Discover tools, technologies, and methods for tracking your fitness and training in a safe, sustainable, and successful way.

  • Duration

    3 weeks
  • Weekly study

    2 hours
  • 100% online

    How it works
  • Included in an ExpertTrack

    Course 2 of 3
  • Get full ExpertTrack access

    $39/monthFind out more

Track your endurance with Federation University Australia

If you’re in the process of preparing for an endurance event, you need to be able to quantify your progress. Monitoring your performance and measuring your fitness will help you train more safely and sustainably.

On this second of three endurance courses from Federation University Australia, you’ll learn how to identify your needs, look after your body, and avoid overstretching yourself.

Learn how to harness training data to measure your fitness

You’ll start with an introduction to data collection and analysis.

Exploring a range of monitoring methods and strategies, you’ll learn how to measure your fitness, generate training data, and analyse your results to define your training plan.

Understand the importance of recovery in endurance training

Allowing yourself time for rest and recovery will help you progress faster and prevent overtraining.

In Week 2 of the course, you’ll master the principles of recovery, and learn how to assess when enough rest is enough.

Explore the role of resistance training in injury prevention

The benefits of resistance training are numerous: building muscular strength and bone density, protecting joints from injury, bringing balance to your fitness programme.

In the last week of the course, you’ll understand how incorporating resistance training could reduce the risk of injury and ensure you meet your fitness goals.

With this knowledge, you’ll be prepared to complete the third and final course of the track.

Skip to 0 minutes and 0 seconds (upbeat music)

Skip to 0 minutes and 14 seconds Welcome to Strength and Conditioning for the Endurance Athlete. I’m Dr. Scott Talpey, I’m a senior lecturer in strength and conditioning at Federation University, and I’m excited to go on a journey with you through our courses that will help you prepare your own training as an endurance athlete or prepare the training for an endurance athlete that you coach. Endurance athletes come in all shapes and sizes. Some people could be getting on a bike to train for their own 100K bike ride. Others could be training for their first 5K ever. However, there’s certain principles that underline the design of any training program, whether you’re an elite athlete or you’re helping an elite athlete, or you’re helping someone just kickstart their endurance journey.

Skip to 0 minutes and 50 seconds We’re gonna go through each of those principles. We’re gonna help you outline how to plan and periodize and set goals for these endurance athletes to keep them performing at their optimal level and also keep them healthy, happy, injury free, and enjoying their training. Kickstart Your Endurance Training is a course where we focus on goal setting. We look to set appropriate training goals for both long-term and short-term needs. We also look at appropriate training plans and periodization for the endurance athlete.

Skip to 1 minute and 18 seconds Ultimately, the goal is for you to be able to write appropriate goals and plan an appropriate training program that gets you or the athletes you coach at the highest level possible while also keeping them injury free and healthy and happy. Measuring your endurance training success is gonna help you utilize all those tools and that technology that you have on your bike or on your wrist to make sure that you’re using that information to inform your training program.

Skip to 1 minute and 43 seconds We use that data that we collect to measure how we’re tracking towards our goals, but also to make sure that we’re planning appropriate rest and recovery and adequate stress to our body to make sure that we’re performing at our highest level while also mitigating any risk of injury that may occur as a result of all the training that we’re doing for your endurance event. Sustaining your endurance training, we take a deep dive into how we stay motivated and how we balance out the stress and fatigue that’s associated with all the training that you’re doing along with the stress associated with your everyday life. We also look at the differences in different types of athletes.

Skip to 2 minutes and 18 seconds We look at older athletes compared to younger athletes and why we train them differently. Now let’s get moving with your endurance training.

Syllabus

  • Week 1

    Monitoring and understanding the data

    • Measuring your endurance

      Welcome to the 'Measure your endurance training' online course. In this course, we take an in-depth look at the benefits of monitoring your training routine to achieve your goals and hit those performance targets.

    • Identifying and using your training data

      We look at how, through using monitoring and evaluation techniques, your training program can be further improved to generate beneficial results.

    • Training wrap-up

      Through monitoring our training, we can find improvements and exercises that yield more ideal benefits. Implementing these vital changes will provide more effective adaptations for the athlete's physical growth.

  • Week 2

    Recovery principles & practices

    • Importance of rest and recovery

      Training your body isn't everything to endurance training; your body needs rest and recovery applied if you are to see the best results. We look at how implementing recovery can help further develop an athlete's physical ability.

    • Achieving a healthy balance

      Your body develops through physical adaptation to stimuli, but it also requires rest and recovery. We look at the strategies and methods that one can employ to achieve ideal benefits.

    • Take care of yourself

      Your wellbeing is of paramount importance regardless of your training ambitions or goals. Finding that balance between rest and training is essential if you are to reach your goals.

  • Week 3

    Resistance training & injury prevention

    • Reviewing your approach to training

      Through reviewing your training program, the goal is to find ways to not only improve your physical performance but to also reduce the risks encountered by the athlete through training.

    • Avoiding injury and reducing risks

      Ensuring the athlete remains fit and healthy should remain a priority. Knowing what practices are effective, and which ones to avoid, is vital for any athlete or coach.

    • Bringing it all together

      Through a better understanding of how the human body reacts to physical stimuli, a more effective approach to training can be achieved. The goal is, as always, to look after the athlete while hitting goals.

Prove you're job ready

Highlight the new, job-relevant skills you’ve gained and supplement existing qualifications with a hard-earned, industry-specific digital certificate – plus one for every course within your ExpertTrack.

  • Learn the latest in your chosen industry or subject.
  • Complete each course and pass assessments.
  • Receive certificates validated by the educating organisation.
  • Impress employers with learning outcomes you can add to your CV.
  • Make your career dreams a reality.

Download a PDF

Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Explore endurance training methodology.
  • Explore monitoring tools and the basics of statistics.
  • Identify principles that will assist with recovery.
  • Practice the exercises most appropriate for an endurance athlete.
  • Identify technologies and methodologies used to monitor endurance training.
  • Describe the variables that inform training program development.
  • Evaluate the importance of resistance training for enhancing performance and preventing injuries in endurance athletes.
  • Apply endurance methodologies to training plans.

Who is the course for?

This course is designed for amateur athletes hoping to expand their knowledge of sports science and personal training in preparation for an endurance event, or for aspiring coaches looking to develop the necessary expertise.

Whether you’re just starting out or a veteran competitor, you’ll gain the understanding you need to optimise your performance and hit new fitness goals in a safe and sustainable way.

What software or tools do you need?

A PDF viewer is recommended for learners to access non-essential resources provided for their benefit. Learners will not need any specialised software to complete this course.

Who will you learn with?

Who developed the course?

Federation University

Federation University Australia is a premium dual-sector university that has been educating the leaders, innovators and thinkers of regional Australia for over 150 years.

  • Established

    1870
  • Location

    Ballarat, Berwick, Gippsland, Wimmera

About this ExpertTrack

Explore sports science, sports psychology, and safe training strategies to step up your training for your next endurance event.

Start learning today - free 2-day trial

After your free trial you can:

  • Pay $39 per month to keep learning online
  • Have complete control over your subscription; you can cancel any time
  • Work at your own pace and set your own deadlines at every stage
  • Only pay while you’re learning; the subscription will cancel automatically when you finish
  • Complete online assessments to test your knowledge and prove your skills
  • Earn digital course certificates and a final award that you can share online, with potential employers, and your professional network
  • Keep access to the content of courses you complete even after your subscription ends

Learning on FutureLearn

Your learning, your rules

  • Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps to help you keep track of your learning
  • Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
  • Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores

Join a global classroom

  • Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
  • Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course
  • Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others

Map your progress

  • As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
  • Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control
  • Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate

Want to know more about learning on FutureLearn? Using FutureLearn

Do you know someone who'd love this course? Tell them about it...