Training Ideas
For kids under 12 it’s usually recommended no more than 3 training sessions a week, because usually you will be doing school sport one day or swimming on weekends. If it’s a week when you have athletics training one night, then drop it to 2. If you have some kind of sport most days, then just 1 session. You really don’t need to over do it and recovery/rest days are a must.
WARM UP
Always warm up with a gentle 500m job and some dynamic stretches. (basically just a gentle jog around Erko oval as they chat and get into the mindset for training)
DYNAMIC STRETCHES
- skipping 20m straight leg swings side to side (both legs)
- straight leg swings forward to back (both legs)
- alternating walking lunges – 20m
- side steps left and right – 20m
- karaoke 20m
- skip and scoop 20m – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3lIjv-5ypM
COOL DOWN
Another gentle jog and then some static stretches. Stretches can be done later at night when you’re watching tv even. (see stretches at the top of the page)
SESSION 1 – HILL SPRINTS
Sydney park hill behind the car park is perfect for these.
- 10x 80m 100% effort hill sprints with a 4 min recovery between each sprint.
Recovery is just slowly walking back to the start, getting your heart beat back to normal. They will probably rush it, but they do need to have this little break so that they can give absolutely everything in the sprint which will become increasingly difficult as they start to tire.
Erskineville Oval, just the long hill that runs left from the oval entrance (perpendicular to fox ave) to the fence at the top
- 5 x 40m 100% effort hill sprints with a 2 min recovery
- 5 x 40m 100% effort hill sprints with a 1 min 30 sec recovery
- 5 x 40m 100% effort hill sprints with a 1 min recovery
SESSION 2 – Seb Co Style
This is done as one continuous run, switching from high effort to low effort. It’s very hard to run at the same pace for a whole race so you need to practice switching gears. What happens is that you’ll start fast, then settle into your race pace, then there will be small surges and then a sprint at the end. This style of training helps you to practice that pace change through the race.
- Run 400m with effort, jog 400m, run 300m with effort, jog 300m, run 200m with effort, jog 200m, run 100m with effort, jog 100m, run 50m with effort, jog 50m.
Now if you’re doing that at Erskineville oval then you’ll have to estimate that, possibly using the lamp posts as markers.
SESSION 3 FARTLEK RUN
Run 3km at a strong but not uncomfortable pace. During the run, maybe at the 500m, 1500m, 2500m mark increase your pace to a good strong sprint – don’t kill yourself though – and run at that pace for say 30 seconds, then return to your regular running pace.
SESSION 4 TIMED EFFORT RUNS
Do this on grass at the oval.
- 4x2min 85%effort runs with 2 minute slow walk recovery between efforts
- 4x1min 85%effort runs with 1 minute slow walk recovery between efforts
- 4×30 second 85%effort runs with 30sec slow walk recovery between efforts
This is a hard session. It might look easy enough since they are short timed runs, but believe me, you’ll be tired by the third 1 minute run.
SESSION 5 – STEADY RUN
Do a steady run for 20-25 minutes
SESSION 6 – PLYOMETRICS & STRENGTH
- skip 30m
- skip for height 30m
- skip for distance 30m
- left foot then right foot – hop on spot x6,
- hop side to side x6, hop front to back x6
- 2 foot jumps over 15cm hurdles or domes x 10
- 2 foot jumps over 40cm hurdles x 10
- rocket jumps x 10 (squat then jump up with arms straight up like a rocket, then come back down into the squat position ready for the next jump)
- leg raises x 10
- sit ups x 10
Also, in the week before competition, don’t overdo it. You should really just be doing gentle runs, keeping your legs as fresh as possible for the competition. So definitely nothing on the day before the comp. Get loads of sleep, eat heaps in the week beforehand, and stay really well hydrated. And force yourself to have rest days. The recover days are important because that’s when the body rebuilds the muscles, making them bigger and stronger ready for the next session.