Author: Alex Masidlover

The fitness focus will be improving VO2 Max (the body’s ability to take in and use oxygen and a key predictor of middle and long distance endurance event outcomes).

The technical focus will be maintaining good posture when fatigued.

Suggested Drills (and technical work) for the week

A-Progression (Stationary, March, Skip etc.)

Lunge Progression (Static, Walking, Jump)

Strides focusing on ‘balloon’

Tuesday Session

10 mins easy 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

Long Warm-up with drills

4x1200m at 10km race pace – focus on form in last 400m of every rep

Cool Down

Weekend Session

Long run then when 10 minutes from home (or wherever you’re finishing); 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., i.e., as per the Tuesday session.

IMPORTANT: Please bring trail shoes or spikes to Thursday’s session.

The fitness focus will be lactate shuttling; we will be working around (above and below) threshold pace (the pace you can run for around an hour for most people).

The technical focus will be more XC focused.

Suggested Drills (and technical work) for the week

Laps of Nan-Nook wood

Straight Leg Run

B-march

B-skip

Srides focusing on arm drive

Tuesday Session

8 mins easy warm up

1 minute, 2 minutes, 4 minutes, 8 minutes, 8 minutes, 4 minutes, 2 minutes and then 1 minute at ‘max effort for that time’. With 2 minutes at a recovery pace (probably 5-10s per km slower than marathon pace) between each effort

8 mins Cool Down

Thursday Session

20 mins easy warm up including (extra) drills

4 TIMES:

400 m @ marathon pace, 200m @ 5km pace, 200m @ half-marathon pace, 200m @ 5km pace, 200m @ half-marathon pace, 400m @ marathon pace

5 mins Cool Down

Weekend Session

Long run with a stride (accelerate to 90% sprint pace, hold for 20 breaths then decelerate) every 1km

The fitness focus will be tapering for the first XC of the season.

The technical focus will be practicing all the drills with a view to having a good race warm-up routine.

Suggested Drills for the week

Leg swings

Straight Leg Running

A-March to A-Skip progression

B-March to B-Skip progression

High Heels drill

Side stepping

Carioca

Strides whilst imaging a balloon attached to your head.

Tuesday Session

10 minute warm-up

4x 6 minutes @ 5km pace with 4 minute recoveries.

10 minute cool-down

Thursday Session

10 mins easy warm up including (extra) drills

4 x 400 @ 10km race pace – lots of recovery

10 mins Cool Down

Weekend Session

Cross-country or 9km at race pace in a muddy field.

VERY IMPORTANT! We’re back at Wythenshawe Park Athletics Track this Thursday!

The fitness focus will be ‘lactate shuttling’ the ability to do short very hard efforts during a long hard effort (just like cross country running).

The technical focus will be keeping a good upright posture when running.

Suggested Drills for the week

A-March to A-Skip progression

Lunge progression with a focus on keeping torso ‘tall’

Strides whilst imaging a balloon attached to your head.

Tuesday Session

10 minute warm-up

4x 8 minutes @ 10km pace with 2 minute recoveries.

10 minute cool-down

Thursday Session

10 mins easy warm up including drills

3x 800m @ 10km race pace with 400 easy between reps followed by a threshold effort* with 50m ‘sprint’ bursts.

* threshold should be approximately a pace you can sustain for an hour – this will be somewhere between 10km and half marathon race pace. This table allows you to look up your ‘VDOT’ based on race paces and then table 2 on the same page shows your threshold pace.

10 mins Cool Down

Sunday Session

Minimum of 10 minutes warm up

Find some rolling hills and do a run at a conversational pace but with a bit more effort on the uphills.

At least 10 minutes cool down

VERY IMPORTANT! We’re back at Wythenshawe Park Athletics Track this Thursday!

The fitness focus (again this week) will be VO2 Max improvement – the key metric that determines performance over ‘middle’ distances and is best improved by efforts of 4-8 minutes

The technical focus will be short stride running – according to Brian Mac this can be an effective way to improve cross-country running speed.

Suggested Drills for the week

Straight Leg Run – landing on the ball of the foot and using the springiness in the calf and achilles to keep ground contact time short.

B-March

B-Skip

Short strides with a focus on driving the feet back and a short stride length.

Tuesday Session

10 minute warm-up

Then alternating group chase – split into two groups (fast and slower), fast sets off and runs for 3 mins at 3km race pace then starts walking back towards slower group, as soon as this happens the slower group start their interval, when the two groups meet the fast group set-off again… See this post for more details and a worked example.

10 minute cool-down

Thursday Session

10 mins easy 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.

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

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 VO2 Max improvement – the key metric that determines performance over ‘middle’ distances and is best improved by efforts of 5-8 minutes

The technical foci will be; Grass Running, Tight Turns, Uphill, Downhill and Technical Terrain (everything!!).

Suggested Drills for the week

Step-Ups

Lunge progression

A-March to A-Skip to A-Run (A-Run is A-skip but with 2 steps between each skip; so you end up changing leg for each skip)

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

Tuesday Session

10 minutes easy running

10 minutes @ 10km race pace, 5 minutes recovery pace, 15 minutes @ 10km race pace, 5 minutes recovery pace, 10 minutes @ 10km race pace

5 minutes cool down

Thursday Session

5 minutes easy

Step-Ups

Lunge progression

A-March to A-Skip to A-Run (A-Run is A-skip but with 2 steps between each skip; so you end up changing leg for each skip)

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

Then we will be doing reps of a fairly technical loop around the field aiming to make ‘best pace’ given the terrain and length of the loop. If you are unable to make the Scholes’ session then 5x 1km (see previous posts) is a good alternative.

5 minutes easy

Sunday 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.

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 Alactic/Neuromuscular (short and hard!) efforts.

The technical foci will be; Grass Running, Tight Turns and Technical Terrain.

Suggested Drills for the week

Step-Ups

Box/Step Jumps

A-March to A-Skip to A-Run (A-Run is A-skip but with 2 steps between each skip; so you end up changing leg for each skip)

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

Tuesday Session

10 mins easy 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

5 minutes easy

Step-Ups

Box/Step Jumps

A-progression

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

Forest 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.

5 minutes easy

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.

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 lactate shuttling.

The technical foci will be; Grass Running, Tight Turns, Uphill Work 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

Alternate 1 minutes at half marathon pace, 1 minutes at 10km pace for 16 minutes, take 8 minutes recovery and then repeat.

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)

Run at 5km race effort (not pace!) up the hill, continue running for 90 seconds at 5km race pace, turn around to go back to the top of the hill (still at 5km race pace), run at a steady pace downhill. Have a standing or walking rest until you are breathing normally. For the background; see here.

5 minutes easy

Sunday Session

Minimum of 10 minutes warm up

Do a long(ish) run on rolling hills – when you crest each hill aim to maintain the same effort as you ran the uphill for the same length of time it took you to run the uphill. This is a psychological and pacing drill so, within reason, the actual effort and pace doesn’t matter; the aim is to keep it consistent following an uphill effort.

At least 10 minutes cool down

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