Month: May 2023

This week we will be continuing with our phase of working on 1 mile and 5km race preparation. The sessions are designed to result in peak 5km form by the week of the 19th of June (the week of the Manchester Mile and the first Sale Sizzler)

The technical focus of this weeks drills is developing a nice strong arm drive.

Suggested Drills for the week

A-Progression (A-March, A-Skip, A-Run)

A-Progression (A-March, A-Skip, A-Run) with focus on arm drive

Strides while focusing on the individual aspects of arm drive in each of 4 sets of strides; keeping elbow joint at 90 degrees, keeping the arm in the correct plane, getting a full arm drive and keeping the shoulders relaxed.

Tuesday Session

15 minute warm-up

30 minutes at a pace at or slightly faster than 10km race pace

15 minute cool-down

A simple but quite tough set…

Thursday Session

5 Minutes easy running

Drills and Strides

FIVE TIMES: 1000m at target 5km pace, 90 seconds rest

5 minutes easy running to cool down

Weekend Session

Long* Run with a fast (10km race pace) finish

*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 we will be continuing with our phase of working on 1 mile and 5km race preparation. The sessions are designed to result in peak 5km form by the week of the 19th of June (the week of the Manchester Mile and the first Sale Sizzler)

The technical focus of this weeks drills is maintaining high hips.

Suggested Drills for the week

A-March

Ball Slam

Jump Lunge

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

Strides – imagine a helium balloon attached to your head lifting your head and torso up (but keep your shoulders relaxed)

Tuesday Session

10 minute warm-up

7 x 3 minutes at somewhere between mile race pace and 3km race pace with 2-3 minutes between efforts

10 minute cool-down

Thursday Session

5 Minutes easy running

Drills and Strides ~ 15- 20 minutes

10x400m @ mile race pace* with 90 seconds rest (gentle walk)

5 minutes easy running to cool down

* If you are not sure what your mile race pace is then go for a hard effort on every 400 meters and try and get the same time in each – once you’ve done this session a few times and can get the times of each 400m roughly even that should be a good approximation of your mile race pace.

Weekend Session

Do a long run (distance will be up to you but this should be your longest run of the week) on a course that has rolling hills – put in max effort up the hills (assuming its reasonably local and the hills are less than 5 minutes to climb).

This week we will be continuing with our phase of working on 1 mile and 5km race preparation. The sessions are designed to result in peak 5km form by the week of the 19th of June (the week of the Manchester Mile and the first Sale Sizzler)

The technical focus of this weeks drills is on knee flexion and keeping a short quick stride; ensuring that the foot strikes the ground after the knee has started flexing and the foot is moving backwards

Suggested Drills for the week

Straight leg running

B-progression

Strides with focus on short strides and driving the ground backwards

Tuesday Session

5 minute warm-up

THREE TIMES: 15 minutes at a pace at or slightly faster than 10km race pace take 5 minutes easy between the efforts

5 minute cool-down

Thursday Session

5 Minutes easy running

Drills and Strides

FIVE TIMES: 1000m at target 5km pace, 2 minutes rest.

5 minutes easy running to cool down

Weekend Session

Minimum of 10 minutes warm up

Long* Run with a ‘stride’ every 1km – to do a ‘stride’ accelerate to 90% of your sprint pace whilst still holding a nice tall endurance form, hold this pace for ~20-30 seconds (roughly 20 breaths or 100m) and then gently decelerate to your normal pace.

*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.

At least 10 minutes cool down

This week we will be continuing with our phase of working on 1 mile and 5km race preparation. The sessions are designed to result in peak 5km form by the week of the 19th of June (the week of the Manchester Mile and the first Sale Sizzler)

The technical focus of this weeks drills is on knee flexion; ensuring that the foot strikes the ground after the knee has started flexing and the foot is moving backwards

Suggested Drills for the week

Straight leg running

B-progression

Strides with focus on short strides and driving the ground backwards

Tuesday Session

10 minutes warm-up

4 minutes of run fast* for a count of 20 breaths, walk for 10 breaths (repeating this cycle for 4 minutes) THEN full recovery including some easy running.

* fast – this should be a reasonably smooth acceleration to your maximum pace. By the end of the 4 minutes it will feel EXTREMELY challenging.

REPEAT the above four times

10 mins Cool Down

For background see here.

Thursday Session

20 mins easy warm up – include the suggested drills for the week

20 times 200m @ max pace at which you can hold good endurance form – regroup and then 200m easy recovery together after each rep.

5 mins cool down

Weekend Session

Minimum of 10 minutes warm up

Find a hill suitable for at least two minutes of effort but ideally three, then run 6 to 8 intervals starting steady and accelerating to the maximum effort you feel possible by about half way up the hill, sustain that to the top. Walk down the hill until your breathing returns to normal, then jog down to the starting point.

You may notice that most weeks at the moment include a hill set – hill sets are great for; reducing overstriding, building strength and doing high effort aerobic work with low(er) injury risk.

At least 10 minutes cool down