Interval Training
Last update May 3, 2010
Intervals are every Tuesday evening for one hour starting at 6:00 PM at the Arcadia High School track. Park in the sports field parking lot on Campus drive just east of Santa Anita Ave or on the street. Come to improve your cardio fitness, running style and race pace.
By Coach Bill Dietrich
Increased athletic capacity certainly begins with the heart, but speaking of tools, the legs just happen to be the best available tool for working on it.
The heart is the starting place because the limiting factor in aerobic work is its capacity to deliver oxygen to the working cells. The more you increase that capacity, the longer and faster you can run. The way you increase that capacity is by increasing the heart's stroke volume, which is the amount of oxygenated blood it can pump out with every beat. And the biggest gains in stroke volume occur not during the work itself, but during the recovery period when the heart is still beating at a high rate, but is not under load, when it is recovering from the work itself and providing replenishment for the cells that have just been subjected to stress.
As with the heart and stroke volume, the same goes for the rest of
the athletic chain of possibility - the muscle cells, the mitochondria,
the energy delivery and waste removal systems, and the recovery
mechanisms themselves. Work the systems, and then give them time
to recover. . . they'll "learn", chemically, to recover more quickly and
more fully. And that's the essence of improvement.
This is the working principle behind interval training, which has done more to alter athletic performance than all the fancy diets and illegal drugs and exercise machines and energy bars and drinks in history, including the establishment of uncountable work records.
Track Etiquette
1. Always run in a counterclockwise direction.
2. Think of the track as your local highway: The fastest lane is to the left. Lane numbering starts at the innermost lane and goes up to 8 or 9 lanes. Lanes 1 and 2 are reserved for the fastest runners. Lanes 3 through 5 are generally for moderately fast runners, and the outermost lanes are for slow joggers, walkers or runners doing their warm-up or cool-down routines.
3. If a faster runner comes up behind you and wants to pass, they will say, "track." This is your cue to move to the right.
4. When passing someone, always give plenty of warning time. Say, "track," wait for them to move over, and continue in your lane.
5. Never stand on the track, especially in lanes 1 or 2. Always look both ways before crossing the track.
6. Always be aware of nearby runners. When you finish an interval, look over your shoulder and move to the right as you stop. If you move left you are more likely to get run over by another runner.
7. Don't use headphones. Your iPod is for non-track days.
8. If the track is not busy, it's usually acceptable to do warm-up drills in the outermost lanes. Often this means you will be running back and forth on one straightaway. This is the only time it's OK to run in a clockwise direction. When in doubt, do your drills on the infield.
9. Don't allow pets or children to run freely on the track.
10. If a track team is working out on the track - they take precedence over individuals.
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