Meet Your Coach... JACK SINGER

EVERY RUNNER HE WORKS WITH ACHIEVES EARLY AND ON-GOING IMPROVEMENT.    He balances quality, research-based training sessions with building total, all-round body power/endurance, coupled with constant development of personality-enriching confidence and indomitable conviction.

Record of Achievement

JACK SINGER (born 3rd Nov. 1944) 4 mins. 5.3 secs. (1500 metres, 1968) 2 hours 47 mins. (Abingdon Marathon, 1985) - debut marathon at age 40 55 mins. 35 secs. (10 miles, Welwyn Garden City, 1985) 74 mins. 31 secs. (Half Marathon, Bournemouth, 1987) 2 hours 39 mins. (London Marathon, 1987) 34 mins. 37 secs. (10k, Aberdeen, 1987) Jack has spent more than 25 years coaching himself and others.  He looks for the commitment in others that he requires from himself.  Whatever their standard or running distance, he will take them today, analyse their strengths and weaknesses and, with them, develop a programme that takes them to performances beyond expectation. He last broke 60 minutes for 10 miles at the Bishops Stortford 10 in November, 1996, at the age of 52, and last broke 3 hours at the London Marathon (2 hours 49 mins.) in 1992. His coaching goes back to 1967, when, as a Physical Education teacher in Hackney, he built successive basketball teams over 20 years, which became London, National Individual Schools and National County champions. Six of his players have played for England Men; five earn a living from basketball today.  One was the first British player signed in the NBA (LA Lakers in the mid-1980s) – Steve Bucknall - and Ronnie Baker is the all-time most capped England Men’s player. Jack brings wide knowledge of running theory and practice, coaching principles, running technique, physiology and allied disciplines, such as the psychology of achievement, and, in doing so, gets the very best results possible with his runners in the time they have available. He is married to June and they live in Oakwood, North London.  They have two adult children.   The photograph shows Jack at the Slough half-marathon on September 1st 1996, when he ran 1 hour 27 mins. 32 secs. (4th MV50).   The London Marathon – April 1987 (My Story) I awoke at 5.31 a.m. in time to turn off the alarms on the two watches by my bedside.  The Big Day had arrived.  After dressing into kit and having breakfast, my last food before the race, I said my good-byes to the family, who were stirring, aware of the importance of this day to me.  They could hardly have missed it, as I’d talked about nothing else for the previous seven months, as well as appearing always to be coming in from or going out on a training run... Download his best Marathon story and read on...... JACK'S WINTER RUNNING PROGRAMME 2009     TUESDAYS (5k race pace  - or faster)   i)                    Super Sets (200 metres very fast, followed (without stopping, just slowing) by 400m @5k pace; up to same time recovery.   The purpose of this session is to teach the body how to deal with the effects of lactic acid, caused by the very fast stride.  This results in an increase in the ability of the muscles to take up and use oxygen (VO2 max.), an increase in the speed you can race at before the rising level of lactic acid has a limiting effect (a higher lactate threshold) and greater running economy.   ii)                   Threshold Reps (2 mins. – 4 mins. – 6 mins.; 2 mins. recovery between each rep; target 3 sets).  From what you can manage the first session, try to add one more rep every one or two weeks.   The purpose of this session is to get you running much faster than ever before and learning to hold on.  The shorter 2’ rep tempts you to 400m-type pace.  Then, the 4’ rep keeps you running fast but pacing yourself, whilst 6’ feels like endurance only.  However, you are revving the body to run at a much faster pace than you may have trained at before with the result that you can race more comfortably at a faster pace than previously.   iii)                 Mile Reps (3  - 6 x 1 mile; up to 2 minutes’ recovery)     With decreasing recovery over the weeks of this session, you are training the body to race at a fast pace with only a short recovery.  It helps to prepare you for racing faster when there is no rest opportunity.                                 ********************************   THURSDAYS (10k race pace)   Week 1: 4-mile Time Trial.  On week 1 of each month, you race yourself over the same course, running the same time as you did for the first occasion.  However, with increasing fitness, you find that you are able to go further in the same time.  This is greatly motivating.   Week 2: 2 miles slow; 2 miles steady pace; 2 miles very fast.  Without stopping, you move through increasing paces to reach maximum speed, having already run 4 miles.  What effect do you think this will have on your races?  Over each month’s cycle, we aim to increase one of the three constituents by, say, one mile.  This could mean a session of 3 – 3 – 3 by the end of the winter.     Week 3: 10 mins. @ 10k race pace; 2 – 4 mins. recovery; 10 mins. @ 10k race pace.  This is an endurance session where you need to constantly monitor your pace: go too fast and you’ll overcook it and be forced to slow right up to recover; go too conservatively and you will have missed the big advantage this session can bring.   With each new month’s cycle, we can add 5 minutes to one of the two reps, so that the final sessions at the end of the winter might be 20 mins., recovery, then 15 mins.                                         *******************************************   Week 4: Recovery Week.  This is a “free” week, which is unstructured.  Physically and psychologically, it allows you to “re-create yourself”, whilst still running but at a lesser intensity.                                       ********************************************               SATURDAYS:  Hills.   Short Hills (up to, say, 100/120 metres): explosive, fast and punchy.  This is an anaerobic (without oxygen or oxygen debt-incurring) session.  Jog down to the next hill.   Long Hills  (I prefer them in pairs; one that takes about 1 – 1.5 mins. and is faster than x-c race pace/ 5miles, and the second that takes up to 4 mins. and is, maybe, race pace.)   Continuous Hills (like 3 x 10-15 mins. on the hilly, Oakwood side of Trent Park).   A ratio of 4 sessions of the Continuous Hills to 2 of the other two (Short Hills and Long Hills) most closely replicates the continuous running demands of a cross-country race.                                                   *********************************************     PRINCIPLES     Progression: we start from where You are (your present level of fitness).  We won’t put pressure on you to perform; we’d like that to come from you.  We’ll try to monitor your progress to try to reduce the chances of over-training.   Training is stressing the body with just more than is comfortable, easing off to allow the body to recover and then repeating the process.  All these training dosages will be increased progressively through the winter.   Overload: by running harder/faster than normal, you overload the body’s systems.  Provided you then allow sufficient recovery, the body bounces back for more.  Over time, you find that you can take more than previously – improvement.   Recovery: you need to find how much recovery you need personally before you’re fresh enough to put the body under pressure again.  Provided you are getting enough sleep for you and there are no unusual pressures in your outside life, then you should be ready to train hard on a Thursday following Tuesday’s session.   Confidence: we believe there’s nothing so motivationally powerful as suddenly having a breakthrough, of achieving a PB or just running along freely and almost effortlessly compared to previously.  When you experience that, you’ll want more.   Quality: pushing yourself into new territory, by which we mean testing yourself at ever-faster speeds, creates new neuro-muscular pathways that, in time, change your running physiology and make you a faster runner.  It takes courage and an acceptance of pain but nobody knows how far that can transform you.   Time for Results to Show Through:  it takes 4  - 6 weeks for a programme of training to begin to show results.  Have patience and confidence: we’ve done this for many runners.   Enjoy the process.  It is always exciting and we will all share in your triumphs and success, especially your coach/group leader. TO START YOUR ONE-MONTH FREE TRIAL, FILL IN THE PERSONAL DETAILS QUESTIONNAIRE ON THE "QUESTIONNAIRE" PAGE AND CLICK ON: "SUBMIT".

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