How Students Will Work In Class to Improve/Maintain

Students will work in class each period on improving the aerobic capacity. We will include walking as well as running in our warm-up activities each day.  Aerobic capacity improves with practice; the more practice, the greater the improvement. We will also learn about pacing and splits.

By learning to use even pacing students learn to maintain roughly the same speed throughout the distance they are running/walking. Pacing results in better performance as students will not fatigue as quickly and will build endurance. To learn how to control pace, students will track their "splits."  In other words, we will be timing each lap of a 4 lap mile and will strive to have equal times on all 4 laps.

In addition to practicing how to pace speed, students will also practice pacing effort. With even effort pacing students will try to maintain the same perceived effort level throughout the race. This type of pacing is more appropriate for beginners. Even effort pacing will result in slowing throughout the run/walk due to the perceived effort level rising as you fatigue. This type of pacing will allow students to finish comfortably, but will not result in optimal performance. This is important as students will learn that they can in fact run/walk a mile successfully and will encourage them to continue to excel.