James Fitzgerald Talks Coaching

Many coaches are protective of their knowledge. It often seems as though they see other squads as being the enemy. But one coach who is happy to share his experience and open to the fact that coaching is an ever-changing thing, is James Fitzgerald. Here he shares his training techniques in the lead up to the Zatopek:10, his first tilt at 10,000m coaching.

The point of this article is that coaching is a very adaptive learning experience. For the past decade most of my energy as a coach has been spent preparing 800m & 1500m runners with the capacity to be competitive at Cross Country. Given the recent influx of talented distances runners to my squad, I have started the process of preparing more athletes for the longer distances (3000m to Half Marathon). Last December I had my first athletes compete in the Men’s (James Connor, 21) and Women’s (Milly Clark, 24), Zatopek:10. The build up was great, given the NSW 3000m Championships in November as well as coming off a super winter period.

The focus in training was to find the right balance regards volume and of course intensity. I have done a lot of work with my middle distance athletes at threshold (approx. 10k pace, running anywhere from 12-18minutes), but I had rarely used tempo workouts (approx. half marathon pace running anywhere from 30-50mins). The two athletes I prepared for Zatopek were following a template similar to this:

Sunday: 20-28kms (4:10-15/4:25-30)

Monday: Happy Hour (60mins with 3 x 5min surges @ 15/30/45 min mark)

Tuesday: AM 10kms PM Longer intervals 1200-2000m or Fartlek

Wednesday: 12-15kms (4:20-25/4:35-40)

Thursday: AM 10kms PM Shorter intervals or Threshold workouts

Friday:10-12kms (4:20-25/4:35-40)

Saturday: AM Tempo workouts or Mixed hill sessions PM 6-8kms

Given I had no experience with 10km preparation I didn’t want my athletes getting run down and mentally fatigued so Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday session were quite varied.

Here are a few session examples:

Tuesday Session’s
Mona’s Ark’
2 laps in lane 8 @ threshold, 2 laps @ Tempo
2 x 1 lap @ 5k pace, 1 lap @ Tempo
4 x 1/2 lap @ 3k pace, 1/2 lap @ Tempo
8 x 1/4 lap @ 1500 pace, 1/4 lap @ Tempo
or
‘Hollywood’ @ Brick Pit (Homebush)
5 x 1200 with 600m floats
(3:40/2:15 James, 4:00/2:25 Milly)
plus 4 x 250s (:36-38 James, :42-44 Milly)

Thursday Session’s
‘Redskin’
2km @ 10km pace, 3MR
2 x 1km @ 5km pace, 1/3MR
4 x 500m @ 3km pace, jog 100m recovery
or
3 x 800/600/500 (2:20/1:45/1:20 James, 2:40/1:57/1:35 Milly), 90sec/3MR

Saturday Session’s

‘Thrills’
12 mins @ Threshold, 3MR
8 x 1min hills (not too steep), jog recovery, 2MR
10mins @ Threshold
or
‘Tempo’
40-50mins @ 3:15-20 (James) and 3:35-40 (Milly)

The plan leading into the event was to be comfortable – James @ 1:10, (Sub 30:00) and Milly 1:20, (Sub 34:00). The other important factor was building up the Long Run on Sunday. Both athletes had been regularly running 80-90mins and what they did was gradually increase to the 2 hour mark over a period of 6-8 weeks Mid October through to Late November. They also increased recovery days (Wednesday & Friday), during the same period.

The results were mixed. James at 21 is very young to run such a distance and the last 2km’s were tough. At one point he was on for a 29:20 but the last few laps got hard, slowing down to 74-75’s. James learnt a lot from the experience and given he has finished top 10 two years in a row at Nationals in the 1500m, has mentally opened himself up to the longer distances on the track. He will have another crack at the end of 2015 with the focus for Rio 2016 being the 5000m.

Milly on the other hand had a great race. After a very slow start (2:50 thru the first 800m), Milly found her rhythm and put together 13 consecutive 1:20 laps. Training paid off and she only went out to a 1:21 with 5 laps to go. Closing in on the leaders, Milly was able to change pace with two laps remaining and posted a respectable 1:13 last 400m, stopping the clock 3 seconds short (33:27) of the “B” standard for the Commonwealth Games. Milly plans to race the 5000m at Nationals in April and will now look at the possibility of running at Stanford in May to have a crack at the “B” standard.

Milly’s future looks bright in regards to the longer distances. Having a background in the steeplechase may mean like the men (Dent, Hunt & Creighton), who have run before her, that Marathon may be her distance for Rio 2016 – Watch this space! That will be a whole new chapter in my coaching career.

As I stated at the beginning, coaching is an adaptive learning experience and I look forward to learning new aspects to long distance running! Thanks to Dave for the opportunity to share my thoughts and all the best to all athletes working towards their goals this year.