Author: Alex Masidlover

This week we’re going to dial back the intensity a fraction (11 out of 10 down to 10 out of 10…) and focus on queues to improve our form; not make massive changes just make sure that the energy we use is converted into forward motion rather than up and down or side to side motion.

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

Straight leg running

A-progression

B-progression

Strides with focus on short strides and driving the ground backwards

Tuesday Session

10 minutes warm-up

Then every 3 minutes accelerate to 90% of sprint pace, focus on driving the ground backwards and driving your elbows backwards, hold this for 10 long breaths, decelerate and allow the group to re-form.

10 mins Cool Down

Thursday Session

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

400 easy into 400 ‘max endurance effort’ – the fastest pace you can hold good form. We’ll set off staggered with the aim of getting times for each ‘effort’. After the 400 effort we’ll have a brief standing recovery. We’ll repeat this as many times as we have time for.

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

This week we will be starting to make serious inroads into 5km race preparation.

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

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

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

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

5x1km @ 5km race pace 90 seconds recovery

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

Another nice week of threshold (MLSS – Maximum Lactate Steady State) work!

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

Split squats or bulgarian squats are this weeks exercises.

Suggested Drills for the week

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

High Knees running

Strides while focusing on getting a full arm drive and keeping the shoulders relaxed.

Tuesday Session

10 minutes warm-up

Alternating minutes at 10km / Cross-Country race pace and half marathon race pace, i.e., 1 minute at each for a total of 16 minutes – repeat this twice with a break of 5 to 6 minutes between the efforts.

10 minutes cool-down

Thursday Session

5 minutes easy

Warm-up drills

400s with reducing rest – starting with approx. 2 minutes rest and reducing by 10s per rep – until we get to no rest (10-12 reps total)

Cool-Down

Weekend Session

Minimum of 10 minutes warm up

Your longest session of the week and aim to do the last 3rd at as close to race pace for that distance as you can.

This week we’re working at well over LT2 (Second Lactate Threshold)/Maximum Lactate Steady State (MLSS) – these workouts are hard but can very quickly build ‘top end’ fitness for newer athletes and are helpful for experienced athletes to maintain fitness.

If you’re doing Manchester at the weekend then enjoy the last week of taper and try not to get to caught up in Maranoia!

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

Side Plank with hip dip, Supine Toe Tap (not on exercise DB; lie on front raise one leg, tap toe on floor and raise leg again do some reps then change legs), Bird Dog

Suggested Drills for the week

Straight legged running

B-Skips

Strides

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

Warm-Up

6 times 800m @ max pace at which you can hold good endurance form – stay mobile for 2-3 minutes recovery.

Cool down

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’re going to be introducing some new dynamic warm-up exercises

The session will be the last of the 5k specific sessions now that we’re well into second false spring.

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 Bulgarian Split Squats.

Drills

Walking knee hugs
Step unders
Squat to twist
Heel to toe walks
A skips

Tuesday Session

10 minutes warm-up

40 minutes of:

6 mins hard effort, 2 minutes easy effort

10 mins Cool Down

Thursday Session

5 Minutes easy running

Drills and Strides ~ 10-15 minutes

5x1km – with loads of rest.

Cool down

Sunday Session

Minimum of 10 minutes warm up

A long (relative to your normal weekly runs) run with strides (accelerate to 90% of your max speed and hold for 10-15 seconds) every 1km.

At least 10 minutes cool down

Spring is now only a couple of months away and the spring marathoners are starting to taper – so we’re now heading solidly towards track and fast road season with 3km to 10km being our primary race distances.

We will be working on posture in our drills.

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

Single leg squats on to a box (or chair)

Suggested Drills for the week

A-Progression Drills

High Cadence on the spot with a ‘fall’ into a run

Strides; imagining you have a balloon attached to your head drawing your torso up

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

12x400m @ 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

A-Progression Drills

High Cadence on the spot with a ‘fall’ into a run

Strides; imagining you have a balloon attached to your head drawing your torso up

This week is going to be kind of marathon focused with some plyometrics thrown in for fun!

Strength and Conditioning/Drills

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

This week we’re mixing the drills and strength

We will be doing; Jump Squats, Jump Lunges, Lateral Hopping and Burpees.

Tuesday Session

Warm-Up – 10 minutes

5 times five minutes hard 3 minutes easy

Cool down – 10 minutes

Thursday Session

Warm-Up

FOUR times – 400m effort, standing recovery, 1600m effort, standing recovery – the aim is for the 1600m to be a best effort but for the 400m to be exactly the same pace.

Cool down

Weekend Session

Long* Run with strides (30m acceleration, 30m at 90% of sprint pace, 30m deceleration) every one km.

*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.

A little bit of speed play this week!

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

Split squats or bulgarian squats are this weeks exercises.

Suggested Drills for the week

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

Straight legged running

Strides while focusing on getting a full arm drive and keeping the shoulders relaxed.

Tuesday Session

10 minutes warm-up

Chain running – run in a line, the last runner runs hard (90% of max pace) to the front of the group, when the last runner reaches the front then the next ‘last runner’ sets of hard to get to the front. REPEAT for 15 minutes

10 minutes easy

15 minutes more chain running

10 mins Cool Down

Thursday Session

5 minutes easy

Warm-up drills

Pyramid – 400, 800, 1600, 800, 400 with 400 m easy between each. Efforts at 3km pace.

Cool-Down

Weekend Session

Minimum of 10 minutes warm up

Your longest session of the week and aim to do the last 3rd at as close to race pace for that distance as you can.

Another nice week of threshold (MLSS – Maximum Lactate Steady State) work!

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

Split squats or bulgarian squats are this weeks exercises.

Suggested Drills for the week

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

High Knees running

Strides while focusing on getting a full arm drive and keeping the shoulders relaxed.

Tuesday Session

10 minutes warm-up

Alternating minutes at 10km / Cross-Country race pace and half marathon race pace, i.e., 1 minute at each for a total of 16 minutes – repeat this twice with a break of 5 to 6 minutes between the efforts.

10 minutes cool-down

Thursday Session

5 minutes easy

Warm-up drills

400s with reducing rest – starting with approx. 2 minutes rest and reducing by 10s per rep – until we get to no rest (10-12 reps total)

Cool-Down

Weekend Session

Minimum of 10 minutes warm up

Your longest session of the week and aim to do the last 3rd at as close to race pace for that distance as you can.