14.Sep.12 Maidstone Harriers take to the hills, sea and sand
Kent Athletics Network (KAN) member Maidstone Harriers have had a busy summer preparing to take their road running to the next level. First challenge was a training day at Camber Sands at the end of July, which was attended by 6 Leaders in Running Fitness (LiRFs) and 12 athletes.
The sand dune based session was led by Mark Dayson, who is a Chartered Physiotherapist, Biomechanics Coach and endurance coach. It focused on two different hill running techniques to use depending on the outcome wanted. After explanations from Mark the attendees practised these techniques by running up a dune in different ways as part of understanding how to improve running economy and technique as well as strength.
"Now we know what to do at Camber we will be organising our own sessions down here every 6 weeks, thanks to KAN for making this happen" reported one of the Leaders in Running Fitness.
August saw England Athletics respond to their request for a Flying Coach visit, by arranging for local Level 4 marathon coach, Janice Moorkite to deliver a session, which started with a "SAQ" work out involving ladders, cones and mini hurdles. Janice, who is on the England Athletics Coach Development Programme gave an introduction into why this type of training is useful and this created discussions with the leaders about how often it should be done and in what phases of training it would be most useful. The second part of the session was doing "Kenyan Hills", this was new to all the leaders and gave them plenty of new ideas for future sessions on club nights.
The feedback was all positive, and one of the LiRFs commented " This was a really useful session, it has really opened my eyes on the different ways to improve strength and efficiency."
Photos by Alan Probert
England Athletics Online store
Click here to visit the Official England Athletics online store. |
- General Enquiries: Tel: 0121 347 6543
- Fax: 0121 347 6544
- E-mail: enquiries@englandathletics.org
