Norman Poole’s fantastic new 800m and 1500m coaching book

Are you in the early stages of your middle-distance coaching career, or are you an established coach or senior athlete, looking for new ideas for how to structure your training on an annual basis and be at a peak for a particular championship? If so, this is the book for you.

 An early chapter shows how you can determine where an individual athlete sits in the 400/800, 800 and 800/1500 classifications and distinguishes differences in the major training characteristics of these middle-distance types. Following chapters detail training routines, developed over many years, for these various athlete types plus detailed coaching notes for them at each critical stage of the training and competition year. These are notes based on coach observations of training sessions and feedback from athletes and how individual sessions can be modified to keep athletes on the path of performance progress.

 Various other chapters detail analyses of UK and World performance data to help answer such questions as:

•  How do we define the strengths and weaknesses of individual middle-distance athletes?
• How do maximal sprint speed (MSS) and maximal aerobic speed (MAS) influence 800m performance?
• How do 800m speed and 5k speed influence 1500m performance?
• What type of lap pacing corresponds with 800m and 1500m PB and SB performances?
• How many races correspond with outdoor season’s best times for 800m and 1500m and can racing indoors during the previous indoor season influence this?
• How does the early pace of 800m and 1500m races at Major Games, influence the pace of the closing stages of these races and how can this information assist pre-championship training plans?

     Norman has combined his long experience of coaching many UK national medallists and internationals with extensive research to produce a highly informative study of 800m and 1500m running which should be essential reading for all athletes and coaches. Norman’s evidence based approach to training planning is the most comprehensive I have ever seen in meeting the individual needs of all middle-distance athletes.

Tim Brennan, Chairman, British Milers Club

Norman was an active athlete between ages 15-23 years when his career was cut short by Lyme disease. He achieved a PB of 4:04.0 for 1 mile in a BMC race, which ranked number 15 in the UK in 1972.

Norman started coaching in 1977 whilst recovering from Lyme disease and achieved first major games finalist with Diane Modahl in the W800 at the…