Expectations
 Turn off cell phone
 If you have to take a call, do it in the hallway
 If you need to text, please see the above message
 Interactive as long as the direction is for the common good
 Ask questions if confused
 Stay awake!
 At least no snoring!
 Email addresss kenreeves@venturamail.net
 Website for information crosscountryclinicfiles.wikispaces.com/
SIMPLE FACT
 Largest number of youth athletes competing are 10,
11 and 12 years old
 Over 70% of all youth athletes quit by the age of 13,
never to play organized sports again.
 Overwhelming #1 reason that students participate in
high school athletics according to the National
Federation of High School Sports is to have fun. #10
reason is to win
Principles of Training
 Readiness
 Overload
 Specificity
 Rest
 Individuality
 Accumulation
 Progression
 Variability
 Adaptation
 Warm up and
Cool Down
 Reversibility
Readiness
 Aerobic Training
 Not significant in
prepubescent athletes
 Anaerobic Training
 Anaerobic capacity is
dependent on strength and
maturation
 Strength Training
Shows little evidence of
changes in muscle size that
occurs after puberty
 Skills Training
 Effective at any age
 Basic Rules of Thumb
 6-12 Years Old
 Awaken Interest
 Have Fun
 Teach Basic Skills
 11-13 Years Old
 Improve on proper
technique
 Prep for Increased Training
 14-18 Years Old
 Increased Training
 Specialized Training
 More Competition
Physical Growth-Ballpark
 Female
 Male
 Body Height
Body Mass
 Body Height
 8-9
Fast
Slow
 8-9
 9-10 Fast
Slow
 9-10 Slow
Slow
 10-11 Fast
Slow
 10-11 Slow
Slow
 11-12 Fast
Fast
 11-12 Average Slow
Body Mass
 12-13 Average Fast
 13-14 Fast
 13-14
 14-15 Average Average
Fast
 15-16 Slow
Fast
Average
Aerobic Capacity-Cooper

Female-Elite 95 Percentile

Male-Elite 95 Percentile

8
2142 Meters

8
2587 Meters

9
2348 Meters

9
2731 Meters

10
2420 Meters (2743 LJO)

10
2790 Meters

11
2558 Meters

11
2822 Meters

12
2588 Meters (14:50 3200)

12
2892 Meters

13
2933 Meters

14
3029 Meters

15
3040 Meters (3401 LastJO)

16
3127 Meters (12:16 for 3200)

17
3101 Meters (4322 SC-2010)

18
3150 Meters (3639 Last SM)

19
3269 Meters



13
14
15
2572 Meters
2522 Meters
2487 Meters

16
2462 Meters

17
2463 Meters (3716 SC)

18
2485 Meters (3164 Last SM)

19
2414 Meters
Puberty Average Changes
 Beginning of Puberty Growth Spurt
 Males-12.5
Females 10.5
 Sharp Increase in rate of Height gain per year
 Males 13.5-14.0
Females 11.5-12.0
 Growth Spurt of Cardiorespiratory
System
 Males 13.5-14.0
Females 11.5-12.0
The “Overload” Principle
 The ‘Ultimate’ principle to apply to all facets
of training in most sports.
 Gradual increase in workout stresses create a
physiological/psychological adaptation over
time.
 Athletes enhance athletic performance by
increasing the capacity for work over time.
Overload Specifics
 In order to achieve any change from physical
work, that training must overload the system.
 Strength Training
 Work to the point of momentary muscular failure.
 Endurance Training
 Work for progressively longer periods of time and at
progressively higher intensities.
 Sprint Training
 Gradually increase volume of ballistic activities
 Bungee, downhill, tow training
The Supercompensation
Cycle
The “Overload” Principle
 The ‘Ultimate’ principle to apply to all facets of
training in most sports.
 Gradual increase in workout stresses create a
physiological/psychological adaptation over
time.
 Athletes enhance athletic performance by
increasing the capacity for work over time.
What You Train,
Is What You Gain!
 Specificity of Training
 S.A.I.D. Principle – Specific Adaptations to Imposed
Demands.
 You must train the skill or system you will use in competition
. . . Mimic the demands of competition.
 Sprinter
 Jumpers
 Throwers
 Distance runners
 Energy systems
S.A.I.D Principle continued.
 Training needs to simulate aspects of racing.
 Generally
 Deal with specifc energy systems used in the race
 Sprints, Jumps, Throws--alactic and anaerobic primarily
Distance-all three energy systems
 Specifically:
 Running Events: Starts, finishes, tactics, segmenting race
Throws: Movement across ring, entering and exiting the ring, release
Jumps: Runway approaches, step, landings, phases of the jump
 Hard Training Must Be “Fun”
 Not “Fun & Games” fun, but hard work can be fun in accomplishment & testing
ones abilities. Hard work can be fun in and of itself.
The Best Must Rest
. . . Recovery Principle
 Recovery is an essential component in training.
 Undoubtedly one of the most difficult training components for
coaches and athletes to apply.
 Watch your athletes closely; their eyes, faces, moods, gait and
resting pulse rate will tell the tale.
 When in doubt, go easy and do an alternative workout or rest.
 Use easy runs and games to rest and motivate.
 Use aqua or swimming to give the legs a break from pounding.
 Rest may represent the “secret weapon” for peaking properly.
Recovery . . . continued
 Recovery is not the absence of training, but part
of training.
 Volume of training is less important than the
manipulation of training intensities.
 No Pain, No Gain usually leads to No Running.
Change to No Strain, No Gain.
 Much better to be under-trained and healthy than
over-trained and hurt.
 Healthy athletes participate in late season events
. . . more Recovery
 48 hours are usually needed to recover from
a difficult workout or race.
 Too often athletes push the day after because they feel
good.
 Intense workouts are limited to twice each week.
 A race is an intense workout!
 A complete rest day every two weeks will not
destroy your athletes! Most will find a way to take
far more than just a day every two weeks.
Individuality
 Each training program has a different effect on
an individual
 Tailor programs to individual needs
 Training age
 Chronological age
 Fast twitch/slow twitch
 Gender
 Body type
Individual Response
 Heredity
 Maturity
 Nutrition
 Rest and Sleep
 Level of Fitness
 Environmental Stresses
 Illness of Injury
 Motivation
Law of Accumulation
 What you do adds up
 Days training
 Other sports
 Years training
 Body already knows how to get fit
 Have already created neural pathways
 Increase in volume after body gets fit again
Additional Principles to
consider
 Progression (FIT principle)
 Start slow and gradually build up
 Most injuries occur in the first 3 weeks
 Monitor shoes
 Hell week concept
 Variability
 Change to avoid staleness and boredom
 Change for a purpose
 Hard/easy idea
 Adaptation
 Muscles may remember; tendons and ligaments won’t
 Body adapts slowly
 Work within the fitness level of the athlete
Progression (FIT)
 Frequency
 How often
 Intensity
 How Hard
 Time (Duration)
 How Long
 Rest
 Very important part of training cycle
Adaptation
 Improve Conditioning
 Improve Muscular Endurance, Strength and Power
 Tougher bones, ligaments, tendons and connective
tissue
 The principle of adaptation tells us that training
cannot be rushed
 Design a sensible program and be satisfied with the
results
Warm up and Cool Down
 Increase core temperature of the body
 Increase breathing and heart rate
 Wake up the muscles, tendons and ligaments
 Allows you to introduce activities (quiets team)
 Ideal Time-8 to 10 minutes
 Cool down helps
 Remove metabolic waste (soreness)
Principle of Reversibility
 Tough to get, easy to lose.
 Roughly 1% loss of fitness per day of complete bed
rest.
 Recovery vs Rest
Energy Systems
 Alactic
 Anaerobic
 Aerobic
Alactic
 This system is usually limited to short bursts of high intensity
work between approximately 5 to 8 seconds.
 It is your fight or flight system where you feel that sudden
burst of energy when somebody sneaks up and scares you.
 This can be used very effectively in the first 5 to 8 seconds of an
event
 Basic concept is use it or lose it.
 Replenishes to about 97% with 3 minutes of rest.
 Training it includes practicing hard starts, doing quick bursts,
practicing speed ladders.
 With training you can expand the amount of energy a bit.
 Always good to practice using this energy source at the
beginning of a race.
Anaerobic System
 Anaerobic means without oxygen and is the system usually used in efforts
from 30 seconds all the way up to 2 minutes.
 Train the body to deal with the demands of the anaerobic system.
 This is the system you use when you are sprinting. You will probably feel
the shortness of breath and it takes up to 10 minutes to recovery from
this type of effort.
 Most every race finishes anaerobically. Most every event uses the
anaerobic system
 Training for this system means high intensity efforts between 30 seconds
and 2 minutes. Sprint-float-sprints, fartleks, bayis, short interval work,
flying 40-60s all help train this energy system.
 Obviously, a sprint requires more anaerobic work than a distance event.
 This is usually why training and racing frequency is different for sprints
and distance.
Aerobic System
 This is the most used system in the body.
 Any activity that takes over 2 minutes is usually using
the aerobic system.
 We train the aerobic system by doing sustained
activities over 2 minutes.
 It is important to be properly hydrated and fueled to
use the aerobic system.
 Most of the training of a distance runner will be
aerobic in nature.
Breakdown of events
 100 Meters: 92% Anaerobic, 8% Aerobic
 200 Meters: 86% Anaerobic, 14% Aerobic
 400 Meters: 70% Anaerobic, 30% Aerobic
 800 Meters: 67% Anaerobic-33% Aerobic
 1600 Meters: 49% Anaerobic, 51% Aerobic
 3200 Meters: 44% Anaerobic, 56% Aerobic
 Throws: Primarily alactic system and anaerobic
Alactic workouts
 Make sure that athletes are beginning to get in shape
prior to training this system
 Alactic workouts are very stressful on the body
 Of primary importance for all events
 Main source of energy in the 100 meters
 Short sprints of between 5 and 15 seconds of 100% effort
 Short hill bursts
 Flying 20s, 30s, 40s
 Short plyos
Anaerobic Workouts
 Needed for all events
 Especially important in longer sprints and distance
races
 Hill reps: After proper aerobic conditioning
 100 through 300 repeats with varying rest
 150 sprint-float sprint
 Bayis (50 easy, 50 hard) for number of laps
 VO2 max workouts (30 hard, 15 easy)
 Longer plyos
Aerobic Workouts
 With oxygen
 Runs of over 2 minutes
 Distance runs
 Fartleks
 Jogging in between reps
 Questions and the Dark Side of Physiology
The Dark Side of Training
Only venture here if addicted to coaching
 More information than you may care to know
 Primarily about distance running and sprints
 Did not dip into these areas until after about 20 years of
coaching
 Still get confused with some of the terms
 Most of my athletes could care less about this
information
 Helps determine reasons for specific workouts
 Basic concept: Train to run fast by running fast
Definitions
 AEROBIC THRESHOLD

breakpoint or shift in the primary energy source in the aerobic system

shift from fatty acids to glycogen occurs at 65% of vo2 max

130-140 beats per minute

www.brianmac.co.uk/hrm1.htm for more accurate heart rate method
 LACTIC THRESHOLD

breakpoint during exercise at which blood lactate exceeds removal. Shift from
complete oxidation

accumulation of lactic acid

energy supply is glycogen

65% to 85% of vo2
VO2 Max
 a. highest rate of o2 utilization attained during
maximal or exhaustive exercise.
 Considered to be the single most accurate measure
of endurance fitness.
 College age athletes show an average improvement
of 5-20% following 8-12 weeks of training
 Cooper Test is a common way to test
 www.brianmac.co.uk/gentest.htm
Speed Development
from USA TF Coaching Ed
BUILD SPEED RESERVE
BUILD SPEED RESERVE
LACTATE TOLERANCE
speed endurance
special endurance I
special endurance II
 Intensity
90-100%
90-100%
90-100%
 Extent
60-150 meters
150-300 meters
300-600 meters
 Reps per set 2-5
1-5
1-4
 Sets
2-3
1
1
 Volume
300-1200 meters 300-1000 meters
300-1800 meters
 Rest/rep
incomplete
incomplete/near
 Rest/set
near complete
incomplete/near
Important Definitions
 Combined zone
 more than one area of training
 Critical zone
 Training for last 25% of the race
Speed endurance
workouts/recovery
 building speed reserve
 reps of 60-150 meters
 multiple sets
 1200 meters total or less
 incomplete recovery between reps
 near complete recovery between sets
 critical zone tolerance
Special Endurance I
(Building Speed Reverse)
 repetitions of 150-300 meters
 1 set at 1200 or less meters total volume
 90-100% intensity
 incomplete or near complete recovery
between reps
 critical zone for the last 25% of the race
Special endurance II (Race
Lactate tolerance)
 repetitions of 300-600
 possible sets of up to 1800 meters
 90-100% intensity
 can use either incomplete to near complete recovery
between reps
 lactate tolerance for mid-race to late race tempo
Intensive Interval (Lactate Tolerance,
Vo2 max development at race tempo)
 repetitions of 200-400 meter
 1-4 sets at or below 3200 total volume
 100-120% of vo2 max intensity (800-1500 tempo)
 incomplete recovery between reps
 near complete recovery between sets
Extensive Intervals/Repetitions (Lactate
Tolerance, Vo2 max development)
 reps of 800-3200 meters
 1-5 at or less than 9600 total volume
 92-102% to Vo2 max intensity (at to Vo2 max)
 incomplete to near complete recovery between reps
 higher end aerobic development (max aerobic
development is necessary for the critical zone
Components of interval
training (reps, etc)
 Short reps
 High volume
 Low to high intensity
 Incomplete recovery
Components of rep
training
 longer reps
 High volume
 mid to high intensity
 near complete recovery
Recovery intervals:
General principles
2/3 of recovery takes place within
the first 1/2 of time required for full
recovery
Therefore, goal of workout
determines recovery time
More on Recovery
 Anaerobic training
 intensity 90-100% of max velocity
 recovery requires more time between reps and sets than recovery between
aerobic stimuli
 Aerobic training
 interval between each aerobic stimulus is normally between 1 & 2 times the
running time of each repetition
 Complete recovery
 return to near pre exercise heart rate or homeostasis
 Incomplete Recovery
 after 1/3 of the time required for full recovery (hr 120-130)
 Recovery techniques
 those methods to aid in regeneration between repetitions eg. Jogging,
walking, standing, etc