This week our technical focus is on arm drive; there are various theories as to why arm drive impacts running performance, but there is plenty of evidence that a well synchronised, correct arm drive improves performance by ~10% (over no arm movement) – the most common theory is that it counters the momentum of the driving leg and prevents you from rotating slightly from left to right with each stride (and thus wasting energy correcting that with directional changes).
We continue our focus on 5km and shorter races and bring in a classic mile and 5km training set (10×400).
Strength and Conditioning
All exercises should be body weight variants only unless an S&C coach (can be me) has agreed you have perfect form. Good examples of form can be found on https://www.muscleandstrength.com/exercises
We will be doing split squats and then jump split squats / lunges
Suggested Drills for the week
A-March to A-Skip progression – with focus on arms
Progression of short strides – over a short (90-100m) course where you can go back and forth, repeat a stride (30m to accelerate, 30m at 85-95% sprint pace, 30m decelerate) and on each pair (back and forth) focus on the following in order; pair 1) keeping the arms moving in a plane that is parallel to your direction of movement (so they are not crossing in front of your body), pair 2) keeping your forearm and upper arm at 90 degrees to each other throughout the arm drive, pair 3) driving the arm back with ‘purpose’, not forcefully, but with some energy (your hand should end up in line with your torso with your elbow behind your torso), pair 4) keeping the shoulders down and relaxed. This should be 8 strides in total.
Tuesday Session
10 minute warm-up
Marathon Pace – 5 minutes
Easy 3 minutes
Half Marathon Pace – 5 minutes
Easy 3 minutes
10km Race Pace – 5 minutes
Easy 3 minutes
5km Race Pace – 5 minutes
Easy 3 minutes
1 mile Race Pace – 5 minutes*
10 minute cool-down
* If your mile pace is sub-5 minutes then feel free to do 1 mile ‘best effort’ and have some extra rest 🙂
Thursday Session
5 Minutes easy running
Drills and Strides ~ 15- 20 minutes
10x400m @ mile race pace* with 90 seconds rest (standing or 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.
Sunday 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
Manchester Harriers and Athletics Club 