On the evening of Monday 26 October 2009 Stella Bandu (Area Mentor Coach for England Athletics) will give a seminar talk on training for middle distance races – 800m and 1500m.

The talk will focus specific elements and issues for creating and following a periodised training plan specifically targeting 800m/1500m distances. Topics to be addressed include:

Key workouts types, their rationale / purpose and how they progress and change relative emphasis throughout the year
What is appropriate strength & conditioning and use of plyometrics, warm-ups and technique work, again addressing how emphasis changes throughout the year
How to assess individual training needs with use of logs / race tests to tweak training over the year
Goal and season planning – managing timing and maintaining a ‘peak’ given length of the track season, other life commitments, etc.
Use of under / over distance racing in a training plan, including Cross Country racing
*Stella will use examples from training plans of athletes she has coached and draw contrasts between middle distance specificity and other race distances.

*The talk will be targeted assuming an audience focusing on middle distance through the winter leading into and through the track season. However, those with other goals throughout the year in addition to the middle distance during the track season are very welcome and encouraged to attend.

Time: 6:30pm

Location: Civil Servants Sports Club (1 Chadwick Street, Westminster, London SW1P 2EP), Belgravia Room. Find a map here.

Please sign-up on the event planner (here). (The room is only so big so we do need to keep track of numbers. If you’re on the fence please sign-up and remove your name later if you can’t attend.)

Have something specific you would ike covered? Please email me soon with any specific areas / questions you would like addressed and I’ll pass the info to Stella. Questions will of course also be taken on the night.

About the speaker: Stella Bandu, a Level 3 coach Stella works with UKA athletics as an international Team Manager for cross country. She has been a coach for more than 15 years and has coached and advised numerous athletes of international standard. She has also been involved with Kelly Holmes’ On Camp With Kelly project.

Questions? Contact Jen Marzullo.
(trainingrep@serpentine.org.uk)