Category: Training

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.

This week we will be looking at tall running posture and keeping enough tension in the legs to develop a ‘springy’ low ground contact time run.

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 perfect form squats and then progressing these to ‘pop squats’

Suggested Drills for the week

Straight legged running

Hopping

Strides while staying tall

Tuesday Session

Warm-Up

THREE TIMES: 14 minutes at a pace at or slightly faster than 10km race pace take 5 minutes easy between the efforts

Cool down

Thursday Session

Warm-Up

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

Cool down

Weekend Session

Long* Run with a stride (30m acceleration, 30m fast, 30m decelerate) every 1km

*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’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.

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 will be doing a little anaerobic style set.

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

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

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 we will be starting to up the pace a bit.

The technical focus of this weeks drills is on arm drive.

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

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

10 minute warm-up

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

10 minute cool-down

Thursday Session

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

16 times 200m @ max pace at which you can hold good endurance form then 200m easy recovery – regroup after each rep but do not hang around!

5 mins 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 is going to be VO2 Max with some plyometrics thrown in for fun (unless you’re racing XC at the weekend in which case we dial it down a bit)!

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

6 TIMES: 800 with a good length recovery – each effort should be max (unless you’re doing XC in which case 400 hard into 400 easy followed by recovery)

Cool down

Weekend Session

Heaton Park XC or 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.

With cross-country season heading towards its finish we’re going to start introducing more content that reflects the spring and summer road and track season. This week is going to be anaerobic 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

One minute hard effort and two minutes recovery repeated 13 times

Cool down – 10 minutes

Thursday Session

Warm-Up

12 TIMES: 400 with a good length recovery – each effort should be max

Cool down

Weekend Session

Long* Run with a fast finish (somewhere between your 5k and 10km race pace for the last 25-30% of your run).

*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.