The Teenage Runner

The Teenage Runner

by

Bruce Tulloh

Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Preface to the 2004 edition

Preface to this edition

Foreword

Profile - Nick Dorey

Why Do We Run?

Profile - Clive Tulloh

For the Coach

Profile - Jerry Barton

Starting to Run

Profile - Richard Nerurkar

Eleven to Thirteen

Profile - Ian Manners

Thirteen to Fifteen

Profile - Katherine and Jojo Tulloh

Fifteen to Seventeen: the distance runner

Profile - Matthew O'Dowd

Fifteen to Seventeen: the all-round athlete

Profile - Matthew Smith

The Sprinter

Profile - Christian Nicolson

The Middle-Distance Runner

Profile - Charles Sykes

The Long-Distance Runner

Profile - Daniel Hyde

What Makes a Runner?

Profile - Amy Stiles

Aids to Training

Profile - Ed Jackson

Running to Win

Profile - Your Name Here

The Lessons of Experience

Other books by Bruce Tulloh

Colophon

This book is dedicated to the pupils of

Bulmershe School, Reading, Berkshire

Kenyatta College, Nairobi

Kent School, Connecticut

and Marlborough College, Wiltshire

From all of these I have learned as much as I have taught

Acknowledgements

My thanks are due to Keith Mayhew for the cover pictures and all pictures within the text except for the personal snapshots above the biographies and the following:

Matthew Smith and Daniel Hyde photographed by

Mark Shearman

Amy Stiles photographed by

Mike Nicholson

Preface

to the 2004 edition

The bulk of this book was written in 1982. Since that time, world records have continued to be broken, but the raw material remains the same. Winning times at under-fifteen level this year were much the same as when my children were running in English Schools championships twenty years ago. There have, nevertheless, been changes in society and changes in the sport. Running as a leisure activity has expanded and more and more adults are taking part in running events – fifty thousand in this year’s Great North Run. At the same time we are being bombarded with advice about the dangers of obesity and the need for a healthy diet.

At school level the situation is equally contradictory. The Government makes a point of encouraging sport in schools, yet the National Curriculum allows very little time for physical activity in the school day.

Fortunately there is a simple solution, which is in the hands of those reading this book, both runners and coaches. All it needs is a simple resolution: We are going to run!

All over the world, I have seen that where there is an enthusiastic coach, good runners will spring up – sometimes brilliant runners. Running is natural, running is cheap. Running is the basic requirement for most sports, and anyone who is fit and energetic will achieve more and get more fun out of life than those who are deprived of exercise. What more do you want? Get out there!

Bruce Tulloh

Marlborough, 2004

Preface

to this edition

2015 is the year of several big anniversaries; apart from having my eightieth birthday, it is seventy years since I started running, sixty years since I won my first senior title ( the Hong Kong AAA 5000m) and fifty years since I started coaching. In that time the running world has grown much bigger, equipment has improved and world records have been transformed, but the basic material - the human body, remains the same. It is still just as hard to run a four-minute mile or a  thirty-minute 10k as it ever was.

My training advice is based not just on my experience, but on that of the hundreds of athletes I have coached — and it works. I have coached boys and girl in Britain, Kenya and the USA, hundreds of club athletes and joggers in annual training camps and thousands more through the medium of Running magazine and Runner’s World. At the highest level I have been privileged to work with some of the best in the world, from 800m to ultra-marathons. The message is simple — if you make the effort, you will reap the rewards of increased fitness – and that applies at any age.

To commemorate these anniversaries I am bringing out five books as ebooks: The Teenage Runner, Serious Running, Running over 40,50,60,70, Four Million Footsteps and How to Avoid Dying – a guide to a healthy old age. If you enjoy them, please spread the word.

Bruce Tulloh

May 2015

Foreword

by

Alan Storey

Tehcnical Director, Endurance Events, UK Athletics

Bruce Tulloh has done most things in athletics. As an athlete he won major championships, ran a sub 4-minute mile on grass and set records of every description including taking 8 days off the record for the 3,000 mile run from Los Angeles to New York.

As a coach he has helped athletes win medals at most events from 800m to the marathon. As an author his titles cover all aspects of our sport. In his latest offering Bruce uses the experience gained over five decades to help young athletes and their coaches understand the special needs of this age group. All three of Bruce’s own children won national titles at school or college level and this alone makes Bruce uniquely qualified to offer advice and help.

This book does not seek to provide ready-made schedules to be slavishlyfollowed but explains how programmes can be devised to take account of all aspects of life and training.

Thank you Bruce for taking the time to help us all.

NICK DOREY

When I started teaching at Marlborough College, Nick Dorey was an extremely bright fourteen-year-old who put 100% effort into everything he did. In the hot summer of 1976 I remember him running himself into a state of heat exhaustion to set a school under-17 record of 4 mins 6.8 for 1500m. In the same summer he took his A levels, so that when he went to Cambridge a year later he was still only just 18. He became Cambridge No.1 at 1,500m, and ran for Cambridge in Varsity cross-country and athletics matches for all three years, captaining the cross-country team. He then moved to Oxford University and ran in both Varsity matches there After leaving university he went into teaching, and soon found that he could not combine high-level training with a demanding job. However, he continued to run daily finishing 3rd in the AAA Indoor Championships of 1984, and ran in the GB v USA indoor match. His 1500m PB of 3.43 was set in 1988. Fifteen years down the line, he continues to enjoy running, particularly in the Alps and on the fells of Northern England. He is now the headmaster of a school in Kent, married, with two sons.

1

Why Do We Run?

Someone reading this book is a future world-class athlete. He or she may not be the best natural runner, but the one who most wants to succeed. Does that sound crazy? Don’t all athletes want to be successfuI?

Let me start by taking you through a day in the life of a middle distance runner. The day in question is the day of the regional schools’ championships and you are representing your county in the 1,500m. You are travelling by coach with the county team, which means an early start. You packed your bag the night before, but you check through it again. Have you a towel? Have you got the right spikes in your shoes? Can you unscrew all the spikes with your spike spanner?

Yesterday was a busy day, so busy that you didn’t have time to run at all. Exams start in a week, and you had to go through a whole set of maths problems as well as finish your history essay. You can’t do much work on a race day, but you pack a history book in your bag as a gesture.

Although you went to bed a bit late you wake early, before the alarm goes off. You have a feeling of calm purpose. It is going to be a good day. You know you’re not going to run until late in the afternoon, so you eat a large breakfast, and take some sandwiches for lunch. You are at the meeting place five minutes ahead of time, and the bus is only five minutes late – another good omen. There are some old friends and rivals in the county team, and you talk about what you’ve been doing since the last championships. Your teammate in the 1,500m did four repetition miles on Wednesday, and you have a moment of doubt about whether you have done enough this week. Yesterday you did nothing, and on Thursday you just did a couple of 400s on the track at race speed – about 64 seconds, which felt easy, and then the coach said to go onto the cricket field and run a dozen smooth 200s with a short recovery. That felt pretty easy too. The only hard session was the three sets of four times 400m on Monday, and that had been a best ever, for average time, in spite of the rain. Thinking of that, you forget your doubts and relax. Then you read through Athletics Weekly and see the times which some people have been running. Still, you can’t do anything about them; it is your own performance you need to concentrate on.

The bus gets to the stadium at noon. The first events are at 1 pm, but your race is scheduled for 5 pm. It’s too earlyfor lunch, and certainly too early to change, so you go for a walk round. ‘Think positively’ the coach said. When you have left your bag and got a programme, you go for a look at the the track surface. It looks fast, you feel the wind and the air temperature. The weather has warmed up and there’s a bit of a breeze, but it’s behind you on the back straight and the stand gives some protection in the home straight. ‘Think positively. This is my chance to win something. Today I don’t have to worry about exams, or the future. I just have to put everything into this race. This is the place for a fast time. There’s going to be a big crowd, and I’m going to show them what I can do.’ A voice of doubt whispers in your ear. ‘What about that big bloke from Gloucester? He’s run a very fast time. What about the one who out-sprinted me in the 800 last year? He might be running.’ The threat just makes you more determined. ‘Whoever they are, I’m going to make this my race, and if they want to beat me they’ll have to run damn hard to do it.’

There’s a lot of time to be filled in, so you take things slowly. You eat your sandwiches and have a cup of coffee at one o’clock, then you sit in the stands, out of the sun, and watch the heats of the hurdles and the 100m. The meeting is running a little late, but some events are being held as straight finals, which will speed it up later on. You check the arrangements for reporting in and warming up.

The first check-in is when you collect your number, and there is a call for runners to report to the starter’s marshal ten minutes before the event.

As the afternoon wears on you can feel the tension buiding up inside you. You get that familiar feeling of wanting to be somewhere else, but you have had enough experience to ignore these tricks of the mind. Think positively. Today is going to be the day. You change an hour before the race, and start your warm-up thirty minutes before. You warm up on the field outside the stadium, doing ten minutes of jogging, then five minutes of gentle stretching, then a couple of easy stride-outs, and then you jog over to the stadium to report in. All this time you have tried to ignore your opponents, but now you are all together in the stadium you can’t do that. The big bloke from Gloucester is there, and so is the 800m runner, as well as several others you don’t know, but who look pretty impressive. Last year you felt scared stiff, but this year it’s different. Suddenly you feel glad that there are some good guys here. It’s going to be a real race whatever happens.

You put on your spikes and do some more striding, then stay loose for the last five minutes while the previous event is being run. Your plan for the race has been talked over and thought about for most of the previous week. You are running to win a title, not to get a time. If someone sets a fast pace, you go with them, but if there is no obvious pacemaker you don’t get forced into doing all the work yourself. If you decide to take over, you do it when you want to.

The gun goes and everyone takes off fast down the back straight; you manage to get into fourth place, just behind the Gloucester man. As you come up the home straight for the first time, the pace slows and you almost fall. Concentrate! Two men move up alongside you, and you stick as closely as possible to the man in front. Someone picks up the pace again, though not very fast, and you are in fifth place. As you come into the home straight for the second time the field is still bunched, and you feel very fresh. With two laps to go you accelerate into the lead and put in a fast 200m, though not flat out. Without looking round you can tell that there are only two or three men still with you. Do you try and burn them off now, or do you slow down and save something for the finish? You have taken charge of the race, so you run it your way. The first part of the race was slow, so you can keep it moving now, to take the sting out of the fast finishers. Coming past the stands you get the cheers of your friends in the crowd.

Concentrate! You have another lap to go yet. You try to relax as much as possible, without slowing down, and try to guess what is happening behind you. If you slow down, someone else might take it over but you would be taking a chance with that 800m man. If anyone was feeling confident, he would have taken over the race earlier. You know you have the strength to put in a fast last 300, because you have been doing that in training. As you come into the back straight, while the men behind you are still strung out around the bend, you put in a second kick, really hard. Ahead of you there is the empty back straight and behind you there is space. You’ve lost them! Concentrate on running well. Relax your shoulders and drive with your arms. Push off hard with the back foot. As you come round the last bend, hug the kerb, lean in slightly, and keep your rhythm. Now you have sixty metres left but the noise of the crowd prevents you from hearing the man behind you, if there is one.You concentrate on that finishing line as if there was nothing else in the world and you keep driving hard until you are past it. That’s it!

You’ve won. You’re a champion.

That was a good day. I have dwelt on this at length because that is what all our training and racing is aimed at. You may do the right training and eat the right food, but you won’t win unless you have an irresistible desire to succeed.

Success is not just looking good in your track suit and helping your team win a match. Success is not just breaking the school record

Success is finding out what sort of person you are and learning to live with yourself. Success is going on and on, moving from strength to strength, enjoying the good times and getting through the bad times. Success means going all the way. It is going to take years, but it is going to be worth it. In running you can say you have succeeded when you have produced your best possible performance in the race which matters most to you. It’s no good having a fast run in a minor competition and not being able to produce it in the championships.

Tom Sharland and Sam Jacobs

What I want to show you is how to gear your training so that you run your best when it matters most.

Running is simple. It is one of the basic human activities. If you can succeed in running you really have succeeded, because it is open to everyone. You can’t buy success, because you can’t depend on having a faster boat or a better pair of skis, or even on playing for the right team. It is up to you – your mind, your body, your character.

The good thing is that, whatever your size, you start on level terms. In running, all you have to do is carry your own body over the distance. Runners come in all sizes. You onIy have to look at a field of world-class distance runners- there is a tremendous difference in physical appearance. Middle distance runners tend to be tall, but Sebastian Coe, the only man to 4 win two Olympic titles at 1,500m, is only 5 feet 9 (1m 72). Paula Radcliffe is at present the world’s outstanding female distance runner, but her physical appearance is little different from hundreds of other British girls. Paul Tergat, world record-holder for the half-marathon, is tall and thin, but he was outsprinted for the Olympic 10,000m by Haile Gebreselassie, who is only five feet three inches (1m 60).

They are, of course, all slim, because hard training makes them that way.

What do all these athletes have in common? It is not size, or age, or style or diet, or coaching, or opportunity, so it can only be a combination of natural ability and the desire to succeed. Even natural ability is hard to define. True, a few athletes like Coe, and Olympic decathlon champion Daley Thompson were brilliant as teenagers, but most of the international stars were not.. How many English Schools champions become Olympians? The