A fitness program for a cross country runner.

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P.E Cause Work

Fitness program

Planning

Intro

I will be designing throughout this coursework a fitness program for a cross country runner.

I have chosen this sport as it is one I have spent a lot of time on and have enjoyed throughout a large period of time. I feel I have a reasonably large amount of knowledge on the subject and am interested in learning more about it.

I have done this sport since around the age of 8 but took it up training 6 years ago when I joined Milton Keynes athletics club having been asked by a couch there. At the time I was around 20th in Milton Keynes for my age (year 4 and 5) (9years old) and around 30 -40 in bucks the next year I ran in the same races but for years 6 and 7 (me being in year 6) and came top 10.

After this I really started 2 take running seriously.

The next year as a year 7 I won the Milton Keynes cross country and the bucks cross country. The following year I was third in bucks at u13 age group and represented bucks in the national AAA race in Nottinghamshire on sky sports 2 coming top 100 out 500 of the best runners in the UK I also finished 7th in the Chiltern league rankings. Then as a bottom year under 15 I again in the AAA cross country top 60 (4th in bucks) but also in the schools cross-county (6th in bucks). As top yeah under 15 I got an Achilles heel injury at the start of the season but I still represented bucks in both schools (6th in bucks) and AAA(5th in bucks - on sky sports extra).

This year I will be a bottom year U17 and I hope to get into both the schools (top year) and AAA (bottom year).

My strength in cross – country is unquestionably my endurance I find that I am stronger over a longer distance compared to others my weakness would have to be my speed. Another strength I have is downhill and up hill stretches whereas I struggle to keep concentration on the flat.

In my opinion you need fitness for running more than you do for any other sport as it is purely based on talent, Training and hard work with very little skill. You could b better than someone at say football without running if you were skilful enough which takes a lot less fitness.

Health and Injuries

I have always had reasonable health although I have been ill with bronchitis but nothing very bad at all.

However over the last 2 track seasons I have had a few injuries including straining my Achilles heal. I had to stop training for 6 weeks this is my longest standing injury and forced me to drop out of the first 2 cross country races. This injury was most likely caused by over training or not doing my warm ups properly.

Another problem that I have had is that I run ‘duck footed’ this means that when I go on the track in the summer for speed training etc. I often get strains on the back of my left calf due to the sharp pushes I have to do from that leg. This problem however is not so predominate in cross-country, in fact it helps with balance going down hill.  

Recently I have had a problem with an in growing toenail that got infected. This has made it very hard for me to run down hill as my toes push into the end of my shoes. I have been on 4 tablets a day to treat this infection and hoping to have an operation soon.

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Fitness Tests

For Cross Country the component of fitness you need is Endurance.

Endurance is important to get you through the race to the finish if you don’t have the endurance you would have to stop and therefore lose places in the race.

For this test I will do a bolt test around a track running non-stop and attempting to get as far as possible in the time.

You also need Speed Endurance.

Speed Endurance is necessary for you to pull away in a race and put in a fast section killing off challengers.

The test I ...

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