TRAINING IS SPECIFIC

The term 'ATHLETICS' covers a wide range of activities concerned with a mixture of the following:-

SPEED

STRENGTH

ENDURANCE

SUPPLENESS

SKILL and AGILITY

However, the activity that you choose will demand SPECIFIC TRAINING, that is training that prepares you for taking part in that event.  It is important to understand, through reading or discussing with a coach, what are the demands of your particular event, and how best to train for it.

So before you plan your training, 'take your event apart' and see what its ingredients are.  Note which aspects are most important, but also pay attention to the others.

For example:

Now that you have identified all the aspects of your event, train ALL of them, whilst concentrating on the main features.  For example:

a 200m runner will do a lot of very fast training on the track (speed) - e.g. 120m sprints - but will also include some over-distance work (endurance) - e.g. 300m sprints.  Gym work will include fast bounding (strength).

a cross-country runner will do a lot of 'high aerobic' running (endurance), seeking out varied terrain when possible (skill).  He/she will also deliberately target hills for shorter (strength) and longer (endurance) efforts.

If you are an experienced athlete, you should be able to pull your event into many more separate ingredients than these simple examples.

If you are interested in coaches education, see the page of links to other sites.

200m

Speed: You certainly need this!

Strength: The ability to power forward, and control your limbs at speed.

Endurance: Prevents slowing down towards the end, as you tire.

Suppleness: Tight hamstrings will actually slow you down, and may cause injury

Skill: Starting quickly.  In fact, simply running at speed is a real skill in itself!

Cross-Country

Running

Speed: Without this, you will loose out downhill, and at the finish.

Strength: This is important uphill, when you need to bound over obstacles, or even to keep control on difficult terrain, such as molehills.

Endurance: You obviously need plenty of this to cover the distance as fast as possible.  Less obviously, you need endurance to get back into a good pace after a hill, for example.

Suppleness: Without this, after a few years of endurance training, you will shuffle along, finding it difficult to cope with the terrain.

Skill: Running on uneven ground, and varying your stride to avoid obstacles with the minimum of effort is a real skill.