Tag: Threshold

This week our technical focus is on arm drive – having a strong arm drive counters the rotational forces coming from your legs and means more of your energy can go into propelling you forwards.

As summer slowly approches our training begins to come away from the longer distances and starts to focus on 5 and 10km (and shorter) races. Almost all athletes should be capable of running 5km above their Lactate Threshold and many athletes will be capable of racing 10km above their Lactate Threshold – this means that VO2 Max becomes an important figure and so that’s what we now work to improve.

EDIT: VO2 Max is the maximum amount of oxygen an athlete’s body is capable of using per minute – it is a very strong predictor of endurance race performance, particularly 5 and 10km races for well trained athletes.

Suggested Drills for the week

A-March

High Cadence Jogging on the Spot then ‘falling’ into a run

Jump Lunges

Strides while imagining a balloon tied to your head and lifting it up.

Strides while focusing on keeping your out-breath long and slow and relaxing/dropping your shoulders.

Tuesday Session

20 mins warm up

TWO TIMES: 4 minutes of run VERY fast for a count of 20 breaths, walk for 10 breaths (repeating this cycle for 4 minutes) THEN 10 minutes easy running – you should be struggling to maintain the original ‘VERY fast’ pace by the end of each 4 minutes – for background see here

12 mins Cool Down

Thursday Session

5 mins easy

Drills and Strides

4x 1200 HARD walk around D until recovered (breathing normally) approximately two minutes – for background see here

5 mins cool down

Sunday Session

Long easy run – strides at the end of each mile (apart from the last one)

This week our technical focus is on ground contact time – we work on this with exercises that are plyometric in nature and start to improve the speed of the stretch-shorten-cycle of the muscles in the lower leg. We avoid any conscious attempt to reduce ground contact time when actually running as this will often lead to a bouncy run and thus wasted energy.

From a fitness perspective it is our last week focusing on the longer races (half marathon and marathon) so we’re still looking to increase Lactate Threshold; the pyramid session is a nicew way to get some variety and, if done well, leads to the two longest intervals being done at a higher pace than if all the intervals had been the same length.

Suggested Drills for the week

Straight Leg Run

High Cadence ‘fall’ into run – Start by jogging on the spot, increase the running cadence until running fast then lean forwards and allow the jog on spot to naturally turn into a run. Aim to lean forward from the ankle and not the hips.

Hopping for 30m – left leg a third of the way across the ‘D’, right leg on the way back – back and forth twice

Strides while imagining a balloon tied to your head and lifting it up.

Strides while focusing on keeping your out-breath long and slow and relaxing/dropping your shoulders.

Tuesday Session

10 minutes warm-up, 40 minutes effort, 10 minutes easy. Efforts should be slightly slower than half-marathon pace.

Thursday Session

5 minutes easy

Straight Leg Run

High Cadence ‘fall’ into run

Hopping

Strides

Pyramid – 400. 800, 1600, 800, 400 with 400 m easy between each. Efforts at 3km pace.

Cool-Down

Sunday Session

Hills ( 6x 3 mins + jog back down)

This week our technical focus is on foot drive, i.e., maximising the force pushing us forwards when our foot is on the ground rather than pushing us up.

From a fitness perspective we’re still focusing on the longer races (half marathon and marathon) so we’re looking to increase Lactate Threshold; a relatively easy way to boost Lactate Threshold is training in sweet spot which is a point around 90% of threshold.

Suggested Drills for the week

Straight Leg Run

High Cadence ‘fall’ into run – Start by jogging on the spot, increase the running cadence until running fast then lean forwards and allow the jog on spot to naturally turn into a run. Aim to lean forward from the ankle and not the hips.

Heels Up running – run while exaggerating the lift of your foot towards your bottom, ensure you are driving the knee forwards.

Strides while imagining a balloon tied to your head and lifting it up.

Strides while focusing on drive the ground backwards.

Tuesday Session

5 minutes warm-up, 10 minutes effort, 5 minutes easy, 15 minutes effort, 5 minutes easy, 10 minutes effort, 5 minutes easy. Efforts should be slightly slower than half-marathon pace.

Thursday Session

5 minutes easy

Straight Leg Run

High Cadence ‘fall’ into run

Heels Up running

20 minutes sweet-spot (slightly slower than half-marathon pace) with a surge on the last 50m of every lap.

Strides (Extended Session)

Cool-Down

Sunday Session

Fast Finish Long Run – Last 5-10km (3-6 miles) at next goal race pace

This week our technical focus is on ‘high hips’; this is where your hips are staying at a (roughly) stable height above the ground and staying level throughout your stride so that you are not wasting energy moving your torso up and down. Additionally, keeping your pelvis level has been shown to reduce issues further down the leg ‘chain’ e.g. IT Band Syndrome, Achilles Tendon issues, Knees issues and foot issues.

The drills and Sunday hill sprints are focused on increasing strength and keeping good upright posture.

From a fitness perspective we’re still focusing on the longer races (half marathon and marathon) so we’re looking to increase Lactate Threshold; one way to do this is to raise the VO2Max and this can be done by training at VO2Max. Without a lab its impossible to accurately determine VO2Max, however, it is usually the maximum pace a runner can maintain for 6-8 minutes – so at, or faster than, 3km race pace is probably a reasonable proxy.

Suggested Drills for the week

A-march

Ball slam

Jump Lunge

High Cadence ‘fall’ into run – Start by jogging on the spot, increase the running cadence until running fast then lean forwards and allow the jog on spot to naturally turn into a run. Aim to lean forward from the ankle and not the hips.

Strides while imagining a balloon tied to your head and lifting it up

Tuesday Session

5 minutes warm-up, 20 minutes effort, 5 minutes recovery, 20 minutes, 5 minutes cool-down

Thursday Session

Extended Warm-Up

5x 800 meters at 3km race pace with 400m recovery

Cool-Down

Sunday Session

Extended Warm-Up

Find a short hill with a 10-20% gradient

20x 30 seconds hill sprint, walk back down to recover – during the uphill phase concentrate on keeping an upright posture and not leaning forwards

Cool Down