THERE’S NOTHING LIKE some mutual suffering to unite a group of athletes.
However, the sports science employed at Ireland’s Institute of Sport has made one element of training a little less enjoyable for Natalya Coyle and Arthur Lanigan-O’Keefe.
There was a time when Ireland’s two leading modern pentathletes – who train for 3200 metres interspersed with shooting – could join up for a cross country run and benefit from an extra bit of moral support.
No more. The physical testing on the athletes has laid out tailor-made training plans, designed for maximum effect in minimal time for people who must also work swimming, shooting, fencing, show-jumping and plenty of rest into their weekly schedule.
“Runners can run, a lot, all the time,” says Lanigan-O’Keefe after a round of shooting in Penthathlon Ireland’s base, ”but in pentathlon we’ve only got so many runs a week so we need to make sure we’re hitting all the zones we need to be hitting – smart training,”
The weekly plan for these athletes involves five sessions of running, each with specific targets to develop aerobic [roughly identified by the ability to talk while exercising] and anaerobic [intense exercise] capacities.
“Some sessions are set up to develop your aerobic threshold, so we don’t want to be running too fast. You’ve got a set pace you need to stay at, heart rate you need to stay at and it means you’re developing that side.
“That means when you go to the track you’re working on the other [anaerobic] base – it makes sure you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing all the time. It stops you from slacking off.”
There’s little danger of that this week with Lanigan-O’Keefe one of the five-strong team heading to this week’s World Championships in Warsaw.
It’s Coyle who will lead the team into today’s women’s qualification round though, hoping to improve on her Olympic ninth place. Or indeed replicate her mixed relay medal at last year’s World Cup in the individual tournament.
She explains: “In earlier years me and Arthur might have gone for a long jog together.
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“Whereas now we know that Arthur’s heart rate is a lot lower than mine in different zones. So if I run with him I’d put it [her heart rate] too high and if he ran with me his heart rate would be too low.
“The lone rangers,” she jokes, “but it is very good and you notice a very big difference in yourself developing as an athlete.”
Jenny McGeever, Sive Brassil and Kate Coleman-Lenehan will join Coyle in action at the Modern Pentathlon World Championships today, with Lanigan-O’Keefe taking on the five disciplines tomorrow. You can watch it live, here.
