PreseasonTips for Jumpers

November Tip of the Month

The weather is starting to change around the country and soon it will be difficult to do workouts outdoors without a lot of bulking clothing on. For those of you in parts of the country without an indoor facility to do your running training, the next several months will be tough. You have to find a way to become adaptable to your environment. You’d be amazed at how much productive work you can get done running in the gymnasium or in the halls at your school.

The key to the interval type running that jumpers do is to focus on stride control, rhythm, and pushing toward your anaerobic threshold. Many of you are training for sprint and middle distance events along with being jumpers so you are already doing the kind of training where the rest interval is short. If you don’t have access to a place where you can run 150-200 meters for training that’s okay. On the days when all you have to do is bundle up to run outdoors, do so and don’t focus as much on the times that you’d like to run. Focus on keeping your rest interval short and utilizing proper running technique instead. If you keep the total number of meters that you run around 1200-1500 meters on your long interval days and between 800-1100 meters on your sprint interval days it doesn’t really matter if you are running far and fast, just that you are doing so on a formula where you take, roughly, double the distance rest.

What do I mean by that? Example: if you’re running repeat 200 meter intervals, taking double the distance rest would be to take 4 mins. rest between 200’s. If you’re taking equal the distance rest you would be taking 2 mins. rest between each set. For 150 meter runs, double the distance rest would be 3 mins. and equal the distance rest would be 1 ½ minutes. The idea is to keep your pulse in your “training zone.” To calculate your “training zone”, subtract your age from 220 and then take 70% and 80% of that number. That’s your “training zone”. Example: If you’re 16 years old, take 16 away from 220, (220 minus 16 = 204), take 70% of 204 (204 x 70% = 143) and take 80% of 204 (204 x 80% = 163). In this example, your “training zone” would be 143 – 163 beats per minute. Once you get warmed-up and are 1/3 of the way through your running workout, your pulse should stay between those numbers in order for you to achieve the maximum anaerobic benefit.

It’s always smart to monitor your “training zone” so that you can be efficient about the work you’re doing. You may find that your pulse rate is in excess of your maximum training zone number immediately after completing a run of 200 or 300 meters. Don’t worry, at the end of 1 minute your pulse should recover toward the lower end of your training zone. The idea is to start your next running set just as your pulse gets down to that lower number early in your pre-competitive season training. As you become more fit, your pulse recovers more quickly from hard work and you can move from a quantity oriented training plan to a quality oriented training plan. You know the old saying, “no pain….no gain”. Once you’ve paid the price of becoming generally fit in the early season, you earn the right to start training at a level where you get to run faster and take more rest between efforts. The first 6 weeks are usually the most challenging.

The most important meets of the winter season don’t hit until early February for most jumpers. Now is the time to begin the background training that’s outlined in my Dwight Stones Sports Interactive Training Program. If you haven’t yet, go to www.DwightStones.com and click on the “Training & Motivational Programs” tab and sign up for a program. It’s not too late to be ready in time for those winter competitive opportunities that will help you get a head start on your competition. A good winter equals an outstanding spring.

Preparation is everything but that preparation has to be well-planned. It has to be part of an overall regimen that stresses the specifics that are unique to jumpers. You can’t train a jumper like a distance runner or a sprinter. Some of the training is similar but it’s the “jumping specific” drills, the event specific lifts, and the well-thought out interval workouts that will make the difference between “just another track season” and you becoming the best jumper you can be.

Go to www.DwightStones.com and click on the “Training & Motivational Programs” tab to get a head start on 2008. Make it your best season ever….I guarantee it!

Cheers,

Coach Stones