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INCREASING MILEAGE
for competition
Dear Coach Ed,Hi! I have thirteen year-old twin sisters who will be entering eighth grade next fall. This past year they ran cross-country and track. Turns out they are pretty good. They both ran an 11:44 two mile and pretty good times in everything from the 400 up. They have also been competitively swimming since they were five. They continue to run about three miles roughly five times a week, on top of swimming for two hours a day six days a week. Once school is out, they plan to increase their running. They will swim for two and a half hours in the morning, then they were planning on joining me for my evening workout. I was wondering if you could offer any tips on what kind of training they should do, or anything they shouldn't do. Erin Erin, If your sisters are going to compete when they get back to school they have the right idea of increasing their mileage. They already have great base mileage to build on. I suggest they keep the five day running schedule. Add 1 mile per week to one of the 3 mile runs. In five weeks that would give them a long easy run of 8 miles. That will help running endurance. Then bring up another 3 mile run to 5 miles; again adding 1 mile per week. Once they are at that level they could do some speed work on the five mile run. If they will be working with a coach when they get back to school I suggest doing 30 to 45 second strides with 2 minute rest, repeat 6 times. Do this on the 5 mile day. When they get back to school and are ready for training and racing they will be better endurance runners by the increase in the long run. They will be rested by not overdoing it, and they will be ready for speed by doing strides. It's great you take such an interest in your sisters' athletics. Keep me informed of their progress. Coach Ed
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Ed Poirier, "Coach Ed", recently was invited by the United States Olympic
committee to attend a workshop and training seminar at the Olympic training
center in California. 