Keswick AC – Autumn/winter 2018/19 – Training proposal
Context and philosophy
Firstly, I would like to say thank you to the Keswick AC committee for approaching me and asking if I could take over the planning of the club’s Tuesday and Thursday training sessions. During a meeting with some of the committee members, several points were discussed, in no particular order:
- There is a need for two options at each training session.
- Sessions should, as much as possible, appeal to and be appropriate for both fell runners and road runners.
- Inclusivity is a priority.
- The club is trying to provide progression for athletes with less experience and appropriate, quality training for those racing at the elite level.
- Generally, keep sessions to an hour.
What I want to achieve as a coach, is to bring all the athletes “to the boil” as the road and fell racing seasons really kick-off (March 2019?) I also want to encourage athletes to vary the options they take to fit their training and racing programmes (especially when tapering for a race, recovering from injury, taking a recovery block after a particularly tough training period or undertaking an increase in training.)
All the individual athletes I coach spend blocks of training (usually 4 to 6 weeks) with a focus on specific elements of performance rather than trying to train all aspects of fitness at the same time. The order of this changing focus (“periodisation”) is what allows an athlete to “peak” at the right time/race. I want to try and bring this periodisation to the club’s training over the coming months.
The tricky part here, is getting this progressive periodisation to meet the needs of all the club’s athletes and allowing for the fact that there are still four (1 fell and 3 road) club championship races remaining and two fell relays events. Don’t even get me started on the cross-country season…..
My initial thoughts break down to this:
- September speed endurance work. Preparation for upcoming racing block.
- October Race specific training.
- November Recharge with a mix of sessions.
- December Top end speed training.
- January Speed endurance.
- February Race specific training.
I hope this puts the coming months into context.
Dave Troman