Regular readers will be familiar with my comments about Vancouver drivers and the perils of cycling amongst them. This week events progressed to the logical conclusion, as I was taken out by a car on my ride to a coaching session on monday. To be fair it was the middle of the day. In the sunshine. On a straight road designated as a greenway for cyclists. And I was wearing a high visibility fluorescent yellow top. With my lights on and flashing. So I guess I was asking for it. In tribute to the triathlete I was due to be coaching on the day who was very understanding, and also a triathlon coach I connected with this week, the theme of this week’s post is the value of the Prepared ATH service offering for multi-sports, such as triathlon, and endurance runners.
BEYOND HIGHER, FASTER, STRONGER…
When we speak about the merits of athletic preparation we typically focus on jumping higher, running faster, and going further. What is less readily apparent is that designated physical preparation, including coaching input with a focus on running mechanics, equally provides a great deal of value for endurance athletes. Endurance running performance in particular can benefit through a variety of different means.
Training for multisports events such as triathlon and Ironman is a demanding endeavour. Given the need to fit in each of the respective elements (running, cycling, swimming), athletes in these sports naturally want to maximise the benefit of every aspect of the training they undertake. Consistent preparation, minimising enforced absences due to injury or illness, is also paramount for success in these events..
For endurance athletes much of the time is dedicated to increasing work capacity. To some degree it is understandable that training to develop strength, power expression, and speed is much less of a focus than in other sports. So what is the place for elements such as strength training and plyometrics for athletes in endurance sports?
Beyond building the engine, the quest is to continually seek efficiencies. Oddly, the piece that is often missing is specific work on running mechanics. As a track and field coach it has always baffled me that if athletes run further than a lap or two, coaches inexplicably no longer coach technique, or at least there is far less emphasis on technical aspects. It is a similar scenario with endurance and multisports athletes. An increasing number of triathlon and Ironman athletes are coached remotely, whereby a coach prescribes training and provides input from distance via email and skype. By definition this does lend itself to technical input and feedback in real time.
So let’s make the case for investing precious time on athletic preparation and running mechanics for endurance runners and multisports athletes.
TRAINING FOR ENDURANCE PERFORMANCE…
Mechanical efficiency concerns how well energy is stored and returned. Mechanical effectiveness how forces are directed. Both of these elements are relevant to running performance. Every step the athlete takes they impart forces into the ground to generate propulsion; the better the athlete steers these forces with each step, the more effectively they generate propulsion in a forwards direction and minimise braking. Every step is powered by a combination of metabolic work and elastic energy. The better the athlete holds shape to bounce during each foot contact and minimise energy leaks, the greater the elastic return contribution and the less metabolic work the athlete has to expend.
A notable finding is that when a portion of endurance runners’ training is replaced with strength training the result was an improvement 5km time trial performance. Based on these findings strength training effectively constitutes endurance training, as it has the potential to improve endurance running performance.
The major focus of the work we do with endurance runners and multisports athletes is to improve how they bounce and coordinate their running action to better steer forces with each step. Strength training is an important complement to this, particularly for female athletes (to continue the theme of last week’s post).
Sessions on the track introduce low amplitude bouncing drills from an early stage, eventually progressing to ‘plyometric’ training. The other focus for track sessions is developing how the athlete coordinates the cyclic action of their limbs through the air and at touchdown, whilst working on how they engage with the ground at each foot contact. The aim is to continuously refine the timing of each respective segment during the running cycle. With each stride the athlete is also perfecting the alignment, and tuning the tensioning of each spring in series (foot, ankle, knee, hip, torso).
What all this work serves to do is increase mechanical effectiveness and make the runner more efficient. Ultimately this allows a higher running pace to be sustained. Running economy also improves as the contribution of the elastic energy storage and return to each stride, sparing the metabolic work they have to put in. Importantly the stresses through each link in the chain are also better distributed, so the athlete is also less prone to the overuse injuries that commonly plague endurance runners.
So there it is. Endurance runners and multisports athletes’ precious training time is worth investing in coaching input and specific preparation. Those who do so can leverage multiple performance benefits and safeguard themselves against injury.
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Readers who are local to Vancouver can also enquire to find out more about the coaching provision on offer, and how to arrange an initial assessment via the ‘Enquire’ link at the top of the page, or email us direct at PreparedATH@gmail.com.
