Category: Seniors/vets endurance training

This week our technical focus is on a nice strong arm drive.

For our main sets we have some Christmas specials!

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

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

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

2000m effort 3 minutes rest

1600m effort 2.5 minutes rest

1200m effort 2 minutes rest

800m effort 1.5 minutes rest

400m effort

5 mins cool down

The efforts should be at approx. 5km race pace.

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) on a course that has rolling hills or Greater Manchester XC Championships

This week our technical focus is on keeping the hips high and stable to avoid wasting energy lifting the torso up and down.

For our main sets we have some Christmas specials!

Suggested Drills for the week

A-March

Ball Slam

Jump Lunge

High Cadence running on the spot then lean forward from the ankle until you ‘fall’ into a run

Strides – imagine a helium balloon attached to your head lifting your head and torso up (but keep your shoulders relaxed)

Tuesday Session

10 minutes warm-up

10 seconds max effort then 2 minutes recovery

20 seconds max effort then 2 minutes recovery

30 seconds max effort then 2 minutes recovery

40 seconds max effort then 2 minutes recovery

50 seconds max effort then 2 minutes recovery

60 seconds max effort then 2 minutes recovery

70 seconds max effort then 2 minutes recovery

80 seconds max effort then 2 minutes recovery

90 seconds max effort then 2 minutes recovery

100 seconds max effort then 2 minutes recovery

110 seconds max effort then 2 minutes recovery

120 seconds max effort then 2 minutes recovery

10 minutes cool-down

Thursday Session

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

Pass the parcel! Full details will be explained on the night. If you want something equivalent then 10×400 with approx 2 mins rest between efforts.

5 mins cool down

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) on a course that has rolling hills.

The fitness focus this week and until the new year will be working on getting our aerobic threshold as close as possible to our lactate threshold; there is a good, albeit cycling focused, article here.

The technical focus will be working on maintaining a good posture and light-footedness

Suggested Drills for the week

Straight leg run

A-progression

B-progression

Tuesday Session

10 minutes warm-up

2 x 20 minutes at a pace where conversation is no longer possible but short sentences with brief gaps to breath are still possible – this should be somewhere between your half marathon pace and your 10km race pace

5 minute cool-down

Thursday Session

The aim of this set is to maintain a heart rate that is between aerobic threshold and lactate threshold – we do this by keeping the majority of the lap easy but with some hard effort in the middle of each lap and minimal rest between laps

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

On each lap; start easy accelerate slowly to 90% of sprint speed by 200m then decelerate slowly until the end of the lap – once everyone has completed the lap start again.

5 mins cool down

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) on a course that has rolling hills.

The fitness focus this week and until the new year will be working on getting our aerobic threshold as close as possible to our lactate threshold; there is a good, albeit cycling focused, article here.

The technical focus will be working on making sure your knee is flexed before your foot touches the ground.

Suggested Drills for the week

Straight leg, ball of foot taps

Toe-taps

B-Progression

Strides; focusing on pulling the ground backwards

Tuesday Session

10 minutes warm-up

45 minutes at a pace where conversation is no longer easy and it is no longer possible to breath only through your nose.

5 minute cool-down

Thursday Session

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

FOUR TIMES:

4 x400m first lap at XC race pace/effort, then aim to slow down by 10s per lap on each of the remaining 3 laps – minimal rest between laps (just enough to get everyone to start at the same time).

Recover for 2-3 minutes after the 4 laps then repeat…

5 mins cool down

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) but every 1km do a stride (accelerate to 90% of sprint speed, hold it for 10 breaths or approx 20 seconds, then decelerate).

The fitness focus this week and until the new year will be working on getting our aerobic threshold as close as possible to our lactate threshold; there is a good, albeit cycling focused, article here.

The technical focus will be working on a strong effective arm drive.

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

5 minute warm-up

10 minutes at the fastest pace at which you can still hold a conversation (albeit one with heavy breathing).

5 minutes easy

15 minutes at the fastest pace at which you can still hold a conversation.

5 minutes easy

10 minutes at the fastest pace at which you can still hold a conversation.

5 minute cool-down

Thursday Session

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

Two 15 minute blocks of 400m timed reps; alternating breathing only through the nose and normal breathing – aim will be to get to the fastest pace you can maintain both nose-breathing and normal-breathing laps at the same pace.

5 mins cool down

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 the last 30 minutes at the pace practiced earlier in the week, i.e., the fastest that you can still breath through your nose/hold a conversation at.

The fitness focus will be lactate shuttling – working on efforts above and below lactate threshold (the highest level of effort where lactate concentration in the blood still remains steady)

The technical focus will be running with good posture.

Suggested Drills for the week

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

Lunge Progression (Static Lunge, Walking Lunge, Jump Lunge – all with focus on keeping core upright)

Strides while imagining a balloon lifting your head

Tuesday Session

10 minute 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 minute cool-down

Thursday Session

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

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

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.

The fitness focus 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 keep repeating the following until it is time to cool down:

3 minutes at 5km race pace

2 minutes at steady pace

2 minutes at 5km race pace

1 minutes steady

1 minute at 5km race pace

3 minutes easy then repeat…

10 minute cool-down

This session has been shown to allow athletes to do an extended amount of hard effort when compared to a session with fixed duration intervals of 5km race pace

Thursday Session

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

FIVE TIMES: 800m as 200m maximum effort then 600m 5km pace minus 5 seconds per km, then recover fully (2 to 3 minutes)

5 minutes easy running to cool down

This is a tough set; if you want to know why you’re doing it I have written some details here.

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) but aim to do the last third at the pace you would normally race the distance of your long run e.g. if your long run is 21km then the last 7km should be run at half marathon pace.

The fitness focus will be tapering for the second 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.

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.