Coaching Seminars

Serpentine occasionally gets the opportunity to host talks and seminars from leading external coaches. We also have a wealth of experience internally and welcome seminars led by our own coaches and leading athletes.

Future seminars

Triathlon Training Day - Intermediates

27th March 2010

Triathletes who want to step up to Olympic Distance, improve Olympic Distance performance or step up to Middle Distance – no Ironman.

Sign up on Entry Central

Triathlon Training Day - Beginners

10th April 2010

Triathletes who want to do their first triathlon or be more serious about doing triathlons this season.

Sign up on Entry Central

Location

Both training days will be held at Ethos:

Ethos Sports Centre, Imperial College London, 7 Prince's Gardens, South Kensington, London, SW7 2AZ

Saturday Hill Training in Greenwich

Bring some variety to your training, strengthen your legs and lungs – and even make new running friends – by joining in our tough but sociable coached hill session, held close to the start of the London Marathon on Saturday mornings, all year round. Greenwich Park is London's oldest enclosed Royal Park and includes 73 hectares of grassy hills both East and West of the Greenwich Meridian. And there are inspiring views across the Thames towards Canary Wharf, the Millennium Dome and the City of London. This well-maintained park provides an ideal off-road hill training environment. There are ample, clean public toilets, water fountains and a delightful café for post-training refreshments: what more does a runner need?

Where and when?

We gather near our car parked on Blackheath Avenue inside the Park in time to start the warm-up at 10.00am on Saturdays. This is near the Tea House at the top of the main hill near the Royal Observatory (see map below). You can store your gear in the boot at your own risk whilst training. Training is usually over by around 11.30 am. See the Greenwich Park page for full details. Pre-booking for each session is essential. Please sign up using the link on the right.

Aims

We try to provide a challenging and enjoyable session for all standards of runner. If you find yourself being overtaken on hills in road or cross-country races, then these sessions are for you. Even if you never plan to race on hilly courses, hill training makes you faster, stronger and more efficient on the flat. Sebastian Coe, Paula Radcliffe and the Kenyan national squad are all noted for doing lots of hill training!

This type of training builds leg-strength (especially the quadriceps and gluteal muscles – i.e. thighs and buttocks); develops good hill-running technique; strengthens your heart and lungs; increases lactic acid tolerance and – not least – increases your confidence on hills. And it can provide a refreshing change from pavement and track-pounding. You should begin to notice benefits after about 4 sessions.

The sessions are not recommended for new runners, people who don't want to make new friends, and/or those suffering from calf, achilles tendon or plantar fasciitis injuries. If in doubt, ask me for advice (details below).

Click here for results from previous time trials.

What to bring

Bring water or other drinks, fell shoes (ideally), cross-country spikes or your muddiest trainers, and something warm to put on after training. Bring your Heart Rate Monitor too, if you have one.

What to expect

The precise content of the session varies from week to week, but in broad terms you can expect:

1. Social warm-up of around 2 miles jogging, followed by technique drills and strides. Change footwear (although the session can be done in ordinary trainers if you don't mind them getting muddy) and take off warm-up gear.
   
2. After some brief instruction in good hill technique, we do 3 sets of multiple hill efforts, lasting from 8–12 minutes per set with 3–5 minutes jogging between. The aim is to perform as many surges up the hill as you can in the allotted time, jogging back down as your recovery. You should be experiencing lactic acid in your quads and seeing your maximum heart rate on your HRM after 2–3 efforts.
   
3. We aim to mix and match the hills to give plenty of variety and reduce the risk of injury. Some hills are longer (around 200m); others short and steep and a real test of your technique. Sometimes we practice down-hill running, or run relays on the final hill for fun and variety!
   
4. Cool-down jog of up to a mile. Stretch.
   
5. Total distance to write in your training log: about 5.0–6.5 miles. Count it as a speed/strength session.
   
6. Adjourn to the Tea House for chat and refreshments (optional).
7. At roughly 6-weekly intervals, we hold a time trial (click here for previous results ) up The Avenue (about 650m) to enable you to monitor your progress.

Contact details

Telephone: 07970 896440 out of office hours

e-mail: karhan90@btinternet.com

Karen Hancock
UK Athletics Level 3 Coach ("Endurance" and "Children in Athletics")

Click here to read Karen's training articles.

Welfare

Serpentine Running club takes the welfare of its members very seriously.  We are obliged through our affiliation to various governing bodies to implement the policies and procedures that they have established.

Welfare Officer

Serpentine's Welfare Officer is Guy Regis.  We are currently looking for another volunteer, preferably a female, to assist him with these duties.  You can contact Guy by emailing welfare@serpentine.org.uk or calling him on 078 1050 8781.

Guy should be contacted if an issue arises that involves a member's welfare within the club.  This can be either by the individual affected or by another member, coach, captain, committee member as may be the case.  Where action is required the Committee will be consulted.

Policies and Procedures

Affiliating Bodies

UK Athletics

England Athletics

British Triathlon Federation

Serpentine

We will be implementing our own policies and procedures which will appear here in due course.  In the meantime please consult the information above.

Cross Country Championships

Serpentine enters all of the leading Cross Country Championship competitions. These include:

• London Championships
• Middlesex County Championships
• Surrey County Championships
• South of England Championships
• English National Championships

You need to have Serpentine as your first claim club to be able to run for us in these events. Championship events also have various other qualification criteria but generally speaking, we will be able to arrange for you to take part in these races if you want to.

Advance entries are necessary for all Championship events. Entries are co-ordinated on your behalf by the club. We need to submit entries to the race organisers about eight weeks before the race date. Therefore, you will need to contact either Malcolm French or Stephanie Vaatz, the men's and women's Team Managers, at an early date to tell them if you want to run in these events.

English National Championships

These are the high point of the season and the pinnacle of domestic cross country racing. Derek Paterson maintains a record of the club's performances in these championships which youcan download here:

English National Cross Country Statistics

Southern Men's League

The Southern Men's League is the track & field competition for men in the south of England. It stretches from Norfolk to Cornwall and includes many of the strongest athletics teams in the country.

League Structure

• two regional divisions of twenty-five teams (div 1 & 2) with each team competing in six fixtures a season against four other clubs.
• three area divisions of 16 teams each (div 3) with each team competing in five fixtures a season against three other clubs.
• two local divisions of 7 teams each (div 4) with every team competing in each fixture against all the other clubs. 

The season runs from early May to early August. Over the season each club meets all the others in their division.

Serpentine has teams in divisions 2 and 3 of the Southern Men's League. The progress of the men's first team is shown below.

Meetings

Each meeting comprises a full track and field programme (100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, 5000m, 110m hurdles, 400m hurdles, 3000m steeplechase, high jump, long jump, triple jump, pole vault, shot, discus, javelin, hammer, and 4 x 100m and 4 x 400m relay). Each team can have two competitors per event ('A' and 'B' string) and there are separate ('A' and 'B') races for each track event – with the exception of the 1,500 metres, 5,000 metres and steeplechase events where all competitors run together. There are therefore 36 events to cover in an afternoon – which is why we need a good sized squad for each of our teams.

Points scoring is a simple: 5-4-3-2-1 for each event (4-3-2-1 in div 3). The team with the most points wins the fixture. Aggregate points for all the fixtures determine the league position. The top teams are promoted and the bottom teams are relegated at the end of the season with numbers up/down depending on which division.

Every point is valuable and it is therefore important that we enter competitors in every event.

Contacts

If you are interested in participating, please email competition@serpentine.org.uk or contact the team captain, details below.

Men's first team: progress through the Southern League

The Summer League

The 2010 Summer League is an inter-club competition of five races between June and August at various venues around London. It is sometimes referred to as the Sunday League or the London League. The clubs in the league this year are Dulwich Park Runners; Metros, Ealing, Southall and Middlesex; Mornington Chasers; Serpentine; Sudbury Court and Queens Park Harriers.

The main event is a 5 mile or 10km race which covers all standards and is based at a park local to the host club. Following the main event there is a shorter 'tenderfoot' (1.5-2km) race suitable for children, runners returning from injury and runners who prefer to run a shorter distance. Finally there is a series of optional, light hearted, age graded, 300-400m relays, again suitable for all ages and abilities.

There is no need to enter in advance - just turn up on the day in your Serpie vest/shirt, the entry fee is paid by the club. All levels, new and regular runners welcome, although you must be a Serpentine club member. The events are family oriented and many participants bring their children, some of whom participate in the tenderfoot race and/or the relays. 

Lunch, in the form of sandwiches and cakes, is provided by the hosting club. Trophies are awarded at the end of the year for individuals in their age categories based on their best four performances in the five races.

2010 Dates

The dates of the Summer League are also listed in the Serpentine Planner.

Contact

Siobhan Reddy: summerleague@serpentine.org.uk

Tuesday Track Sessions at Battersea - Middle & Long Distance Squad (Full)

Note: On average 20 athletes attend the session on a regular basis. At this stage, I am not in a position to take on any more athletes with the exception of U20 middle distance athletes.

The Tuesday Track Sessions at Battersea Park will prepare athletes for middle distance (800m – 1500m) and long distance (5k-10k) events.

The sessions are lead by UKA qualified coach Urban Bettag and are suitable for experienced club members who want to be competitive on the track or the road. The experienced athlete has been training for a couple of years, done interval training before and has been competing on a regular basis.

Please note: Due to popular demand and limited space, the session is restricted to athletes meeting the following requirements:

• To take part in the session athletes need to compete in long distance (3k/5k/10k) and middle distance (800m/1500) events only. The sessions are not for marathon runners.
  
• To train with the long distance squad athletes need to be able to run 45 minutes (women)/40 minutes (men) for the 10k, 22:30 minutes (women)/19 minutes (men) for the 5k or better to attend these sessions.
• To train with the middle distance squad athletes need to be able to run 5:45 (women)/4:45 (men) for the 1500m or better.
• To work towards a defined goal and have an athlete profile completed.
• To take part on a regular basis.

The sessions will constantly vary depending on the season. For those taking part on regular basis session details are send out a week in advance.

What to expect? A typical training session consists of a warm-up, the main session, cool down and stretching. The main session has a number of training components: Speed/Quickness/Agility, biomechanical work, interval training, general strength exercises and circuit training.

The session starts at 7pm and usually finishes at 8:30pm. The charge is £3.10 for using the changing room and the track facilities.

Please feel free to contact Urban if you have any additional questions.

Testimonials

"Just wanted to drop you a note to say I ran the Harrow Hill 6 miler yesterday - pretty bad conditions with the rain early on! I did it in 45 mins and ended up winning the ladies race and getting 'Queen of the Hill'!! I think the good atheletes didn't show up because of the weather! Anyway, the tough track sessions certainly helped me physically and mentally when it came to the hills (particularly the second time round.) I felt for the first time I properly 'raced' it too which was good! So thank you!" - Melissa, 2010 Harrow Hill Race champion & Queen of the Hill.

"I asked Urban to be my athletics coach following a difficult relationship and fall out with a previous athletics coach. It was refreshing to be coached by Urban following this experience. Urban took the time to establish where I was at as an athlete and lined these up with my athletics goals. Urban then put together a training plan for me that enabled me to rebuild my confidence and fitness following a tough summer competition where I did not achieve any of the goals I set up with my previous coach. Urban did not stop there, he took the time to collaboratively assess what was working with the plan and where we needed to change things around. Urban also facilitated my understanding of why I was doing the training I was doing, inviting me to athletics seminars and recommending reading material. I am about to head back to Australia, where I hope to continue a long distance coaching relationship with Urban and I look forward to sharing my racing and training results with him. I would not hesitate to recommend Urban to anyone that is committed to their athletic goals as Urban will develop you as a total athlete, not just write you a training program and leave you to it! He will take all feedback onboard and work with you to enable you to grow and hopefully achieve the goals you have set!", - Monica

"Thank you Urban for your amazing work this year in planning the weekly sessions. You are a very committed and hard working coach. I enjoyed being witness to your grand journey in reaching the level 3 qualification. Thank you also for the advice you provided before the marathon, which really helped me to have a good race." - Jose, Berlin Marathon 2009, big PB!  

"Thanks so much for the great sessions this year - really enjoyed it a lot, and I am planning to be back early Feb...and feeling confident that things will go even better next year!" - Reinhard

"Due in no small part to your coaching - I was thinking about the head up and running tall, which helped me get through the last few miles." - Sam Allpass, 2:58:15, FLM '08

"I came 24th in the World Triathlon Championships in Vancouver, Canada in my age group with a PB on the 5k leg, helped largely by my Serpie winter training sessions with Urban at Battersea." - Tim Thomas, 1:10:34, ITU World Championships '08 Sprint Distance

"Urban, I met you in mid February on Battersea running track and you gave me some very useful marathon advise and timed me running. I don't know if you remember, I was just starting my training then after 4 years of not running for my first marathon. Just to let you know that I tried to follow your advise, I did a half marathon and tried to have 2 of my 5 weekly runs as slower recovery runs. Anyway I get the marathon on Sunday in 2:49 which I was very happy with as it was below my 3 hour target just seemed very ambitious in when I met you. I did also join the Serpentine running club though have only been able to make it to one Wednesday run to date! I'm hopefully going to try and continue running and maybe train for some shorter races in future. Very many thanks, your advise was definitely very useful and hope you're well." - Greg Allen, marathon debut in 2:49:18 (12th fastest Serpie), FLM '09

"Urban - big thank you. Finally sub 20' 5k... For sure your Battersea Park sessions played a major role.", Giovanni Russo

"New PB! 15:41 so over 30 seconds off. Your Tuesday sessions have contributed so many thanks.", Paul Hayman

"Coach! Have to thank you as I just got a PB in the 800m 2:33.9! Thanks again!", Marielle Westlund

"Thanks again for the coaching sessions, they are a highlight in my sporting week.", Crossley

"Thanks a lot Urban, and thanks for your coaching through out the summer. I realised that track sessions not only make me faster and stronger, they help me to keep focus on my targets.", Claudio

"Thanks Urban for your well structured and well prepared training sessions. The Tuesday sessions helped me in many ways and as a result I had a very good summer in terms of PBs and avoiding injuries. Many many thanks indeed." Abdulrashid Abdi, sub 17 5k.

"Just thought I'd let you know I ran 11.5 miles in 100 minutes the other day, which is about 8.45/mile - this is more than a minute faster than what I was running in October when I did my marathon, and will reduce my marathon time by about half an hour if I can maintain it for the distance.  It wasn't even that hard. Hurrah for track!", Meghann, avid runner.

Tuesday Interval Sessions at the Dome

On Tuesday evenings we hold an interval session for distance runners along the flat and fast riverside path near the O2 (formerly known as "The Dome") on the Greenwich peninsula.

Coaching is by Karen Hancock 

Over the winter the session will be at lactate threshold (LT) pace to help you improve your speed-endurance. As Spring approaches we will start to introduce a little more speed to help sharpen you up for the spring racing season. Combined with a broad endurance base, this type of training will make you a faster runner at distances from 10k to marathon.

Where and when?

We meet at 7:00pm on the Thames Path near the high flats in the Millennium village, about a 3/4 mile walk/jog East from North Greenwich tube station. Phone me if you need guidance on the day. Please arrive in warm-ups/ready to run and make sure to bring your own stopwatch. A stopwatch with a multiple lap timer would be ideal for these sessions. See the Dome page for further details. Please book online if you would like to attend, as I need to limit numbers of health and safety reasons. The sessions have become very popular, and we only take bookings up to 7 days before each session; no block booking is allowed. Please remove your name if you change your plans to free up your spot for others.

Who are the sessions for?

The sessions are targeted at endurance runners and triathletes who take part in running events throughout the year on any type of surface. Ideally, you should have built up a good base of stamina and endurance before you start to introduce faster-paced work. LT work is the best form of speed training to do over the winter to supplement your aerobic conditioning work before you start to sharpen up your speed after the New Year in preparation for your spring target races. If you are in doubt, get in touch with Karen.

What is the format of the sessions?

The sessions last about one hour and consist of a 1/2-mile jog warm-up, around 30-40 minutes'-worth of repetitions, and a cool-down 1/2 mile jog. Because of time constraints we cannot include work on technique/drills. We cover around 6 miles in total in these sessions (including warm-up/cool-down). Future sessions are shown below.

The purpose of the sessions in winter is to increase your lactate threshold – i.e. the pace at which you start to experience accumulation of lactate in your tissues. Push up your LT and you will find your race pace at all distances from 10k and upwards improves (when combined with improving your endurance). An additional benefit of the sessions is that they teach you good pace judgement.

How do I know what my lactate threshold pace is now?

There are 3 ways:

By perceived effort:

"A hard but sustainable effort" – about the level of effort you would expect in a race lasting about 60 mins (between 10 mile and 10k pace for most people). It should feel "comfortably hard", but you need to concentrate to keep it going.

By Heart Rate Monitor:

Most people's LT if they have a good endurance base will be in the region of 85-90% of their Maximum Heart Rate (MHR) pace. Less well-trained runners will find their LT nearer to 80% of their MHR.

From a recent race performance:

If you use a Garmin or other SDM for training, you can be more precise about the pace you need to achieve in these sessions by putting a recent race performance into a calculator: the pace you want is described as "tempo intervals."

Sessions until London Marathon 2010

Tuesday Track Sessions at New River Stadium

Coach David Chalfen offers weekly sessions on Tuesday evenings at New River Stadium in Wood Green.

Note: you ideally need to run around 41 minutes for 10k or better to attend these sessions.

David will be at the track from 7.00pm. The reps will start at 7.20pm prompt and runners are expected to do their own warm up to be ready for this. David can advise on warm up structure/duration.

What to expect

The sessions are mostly at 3k to 5k pace, occasionally at 1500m pace with some longer stints at about 10k pace. Expect to run between 6k and 8.5k of hard efforts, with a fairly short recovery, in the region of about 40 secs per 400m of effort. This 3k/5k pace is applicable for most of the year for endurance distances from 800m/1500m to marathon - and it's what you do on the other 6 days per week season by season that adds to the event-specificity. "That's why I rarely use quicker than 3k pace - that can be done at a different session when appropriate", says David.

David splits the group to ensure that the less speedy get a short recovery rather than veering towards zero recovery if they are working to the timetable of the front of the first group. Slower than about 41 minutes for 10k it's hard to accommodate a meaningful session as this then requires a 3rd sub-group which is too much for 1 coach to manage. Sometimes sessions are done by time rather than distance so everyone can run as one group eg 6 x 4 mins at 5k pace, 90 sec jog/regroup.

Runners are encouraged to run the reps at even pace and David will sometimes task runners with a last lap pick up to guard against the trend of slowing down during each rep. Runners are also discouraged from opting in and out of reps to maintain a higher speed, partly as this is unhelpful to those who are doing the full session and partly because it just makes it a different session for them compared to what it's meant to be.

The reps are usually done in 35 to 40 minutes followed by a warm down either at the track, or by jogging home or to the tube.

David strongly advises against coming to the Tuesday session if you have raced further than about 10k on the Sunday (i.e. two days before) as this will just delay recovery and increase injury/illness risk. In such cases, and subject to individual plans etc., it is advised to wait until Thursday or Friday and do the session elsewhere.

New River sessions Spring 2010

Sessions up to 13 April are suitable for people doing XC; Road races and VLM.

After this date I wouldn’t expect to see VLM runners back until about 4th week of May. The sessions for this period will instead focus on some running at 1500m speed, +/- for athletes who are looking to race 1500 to 5k type events over the early part of the summer. The sessions would also be suitable for 10k road runners subject to what training is going on on the other days.

• As always, it'll be what you do in the other running sessions each week/month/quarter that will contribute to the overall thrust of your training, these reps are just one component.
• These sessions are pretty hard so whatever volume of running you plan on the preceding and following days, it should be easy or steady paced
• You are unlikely to get the most benefit by doing more than one of these sessions per week so if you come along on a Tuesday,ensure that your other harder running challenges different levels of intensity.
• As always, the sessions can be adapted for runners with different levels of fitness so that the 32 minute 10k runner is challenged in the same way as a 42 minute 10k runner.
• Please don't come on Tuesday if you've raced further than 10k on the Sunday - instead try the session on the Weds/Thurs/Fri when more fully recovered.
• After a marathon I'd recommend about 4 weeks before you should get back into this sort of session, having had about two weeks back into some easy/steady running. 

The reps themselves will start at 7.20 prompt and everyone should be warmed up along the lines of:

• 10-15 minutes easy running starting with a very slow 5 minutes jog
• 3 or 4 x 15-20 second strides at about the fastest pace that the reps will be carried out at
• A few short technical drills through the speed ladder that can over time help to improve your running efficiency (it's not intended just as a piece of track furniture)
  

Please don't use spikes for these sessions - normal trainers will be fine, I'd recommend the extra protection in favour of the slight extra speed. The only exception will be during winter when the track surface may freeze up slightly - an annoying quirk is that water on a Mondo track seems to freeze at about + 3 Celsius.

At the risk of becoming a nagging mother hen, recovery from these sessions will be quicker if you bring along some sort of snack, carbo/protein mix, about 300/400 calories worth, for after the warm down, as I know some of the regulars have a long journey home.

Weekly Training Sessions