March 2022 – Manchester Harriers and Athletics Club

Seniors’ Endurance Training w/c 28.3.2022

March 27, 2022March 26, 2022Alex Masidlover

This week our technical focus is on ‘high hips’; this is where your hips are staying at a (roughly) stable height above the ground and staying level throughout your stride so that you are not wasting energy moving your torso up and down. Additionally, keeping your pelvis level has been shown to reduce issues further down the leg ‘chain’ e.g. IT Band Syndrome, Achilles Tendon issues, Knees issues and foot issues.

The drills and Sunday hill sprints are focused on increasing strength and keeping good upright posture.

From a fitness perspective we’re still focusing on the longer races (half marathon and marathon) so we’re looking to increase Lactate Threshold; one way to do this is to raise the VO2Max and this can be done by training at VO2Max. Without a lab its impossible to accurately determine VO2Max, however, it is usually the maximum pace a runner can maintain for 6-8 minutes – so at, or faster than, 3km race pace is probably a reasonable proxy.

Suggested Drills for the week

A -march

Ball slam

Jump Lunge

High Cadence ‘fall’ into run – Start by jogging on the spot, increase the running cadence until running fast then lean forwards and allow the jog on spot to naturally turn into a run. Aim to lean forward from the ankle and not the hips.

Strides while imagining a balloon tied to your head and lifting it up

Tuesday Session

5 minutes warm-up, 20 minutes effort, 5 minutes recovery, 20 minutes, 5 minutes cool-down

Thursday Session

Extended Warm-Up

5x 800 meters at 3km race pace with 400m recovery

Cool-Down

Sunday Session

Extended Warm-Up

Find a short hill with a 10-20% gradient

20x 30 seconds hill sprint, walk back down to recover – during the uphill phase concentrate on keeping an upright posture and not leaning forwards

Cool Down

Fixtures Update March 2022

March 23, 2022March 23, 2022chrissewart

Of note, two re-scheduled events

Our Annual General Meeting Monday 28th March Cheadle Sports Club – with the 25 Club draw after.
Primary School Cross Country Relays Sat 23rd April, 10am at the Wythenshawe park track.

fixtures-2022-march22 Download

Seniors’ Endurance Training w/c 21.3.2022

March 21, 2022March 23, 2022Alex Masidlover

As some of you may know, Malc has asked me (Alex Masidlover) to start setting the Senior Mens’ Sessions. The program splits the season into; Half-Marathon/Marathon training in spring, track and 5-10KM training in early summer and then XC training in autumn/winter. That being said we will be looking to produce excellent running economy throughout the year (which will help all distances from 3km and upwards) and we’ll be throwing in some work on uphill, downhill and uneven terrain all year apart from spring in order to help with cross country and with those looking to do fell races. I’m more than happy to build in other things on request and can accommodate requests for specific events coming up.

Please be aware this is a series of sessions for the group; its not a training plan for an individual athlete – if you want to create your own simple training plan around these sessions then I suggest; use the 80:20 Rule (a version of the Pareto principle suggested by Stephen Seiler meaning that 80% of endurance training should be very easy with only 20% being hard) – this will mean that athletes should be doing two hours easy running in addition to each of the ‘main’ sessions – so if you do all 3 of these sessions each week you should be doing at least 6 hours very easy running in addition to that. Make sure you add strength and conditioning work – it doesn’t do a huge amount (if anything) for performance, but does reduce injury rates. Finally, add in a recovery week every 4 – 6 weeks (a recovery week should be at most 60% of the volume of a standard week) and ensure you taper before key races.

I’ll be updating the training guidelines over the next couple of weeks; but I use fundamentally the same principles as Malc so there will be no huge shift in focus.

Sessions for w/c 21/3/2022

Technical Focus: Relax shoulders/Arm Drive

Fitness Focus: LTP and AeT improvement

Tuesday session: Warm up, 3x 2km @ Half Marathon or Marathon Pace (2 mins easy in between each), Cool Down

Thursday Session: Warm up w/technique drills, 40:20 (Power Hour variation), Cool down

Sunday Session: Fast-Finish Long Run – long(ish) easy run with last few km at next race pace.

Fixtures Update and Cross Country League Results

March 14, 2022March 14, 2022chrissewart

A fixtures update is below with Bolton 5K, the Salford 10K and the Sale Sizzlers dates added.

fixtures-2022-march9 Download

Also, our club’s results for all matches of the Manchester Area Cross Country League 2021/2022

manhac-maccl-2021-2022-our-results-1 Download

Email Brenda at arnoldbradshaw@btinternet.com if you would like a copy

Annual General Meeting 2022 and Primary Schools Cross Country

March 2, 2022March 2, 2022chrissewart

Two quick updates:

This Saturday’s (5th March) Primary Schools Cross Country match has been cancelled, sorry. The field we run on is completely waterlogged. The next event is 19th March.

The AGM has been rescheduled due to Storm Franklin to 28 March at Cheadle Sports Club 225 Kingsway, Cheadle SK8 1LA, 7.30pm start. Original agenda still stands.

Updated Fixture List below

fixtures-2022march1 Download