Bracknell Forest Runners

Coaching Information. Article number 1. ENDURANCE TRAINING. By Colin Smith

(The ideas behind future track training sessions will be discussed in later articles whereby the principles outlined below will be applied.)

Club members often ask – what is the thinking behind the training on the track? To answer this question we need to realise that our training is all about increasing our endurance, which leads to improved performance. Endurance training takes the form of specific training, which prepares the runner to meet the needs of his chosen event (e.g. the long, slow weekend marathon training run), and general training, which is designed to develop a level of aerobic and anaerobic endurance that will enable the runner to benefit from specific training.

The aerobic process contributes a higher proportion of the energy requirements in longer running events than shorter running events, although it is still important in middle distance running. Aerobic endurance serves to increase the amount of energy that can be made available through aerobic metabolism whilst holding back recruitment of the anaerobic energy system with its by-product lactic acid. Aerobic endurance also improves the runner’s rate of recovery allowing for improved quality of training in mixed or anaerobic training sessions.

Aerobic endurance, associated with running, is best developed through three types of activity, and these should form part of a runner’s weekly training programme. 1) Continuous Running – Steady State; this is the basis for most endurance runners’ training programmes, and can be anything from 3 to 20 miles where the effort during runs corresponds to a heart rate of 160-180bpm or 130-160bpm respectively. In this type of running the effort remains constant, producing a steady state. 2) Continuous Running – Mixed Intensity; here a set course can be run at a varied pace and this style of training is called fartlek running (literally speed play). The runner can either be forced to vary his speed in a natural terrain such as woodland, or he can vary his pace according to a set of distance parameters. 3) Intermittent Running; describes a running session that is broken into a series of short runs interspersed with rest periods, these are now generally described as interval or repetition runs. Interval training is often performed on a running track enabling the coach to have a greater control of the sessions. Increasing the intensity of these short runs requires a higher working heart rate and a greater percentage of maximal power to be tapped whilst they allow the total distance being run to be completed at much faster speeds. Discovered originally by a German cardiologist in the 1930’s, who found that patients with heart disease became markedly fitter when subjected to a regime of short runs (where their heart rates were pushed to 170 – 180bpm) interspersed with rests between the runs (where the heart rates dropped to below 120bpm). Further research showed that the key to improved fitness and performance was in controlling the rest intervals. Recovery periods depend upon the speed, distance and category of the runner, but an individual can also check his heart rate to determine when the next short run should start. There are two types of interval run, long aerobic intervals of 2-8 minutes duration, where the heart rate = 180-190bpm, with a recovery of 1-4 minutes (training for longer distance races); and short aerobic intervals of 100-400m, where the heart rate = 180bpm and a recovery of 30 seconds to 2 minutes (training for shorter races).

Anaerobic endurance (or strength endurance) conditioning is necessary to develop the ability of supportive and propulsive muscle groups to perform work, despite a build up of lactic acid, so that the runner can receive the benefit from specific training and withstand fatigue experienced in competition. Even though the longer the competitive distance the less the anaerobic system contributes to energy requirements there is still a case for all runners to develop basic levels of anaerobic conditioning. In principle strength endurance training requires overcoming a load in the presence of lactic acid; examples could be a) sprinting up hills, b) sand dune running, c) resistance running – fast running pulling a drag, d) interval runs with insufficient recovery times, and e) strength endurance drills.

(Abstracted from Endurance Running Events by Norman Brook and the Competitive Runners’ handbook by Bob Glover and Shelly-Lynn Florence Glover.)

N.B. It is important that runners try to have a day’s rest from running between training sessions, so as to enable the body to offset the trauma caused by hard training. This is a complex biological process that is essential to the process of increasing endurance. If this is not possible then the run on a day that follows a hard run should be an easy or recovery run. CWS.