Category: News

IMPORTANT: Thursday’s session will be at the track but the main set will be on the grass in the centre so ensure you have trail/fell shoes or spikes.

The fitness focus will be improving lactate clearance – for when a short effort builds up lactate in a race and you need to maintain pace while the lactate is cleared.

The technical focus will be dealing with uneven terrain and tight turns.

Suggested Drills (and technical work) for the week

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

Low hurdles

Strides with a 180 turn

Tuesday Session

PREP: Split yourselves into two groups; try and ensure that everyone in each group is of a similar ability i.e. there will be a faster group and a slower group (this can be done during the warm-up). We will name the groups A and B for the remainder of the description.

10 Minutes Warm-Up

Start with both groups running at an easy pace.

Someone (anyone) nominates a point visible a little way further along the path/route.

Group B sprints to the nominated point and Group A continue at ‘recovery’ pace.

As soon as group B reach the nominated point then Group B slow down to ‘recovery’ pace and Group A sprint to catch Group B.

When Group A catch Group B then another person nominates a point and then we repeat…

Group B sprints to the nominated point and Group A continue at ‘recovery’ pace.

As soon as group B reach the nominated point then Group B slow down to ‘recovery’ pace and Group A sprint to catch Group B.

When Group A catch Group B then another person nominates a point and then keep repeating the pattern until there are 10 minutes left.

10 minutes cool-down

PACES and distances: The recovery pace should be a nice ‘aerobic’ pace; a pace you can hold a conversation at but leaves you occasionally needing to pause the conversation to take an extra breath. The sprint pace should be an acceleration to 90% of max, i.e., the pace you would do strides at. The chosen points to sprint to should be between 50 and 100m away.

Thursday Session

PREP: Set out a rectangle on grass (or other moderately uneven surface); the long side should be around 100m and the short side around 50m.

Warm-up with drills

TWO REPS OF:

Run at half marathon effort (under lactate threshold effort) along the long side and then run at faster than 5km effort along the short side. Continue running the circuit for 10 minutes.

Take a 3-5 minute break.

Cool Down

NOTE: I have used the term ‘effort’ instead of pace – since the workout is not to be done on a hard surface or track then this may reduce your pace for a given effort; therefore focus on effort rather than measured pace.

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 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.