Month: August 2022

IMPORTANT:

Thursday’s training for the next 4 weeks (1st, 8th, 15th and  22nd of September) will be on William Scholes’ field. All other sessions will be as normal and we will return to meeting at the track on 29th September. 

The location to meet is the car park ‘behind’ Gatley Hill House off Church Road (SK8 4HY) and the what3words link is https://w3w.co/punchy.runs.roof – I would recommend trail shoes or spikes unless the weather continues to be very dry.

The fitness focus will be on strength and neuromuscular efforts (very short efforts before either the lactic or aerobic energy systems kick in).

The technical foci will be; Grass Running, Uphill Technique and Downhill Technique.

Suggested Drills for the week

Squats

Squat Jumps

Side Lunges

Tuesday Session

10 Minutes Warm-Up

Group Catch-Ups; split into maximum of 3 groups, start by running easy together, one of the groups stops for 15 seconds then sprints to catch up, when they catch-up the next group repeats this. There is more detailed explanation here.

10 Minutes Cool Down

Thursday Session

5 minutes easy

Squats

Squat Jumps

Side Lunges

Up & Down – run hard up the hill, run easy at the top of the hill in a loop that takes the same amount of time as the uphill run and leaves you back at the top of the hill, then run down the hill.

5 minutes easy

Sunday Session

Minimum of 10 minutes warm up

Long run on a rolling course – go very hard on the start (first 15 seconds) of each climb.

At least 10 minutes cool down

As promised we start training for the cross-country season this week. I am planning to move some of the late August and September sessions to William Scholes’ Field in Gatley – so please keep an eye on email and this site for announcements as to when the first one will be.

As always I will be looking at both technical skills and fitness in my sessions, but they will be rather different from the last few months!

The fitness focus will be lactate shuttling.

The technical foci will be; Grass Running, Tight Turns and Even Efforts.

Suggested Drills for the week

A-progression

Lunge progression to Jump lunges

Tight turns (gradually accelerate to 90% sprint, decelerate to cone, 180 turn, accelerate to 90% sprint, decelerate to starting point)

Tuesday Session

10 Minutes Warm-Up

5x 4 minutes at half marathon pace, 4 minutes at 10km pace

10 Minutes Cool Down

Thursday Session

5 minutes easy

A-progression

Lunge progression to Jump lunges

Tight turns (gradually accelerate to 90% sprint, decelerate to cone, 180 turn, accelerate to 90% sprint, decelerate to starting point)

Hard Starts – on grass; run to the first marke r (200-400m in to a 1km course) at MAX EFFORT and then finishing the course (remainder of the 1km circuit) at 2-3 seconds per km faster than 10km race pace. Have a standing or walking recovery until breathing normally again. Do 3-6 reps depending on available time.

5 minutes easy

Sunday Session

Minimum of 10 minutes warm up

Find a hill suitable for ideally 3 minutes of effort. Acclerate to maximum over the first few paces, maintain this pace for approx 10 breaths (should be around 20 seconds), walk back down the hill for 10 seconds, turn around and repeat the uphill. Do 8 reps. This will take around 4 minutes do a steady pace for around 6 minutes and aim to end up back at the bottom of the hill. REPEAT 3 TIMES (30 minutes total for this block).

This is a Tabata style workout, but done on a hill to help reduce over-striding tendencies.

At least 10 minutes cool down

With road and track season coming to and end and the days still warm enough for us not to want to think about cross-country just yet, we’re going to have a more unstructured week which is mainly about just having fun (type 1 and type 2 fun).

This week our technical focus is on hip stability – keeping the hips high and level to promote running economy and minimise injury.Our technical focus is on arm drive this week; using the momentum of your arms to counter the momentum of your trailing leg and thus making sure your energy is being used to go straight forwards.

Suggested Drills for the week

A-March while focusing on the arm drive

Jump Lunge with arms

High Cadence running on the spot then lean forward from the ankle until you ‘fall’ into a run

Strides – alternate: imagine a helium balloon attached to your head lifting your head and torso up and make your out breath long and drop your shoulders as you breath out

Tuesday Session

Easy run! But…

Vary the route up; as a group try and get a little lost and explore new paths and roads (but don’t get too lost).

After the first ten minutes throw in some strides roughly every 5 minutes, i.e., accelerate to 90% max speed for approximately 10 breaths and the decelerate down to an easy pace.

Thursday Session

Fun and games

Sunday Session

Long* Run – surges every 1km; accelerate to 90% of max pace, hold that pace for 10 long breaths (about 20-30 seconds), focus on imagining your head and torso being lifted by a balloon.

*Long is relative to what you have been doing recently; no more than 20% longer than any run you’ve done in the past 4 weeks.

This week our technical focus is on hip stability – keeping the hips high and level to promote running economy and minimise injury.

The fitness focus is on building top end speed with some anaerobic efforts in the Tuesday session and plenty of strides on the Sunday.

Suggested Drills for the week

Lunge Progression – remember to keep your leading knee behind your leading toes and your trailing knee should not quite touch the ground.

A-March to Skip Progression – ensuring chin, toes and knees are ‘up’.

Strides with a ‘balloon’.

Tuesday Session

10 minute warm-up

40 minutes of:

During the warm-up give everyone in the group a number from 1 to 3, ensuring that there are roughly equal numbers of ‘1’s, ‘2’s and ‘3’s.

Start out at a steady (long-run, i.e. arerobic) pace then pick a landmark (lampost, postbox, bush, cone, anything!) that you are about to run past, the whole group should continue running at a steady pace after passing it, continue for 30 seconds, then all of the ‘1’s should run fast (3-5km pace or faster) back to the selected landmark, turn around at the landmark and continue, fast, back to the group. When the ‘1’s return to the group, pick a new landmark and then the ‘2’s run fast back to it after the whole group has gone 30 seconds past the landmark, repeat this for the ‘3’s and then continue this pattern until it is time to cool down.

For a detail explanation with diagrams see here.

10 minute cool-down

Thursday Session

NO SESSION – Sale Sizzler

Sunday Session

Long* Run – surges every 1km; accelerate to 90% of max pace, hold that pace for 10 long breaths (about 20-30 seconds), focus on imagining your head and torso being lifted by a balloon.

*Long is relative to what you have been doing recently; no more than 20% longer than any run you’ve done in the past 4 weeks.