Singapore runners bound for this year's Sydney Marathon will have the support of science backed marathon and endurance sport coaching, thanks to a collaboration with Elevate Performance
Singapore runners who are bound for this year's Sydney Marathon presented by ASICS can consider themselves fortunate to be able to have access to professional coaching services for marathon and endurance sport training, thanks to a partnership with Elevate Performance Coaching that was established earlier this year with Sydney Marathon Singapore Chapter with SportPlus.sg.
As part of the collaboration with Sydney Marathon, 10 lucky contest winners won sponsored slots to join a specially structured and customised training program for Sydney Marathon with Elevate Performance Coaching's track squad, while all Sydney Marathon bound Singapore runners are also invited to join the Sydney Marathon Coaching Clinic's track sessions on the first Thursday of every month pro bono.
Speaking at the launch of the Sydney Marathon Coaching Clinic with SportPlus.sg, Arthur Tong, founder of Elevate Performance Coaching shared that his team uses science-backed coaching methods to ensure every trainee and participant receives the right data to make informed choices for their training blocks.
This is essential in order for the participants to reap the maximum benefit from any marathon coaching program.
Said Arthur: "A lot of our athletes here who are joining us will have to do a benchmarking tests first so that we are able to measure where their fitness levels are at, so that we can seed them in the correct groupings for them to execute the interval runs at their ability levels."
He was speaking in reference to the wide array of runners who are participating in the Sydney Marathon Coaching Clinic, who come from different backgrounds and possess varying levels of fitness.
"For our track squad, uniquely for our Sydney Marathon runners, they will first need to do a 1600m time trial - so four laps around the track, to establish how quick they can run over shorter distances."
The initial 1600m time trial is not the only time participants will need to execute a time trial over the course of the 16 weeks leading up to 15 September, Sydney Marathon's race day.
"They will also be doing 5km time trials or also something commonly known as CP20 - Critical Pace 20 to find out with a few tests where their theoretical threshold heart rates are, so that for longer runs we can better prescribe their pace and the heart rates for them to follow," added Arthur.
"Last but not least once they are starting to build the endurance we will go as much as a 10km time trial to see how their endurance abilities are."
Neyton Tan, Track Squad Coach at Elevate Performance Coaching emphasised on the importance of correct form while running and explained why his team places a huge emphasis on warm-up drills - taking up as much time as 20-25 minutes each session to get trainees into the right physical and mental state to take on their prescribed menus for the day.
"Typically when we start off the session we'll do our warm up drills - we spend about 20-25 minutes doing the warm-ups."
"Warming up properly really does make sure the athletes are ready for the workout, and we also see that it helps to prevent injuries through a correction of their form," said Neyton.
"So if they do their running drills correctly, you'll notice that it's actually a breakdown of a running motion."
"So through each running motion, if we have to break it down scientifically there are six main areas and once you take each of the steps and break them down, you'll notice that our drills are broken down in the six different areas. This will help them with form correction and understand where they require tweaking in their runs."
Sze Yi Aw, one of the ten winners of the Sydney Marathon Coaching Clinic have found the program to be greatly beneficial for her.
Although she wouldn't consider herself as new to running, she had never previously been exposed to proper coaching or structured training.
Sze Yi shared: "I wouldn't say I'm not a seasoned runner, but definitely not professional and not an elite runner."
"So I don't have any structured training programme usually. And this is the first time I am doing something so scientifically structured."
The Sydney Marathon Coaching Clinic will continue to run till early September. All Sydney Marathon bound runners residing in Singapore can join the program on the first Thursday of every month at MOE Evans Stadium, 6.45pm.
Signed up for the Sydney Marathon? Find out what special discount and benefits you are entitled to at our partners page here. #SydneyMarathon #MakeSydneyAMajor #ElevatePerformanceCoaching
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