full marathon. Pyramid sessions also work well in the 5 repetition structure, 1km, 1 mile, 2km, 1 mile, 1km being a good example. Distances do not have to be exact.
The benefit of interval training, especially if you currently do none at all, can be exceptional. One example being one of my clients (just did steady runs before we trained together) who was stuck at around 42 mins for 10k, we worked hard on intervals and ran the Leeds Abbey Dash finishing in 40.09 and he has continued to improve. All my clients who do races complete regular intervals and they mostly operate around the 57/58 mins bracket for 10km.!!!!!
For the more experienced runner intervals can be incredibly wide ranging. A recent ski trip reminded of one interval session as it was the first time in many years I had felt such a similar lactic acid burn (any novice snow-ploughing skier will know what I mean!). The session was 4 x 400 metres with 3 mins then 2 mins then 1 min recovery I believe my times were 52, 53, 54, 55 seconds. A couple more sensible sessions that would suit the distance runner might be on a track 4-6 X ( 1km at 10 km race pace, 40 seconds recovery, 400 metres at 3 km race pace or faster, then 2 mins 30 seconds recovery). On the roads it really depends on the loop you use and it depends on your imagination. One year recovering from Glandular Fever and just getting back into training I went away to Majorca and with no track in site and found a strip of nice tarmac 500 metres long I did 4 sessions along this road and was able to change the emphasis of each session. 8-10 with a regular recovery, one around 1 min, the other 30 seconds, sets of 2 with short recovery like 30 seconds then longer in between like 2 mins, sets of 4, again with short recovery and longer in between sets.
In conclusion I cannot stress enough the importance of good interval training for any runner whatever their level of ability, done correctly it can give your running a new lease of life!!
