Category: Training

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.

For technique we’ll be working on arm drive – and trying to remember to bring arm drive into the final few hundred meters of each effort.

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

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

FOUR TIMES: 800m faster than 5km pace, 200 easy, 200 max then recovery (easy or walking/stretching)

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).

Hopefully everyone achieved what they wanted at Wilmslow Half – we’re now only three weeks from Manchester Marathon and then we’ll be into track and fast road season; this week’s sets are building towards that.

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.

For technique we’ll be working on arm drive – and trying to remember to bring arm drive into the final few hundred meters of each effort.

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

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).

Thanks to those of you who participated in the video analysis session last week; generally everyone’s running form was looking really good. I’ll share specifics with each of you individually as I see you. However, there are a couple of things I noted that we are going to work on together. They are arm drive and maintaining nice tall running posture.

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: 12 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

16 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.

With Nationals NOT done we’re now into spring marathon and half marathons and preparing for a summer of fast road and track work.

Now XC season is over I’m going to do another round of video observations to determine what technical points to work on in the next few weeks.

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

Observation and Video Analysis week!

Tuesday Session

Warm-Up

8 or 10 x 400m (self selected pace, but hard efforts). If being done away from the track then 90 second efforts instead of 400m

Cool down

Thursday Session

Warm-Up

200, 400, 800, 1600, 2000, 2400

Cool down

This set will be primarily about observing everyone’s running form and selecting technical points to work on for the next few weeks.

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 we will be beginning a phase of working on 1 mile and 5km race preparation.

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 – regroup and then 200m easy recovery together after each rep.

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 marks the end of the XC season for us with National XC Championships on Saturday. This week will be a little speedwork and tapering for Nationals.

As a technical point we’re going to be working 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 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

10 mins easy warm up including (extra) drills

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

10 mins Cool Down

* If you are not racing at the Nationals then do 6×400 by adding in an extra 400 during

Weekend Session

Minimum of 10 minutes warm up

XC or run 15km around some muddy fields and woodland.

We’re now coming to the end of XC season which means that some of you will be going straight into the final preparations for spring marathons, half marathons and 10km races, whilst others will be beginning the preparation for the track and 5km racing season in summer; the upcoming workouts should be good preparation for that.

As a technical point we’re going to be working on a, literally, central point of running form, posture.

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

Lunge Progression – remember to keep your leading knee behind your leading toes and your trailing knee should not quite touch the ground.

A-March to Skip Progression – ensuring chin, toes and knees are ‘up’.

Strides with a ‘balloon’.

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

Warm-up and Drills

For the main set we will work in two groups the ‘speed’ group whose focus is track and 5km and the ‘endurance’ group whose focus is 10km and longer in the spring.

FOUR TIMES: ‘endurance’ group aim to even pace 1600m reps, ‘speed’ group 400 easy 400 max 400 easy, 400 try and catch and overtake as many of the endurance group as possible. Regroup and recover before repeating

Cooldown and Strength

Weekend Session

Minimum of 10 minutes warm up

Do a long run (distance will be up to you but this should be your longest run of the week) with a 50-100m stride every 1km.

Unfortunately due to the way the XC season is finishing we’re going to be repeating a few sets in the next few weeks – however we will still be gradually bringing in some speed work where possible.

As a technical point we’re going to be working on a, literally, central point of running form, posture.

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

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 minutes warm-up

IF USING THE TRACK THEN:

10 x 400m effort (5km race pace or faster) with 400m recoveries

IF NOT USING THE TRACK THEN:

10 x 1.5 minutes effort (5km race pace or faster) with 2 minutes recovery (note this means you will have an extra 5 minutes to cool down or warm up)

10 mins 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

* If you are not racing at the weekend

Weekend Session

XC or a fast run on a muddy course