Category: Seniors/vets endurance training

This week we are looking at some varied warm-up movements and continuing with the 5km training.

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 Split Squats and Bulgarian Split Squats.

Drills

Walking knee hugs
Step unders
Squat to twist
Heel to toe walks
Pogo hops
A skips

Tuesday Session

10 minutes warm-up

40 minutes of:

6 mins hard effort, 2 minutes easy effort

10 mins Cool Down

Thursday Session

5 Minutes easy running

Drills and Strides ~ 10-15 minutes

5x1km – with loads of rest.

Cool down

Sunday Session

Minimum of 10 minutes warm up

A long (relative to your normal weekly runs) run with strides (accelerate to 90% of your max speed and hold for 10-15 seconds) every 1km.

At least 10 minutes cool down

This week we will be continuing to work on pace with some 1-2 minute anaerobic efforts.

We’ll be working on practice a classic race warm-up for 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

Split squats or bulgarian squats are this weeks exercises.

Suggested Drills for the week

Toe touches – swing left leg forward while keeping it straight and aim to touch the toes of your left leg with your horizontally outstretched right arm; repeat this on the opposite side.

A-Progression

B-Progression

Straight Legged Running

Carioca (also known as grapevine)

Strides

Tuesday Session

10 minutes warm-up

40 minutes of:

During the warm-up give everyone in the group a number from 1 to 3, ensuring that there are roughly equal numbers of ‘1’s, ‘2’s and ‘3’s.

Start out at a steady (long-run, i.e. arerobic) pace then pick a landmark (lampost, postbox, bush, cone, anything!) that you are about to run past, the whole group should continue running at a steady pace after passing it, continue for 30 seconds, then all of the ‘1’s should run fast (3-5km pace or faster) back to the selected landmark, turn around at the landmark and continue, fast, back to the group. When the ‘1’s return to the group, pick a new landmark and then the ‘2’s run fast back to it after the whole group has gone 30 seconds past the landmark, repeat this for the ‘3’s and then continue this pattern until it is time to cool down.

For a detail explanation with diagrams see here.

10 mins Cool Down

Thursday Session

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

2 times 800m max effort for that distance.

4 times 400m max effort for that distance.

8 times 200m max effort for that distance.

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) do a 20 second acceleration to just shy of sprinting at the end of every km.

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 are looking at some varied warm-up movements and continuing with the 5km training.

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 Split Squats and Bulgarian Split Squats.

Drills

Walking knee hugs
Step unders
Squat to twist
Heel to toe walks
Pogo hops
A skips

Tuesday Session

10 minutes warm-up

40 minutes of:

6 mins hard effort, 2 minutes easy effort

10 mins Cool Down

Thursday Session

5 Minutes easy running

Drills and Strides ~ 10-15 minutes

5x1km – with loads of rest.

Cool down

Sunday Session

Minimum of 10 minutes warm up

A long (relative to your normal weekly runs) run with strides (accelerate to 90% of your max speed and hold for 10-15 seconds) every 1km.

At least 10 minutes cool down

With Marathon training complete for most people we move into a period of speed work for 5km and shorter distances. We mix some fast running with focusing on keeping our heads up and running tall 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

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 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 minutes warm-up

Two minutes max effort, 4 minutes easy jogging, repeat…

10 minutes cool-down

Thursday Session

5 minutes easy

Warm-up drills

20x200m (max effort) walk back to start.

Cool-Down

Weekend Session

Minimum of 10 minutes warm up

Your longest session of the week and aim to do a ‘stride’ (30m acceleration, 30m holding 90% max pace, 30m decelerating) at the end of each km (or half mile if you insist on imperial units!)

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.

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.

This week we’re going to be introducing some new dynamic warm-up exercises

The session will be the last of the 5k specific sessions now that we’re well into second false spring.

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 Split Squats and Bulgarian Split Squats.

Drills

Walking knee hugs
Step unders
Squat to twist
Heel to toe walks
Pogo hops
A skips

Tuesday Session

10 minutes warm-up

40 minutes of:

6 mins hard effort, 2 minutes easy effort

10 mins Cool Down

Thursday Session

5 Minutes easy running

Drills and Strides ~ 10-15 minutes

5x1km – with loads of rest.

Cool down

Sunday Session

Minimum of 10 minutes warm up

A long (relative to your normal weekly runs) run with strides (accelerate to 90% of your max speed and hold for 10-15 seconds) every 1km.

At least 10 minutes cool down

This week we will be doing a little anaerobic style set to celebrate the spring equilux.

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’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.

This week’s foci are staying tall while running and doing efforts over threshold, recovering just under threshold and repeating.

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

Hopping

Strides while staying tall

Tuesday Session

10 minute warm-up

8 TIMES: 4 minutes build to maximum effort, 2 minutes super easy running as recovery – the aim should be to start each 4 minute effort at roughly 5km race pace and then aim to get faster and faster.

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).