1. Injury Prevention Through
Training Design
Matt Gittermann
Head Cross Country Coach
Assistant Track Coach
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
gmatt@umbc.edu
410-218-1551
2. Topics:
• Taking You Athletes into Consideration
• Injuries Related to Training Design
• Theory of Supercompensation
• Importance of Summer Training
• High School Volume Progressions
• Weekly Stress/Recovery Cycles
• Season Stress/Recovery Cycles
• Yearly Stress/Recovery Cycles
• Individualize Your Training
• Training Design: Planning vs. Stream of Consciousness
• Athlete Centered Training and Flexibility
• Proper Warm-Ups
• General Training Tips
3. Your Athletes:
Considerations:
- Males versus Females
- Actual Age: 13 years – 19 years
- Training Age: No experience to Youth
Runner
- Maturity Age: Prepubescent to Adult
- Background and Home Life
4. Injuries Related to Training Design
• Lack of anatomical adaptations due to
lack of low intensity, higher volume
base work
• Improper progression of volume (i.e.
too much too soon or not enough)
• Improper progression of intensity (i.e.
too much too soon)
• Improper recovery after
stress/workout/race
5. Theory of Supercompensation
• Basis of all training:
– Training stresses your body in order to create
minute damage
– Your body does not like damage so it creates
adaptations to minimize damage should the
stressors return
– These adaptations do not return the body to
its original levels but higher ones
– Training = destruction, recovery =
construction
6. Theory of Supercompensation
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
-2
-1.5
-1
-0.5
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
Days in Microcycle
Supercompensation vs. Improper Loading
Initial Fitness
Improper Loading
Supercompensation
7. Summer Training
• Time of low intensity stressors and
building volume
• A general strength building time where
ligaments, tendons, and muscles grow
stronger
• More volume does more good than more
intensity
• Take the whole summer to build to at least
the max volume you want to have during
the season
8. High School Volume Progressions
- Examples of mileage peaks for
some top 3 finishers at the state
meet over the past couple years
Miles Per Week
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
You will get results
here but at what cost.
High risk = high
reward. Future?
9. So how much volume?
• Depends on your kids and what they have
done in the past (just get them to run)
• My suggestion would be:
Year 1 2 3 4 Exceptionals
Max
Mileage
20 miles 30 miles 40 miles 50 miles 60 miles
• Toughest part is getting your kids to run
that much
• Any more you begin to limit what they can
do at the next level, do so with caution
10. Points of References
• UMBC: 60 mi./75 mi./80 mi./90 mi. for the men
and 50 mi./65 mi./80 mi./90 mi. for the women
• Colorado: Peak men at about 120 miles
• Majority of programs work between 80 and 90,
some peak at 50 to 60
• Mammoth Lake Marathon Group: consistent 80-
90 miles a week
• Salazar’s Group: Over a 100 miles
• Typical Kenyan Training: 100 miles to 140 miles
• Gerry Lindgren: 300+ miles per week
11. Weekly Stress/Recovery Cycle:
• General Rule of Thumb: Stress one
day, recovery the next day (possibly
more depending on the level of the
stressor)
• Possibly could do two hard days if
they stress two totally different
systems (lactic threshold followed by
anaerobic glycolytic, mostly done with
800m runners)
12. Weekly Cycle
Non-Meet Week:
Day Sun. Mon. Tues. Wed. Thurs. Fri. Sat.
Stimuli Off Workout Recovery
Run
Long Run Workout Recovery
Run
Long Run
Competition Week:
Day Sun. Mon. Tues. Wed. Thurs. Fri. Sat.
Stimuli Off Workout Recovery
Run
Workout or
Meet
Recovery
Run
Recovery
Run
Meet
13. Season Stress/Recovery
• Two factors: Volume vs. Intensity
• Volume hits max first then drops
at end
• Intensity gradually increases till
end
• Do not increase both at the same
time!
15. Season Stress/Recovery Cycle
• Two weeks high and one week
low
• Slow build up to max volume
• Intensity builds after volume
• Where intensity crosses volume is
where you will have injuries
17. Yearly Stress/Recovery Cycle
• As a coach you must decide what
seasons do you emphasize
• Build in transition or down time in
between seasons
• Can you go hard all three and be
successful?
19. Individualize Your Training
• You will need to adjust volume and intensity for
each athlete rather than blanket realms
• Training paces must be based on current fitness
(therefore, for “in-shape” kids, you must perform
a fitness test early on to gauge fitness)
• For non-summer runners, a month of
increasingly longer runs should be the only form
of training (big gains will be seen)
• 1.5 mile, 10 minute, and 2 mile Time Trials work
the best (kids can fake a mile)
20. Using Time Trials and Race Times
• Provides up to date data in
regards to athlete fitness, thus
allows for appropriate loading
• Kid runs 10 minute two mile time
trial, therefore his vVO2 is roughly
5 min/mile or 1:15/400m
23. Mileage vs. Minutes
• Volume can be determined by miles or
minutes
• However, adaptations happen as a result
of time rather than distance
• Examples:
– Varsity HS Boy: 70 minutes = 10 miles
– JV HS Girl: 70 minutes = 6-7 miles
– Both received an equal stress in regards to
anatomical adaptations
– If you had assigned 10 miles instead of minutes, the
JV girl would have ran ~140 minutes
24. How much volume per workout?
• Rules of Thumb:
– Long, long run: 20% of weekly volume at
conversation pace
– AT Run: 15% of weekly volume, between LT
and Long Run Pace
– Workouts: 8% of weekly volume
– Recovery runs fill the rest
– Fast anaerobic work, will be less than 8%
25. Example of Weekly Breakdown:
• Equal mileage on a week of 50 miles
• 50 minutes more for women
26. Training Design:
• Are you a planner or a stream of
consciousness designer?
• How far in advance do you design
workouts?
• Do you plan the entire year? Season? Just
a day at a time?
• What is the purpose of everyday?
• How flexible are you to change your
plans?
27. Training Design
• If you are not planning on a long term
scale you can not clearly see you
stress/recovery cycle
• For everyday ask yourself, “What is
the purpose or goal of this workout?”
• Do not be afraid to change your plans
or end workouts early
• Don’t mimic others exactly; analyze,
adapt, then apply
28. Proper Warm-Ups
• Classic Warm-up: 800m jog followed
by static stretching
• Jog 10-15 minutes in order to ensure
all body systems that need to be
working are and those that shouldn’t
are shut down
• Dynamic vs. Static stretching: No
difference in performance till you
reach sprinting speeds
30. Summary Points
• Training is the destructive phase,
recovery is the constructive phase
• Be flexible in your training plans,
day to day, kid to kid
• Plan everything out as a basis,
then change as you go
