Yes, Running Takes Time
What is the most important part of your track and field workouts? It is the warm up and the cool down. If your muscles aren¡¯t ready to do the anaerobic activity you are asking them to do in a workout, they simply don¡¯t do it and you¡¯d either get injured, or if you¡¯re lucky, just not what you wanted from the workout.
Cool downs help prevent injury and stretch and strengthen your muscle fibers so that over time, you¡¯ll recover faster and be able to handle a larger workload.
Be Smart Before Anything Breaks
- Tough: falling over a hurdle or no-heighting in the high jump.
- Worse: running too hard in the first mile of a 2-mile race ending in a walk across the finish line.
- Worst: being injured.
So called ¡°failures¡± or difficulties can teach and athlete as much or more than winning. Injuries, especially over use or ignored small injuries over time are the hardest issues to deal with when running or coaching track and field.
Getting injured only teaches athletes that being injured is the pits. Teach athletes to learn how to prevent injuries and stay healthy in their lives and in their sports, and they will never have to recover from a lesson not learned soon enough.
Lift
Possible weight lifting plan for high school track and field athletes (the following three days are not consecutive):
- Day 1 - lat pull downs, seated row, bicep curls, hamstring curls, rubber band resistance exercises, calf raises, sit ups.
- Day 2 - bench press, leg press, leg extension, tricep extensions, Russian twists with a plate, push ups, lunges.
- Day 3 (only if over 17 years old) - squats, push jerks, good mornings, military press, box jumps, sit ups.
Conquer the Challenge
What is ultimate track and field challenge? Combine all of the skills and training needed for each event and try the decathlon or the heptathlon. You¡¯ll need endurance to compete for several hours each day and in ten or seven events in a row. You¡¯ll need to be a jumper, a sprinter, a hurdler, a thrower, fast, in shape, strong, and above all, mentally tough.
The events in the decathlon are the 100m, long jump, shot put, pole vault, 400m, then on the second day, 110m hurdles, javelin, high jump, discus, 1000m. For the women, the heptathlon consists of the 100m hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200m, then for day 2, the long jump, javelin, and 800m. These events are the marathon of track and field.
Why Would You Do That?
Fix it before it¡¯s too late. Practicing poor technique or working out when your body is too mentally or physically run down is as bad as running on a stress fracture. Athletes need rest and recuperation as much as they need good food and sustained training and conditioning to perform.
Stop yourself or your athletes from running, jumping or throwing if technique is wrong ¨C this will only cause an injury down the road. Recognize that sometimes a day off or on the bike or in the pool is more beneficial than a week of well-planned training.
Fitter, Faster, Fantastic!
Your health is not just important to your success as an athlete, it is the number one most important thing you need to be conscious of and work hard at keeping fit. To be ¡°fit¡± in terms of you health ¨C learn about nutrition and eat 70% of your diet in carbohydrates and most of your protein after working out.
If your team has or can get a nutritionist to talk to athletes, use that resource. Masseurs are expensive, but worth every penny. If your track and field team does not have a masseur, learn how to massage your own self with a foam roller. The health and performance benefits of massages, especially for injury prevention, are innumerable.
Sprint
Suggested track and field workouts for sprinters:
- Day 1 - 600, 200, 200, 100, 100 with full recovery
- Day 2 - 3 sets of 3 x 30m
- Day 3 - jog and strides
- Day 4 - 8 x 150m w/2 minutes rest
- Day 5 - flying 60m
- Day 6 - jog.
Work on starts out of the block 2 days per week.
Get Ready
Coaching track and field isn¡¯t easy. It takes as much preparation and hard work from the coach as it does from the athlete. You don¡¯t have to have been the best athlete at the even you coach, but you need to know it inside and out in order to allow your athletes to put their trust in your coaching.
Cough It Up
There¡¯s money for the taking, If you are a track and field athlete, especially a female, research colleges that have track and field programs, their performance requirements for membership, and whether or not they give scholarships. When you find a few good fits, call the coaches after your junior year in high school.
Many people think that unless a college coach recruits them, they are not good enough for college athletics. That is untrue. College coaches are very busy with their own athletes and cannot spend all of their time recruiting. Give them a hand - they¡¯ll appreciate it and you may get a ¡°hand¡± in return.
Combine Training
Suggested track and field schedule of event training for the pentathon:
- Day 1- hurdles then high jump
- Day 2 - shot put then running training
- Day 3 - hurdles then long jump
- Day 4 - high jump then running training
- Day 5 - hurdles then shot put, then running training
- Day 6 - shot put then long jump training
Multi-event training should be done in the order that the events are competed in the pentathlon (leave out the events you are not working on that day).
Hurdle Low
Suggested track and field workouts for 300m hurdlers (each day preceded by hurdle drills):
- Day 1 - 4 x last 100m with hurdles
- Day 2 - 200, 300, 400, 300, 200 no hurdles
- Day 3 - 4 x 150m (first straight away and curve with hurdles)
- Day 4 - 6 x 200m no hurdles
- Day 5 - 3 x 800m with hurdles on the straight aways, easy running on the curve.
Hurdle High
Suggested track and field workouts for 100m/110m hurdlers (every day preceded by hurlde drills):
- Day 1 - 3 sets 2 x 6 hurldes
- Day 2 - running trail legs and running lead legs over 8 hurldes
- Day 3 - 5 x 4 hurdles, 5 x 3 hurdles, 5 x 1 hurdle
- Day 4 - 4 x 200m no hurldes
- Day 5 - 4 x 2 hurdles at 1-step distance, 5 x 4 hurdles at 5-step distance.
Can You Do It?
Do you think you have what it takes to be a track and field coach? If you are as flexible as you are dedicated and strong-minded, then coaching track and field could be a great job for you. Coaching track and field at the college or division I level can be a full time job, or could be just afternoon and weekend hours for high school track and field.
You¡¯d be kidding yourself if you thought that was all the time it took, however. When you see the kids and the athletes looking to you for advice, encouragement, and critique, you¡¯ll know that coaching track and field becomes a part of you, it grabs your heart and soul, it is not just a job.