Heather: Coming up with a run session you like can be a challenge. In my mind, it needs
to be hard enough, it needs to have a certain amount of flexibility, and ultimately, it
needs to help me in reaching my goal of getting fitter and faster. Now, over the years, I
have been lucky enough to work with several coaches and join various different running
groups so I know which run sessions I enjoy and which ones I'll do my best to avoid. With
that in mind, today, I'm going to share my three go-to sessions. The best part about
these, you can do them anywhere on any type of running surface, whether that's a track,
a treadmill, road, or even the park. [music]
These are just a snapshot from running training. The beauty in these sessions is their adaptability.
I actually use a variation of the three I'm going to talk about for the cross country
season right the way through to the other end of the spectrum for running a marathon.
Now, I have chosen my top three and I'm going to share them with you but also explain how
you can adapt them to suit whatever distance that it is you're training for. I just want
to say now all of these sessions require a very thorough warm-up and warm-down. I'm going
to leave that bit up to you guys because we're going to dive straight in with the main sets.
[music] I've been doing this session for years. It's
super adaptive. For the basic version, all you need is a wristwatch. It's like it says
on the tin, it's an interval-style of session that's based around 30-second efforts. It's
going to be 30 seconds hard followed by 30 seconds easy repeatedly. This session was
originally designed to help improve your VO2 max. Who doesn't want a higher VO2 max? With
that in mind, you need to be doing your hard efforts at around that pace, followed by the
easy efforts at half of the VO2 max pace. You can be really specific when you're doing
this style of session. You could actually work out how far you would run in 30 seconds
of running at that pace and mark it out, or you could simply use your pace watch to check
that you're running at the right speed for those 30 seconds. If you are going to be really
going into the detail, then I'd suggest actually marking out the area so you can simply go
back and forth and know that you can really nail that session with consistency.
I used to actually train for 3k in modern pentathlon and our coach used this session
a lot. He would set us 20 reps of 30/30 at our 3k race pace, and then that would go up
to a maximum of 30. You get the idea. You can mix around the number that you're doing
and the pace that you're running at to suit your distance and whatever you're training
for. You could also change it a little bit more
by doing 60 seconds on, 60 seconds off, and it's still going to be the same theory. You're
running 60 seconds hard, 60 seconds easy. I'm not sure which is actually harder because
obviously, you're running hard for a longer period but you get a longer rest. You get
the idea. You can really play around with this session, but it's a variation of intervals.
[music] No surprises here. For this session, you do
ideally need a track but I will explain how you can adapt it to road in a moment. The
session goes up in distance to a peak and then down the other side as in a pyramid.
Ideally, you want to start off as a 200 followed by 30 seconds' rest; a 400, a minute's rest;
600, a minute and a half rest; 800 followed by two minutes' rest; all the way up to 1,000
meters and you get two and a half minutes' rest after that. You then go back down using
the same rests as you had going up. It is a total of 5 kilometers. It's in intervals
and you want to actually be targeting your 5k pace for all of them.
I reckon you can see the pattern here. As the distance increases, so does the rest.
You need to be aware of your pace because 200 meters at 5k pace is going to feel pretty
easy, whereas 1,000 meters not so. You really are going to have to rein it in at the start
and make sure you are strict with keeping to the pace for those first few efforts. Once
you reach that top of the pyramid, the 1,000 meters, it really does feel like the end is
going to be in sight. It's a great session and a really satisfying one to do.
Of course, you can play around with the distance of this. You could have the top of your pyramid
at being 800 meters and dropping back down from there, or you could extend it to make
it longer so your peak is 1,200 meters or even 1,400. Obviously, you adapt the rest
and, most importantly, you adapt the pace according to the distance that you're going
to be running. Then if you do want to take the session out onto the road or off-road,
even, you can use it to time so you work out roughly how long you would run 200 meters
in at your 5k pace or whatever pace you're choosing to do, and you simply use the same
rests and you run to the effort instead. [music]
I know hills doesn't exactly narrow it down very much as there are so many variations
when it comes to this type of training. For example, you could have a short yet steep
hill that's going to be really great for power and strength, or maybe a longer, more gentle
incline that's going to really work you in a threshold zone. You're still going to be
developing strength but you'll be more aerobic with that.
I personally use hills in my training all the time because it's a great way to get a
workout without necessarily having to think too much. Your body's working hard but your
mind can pretty much switch off. I find that my heart rate soars no matter what speed I'm
running up the hill. Yes, that could be slightly due to a lack of fitness but it's also the
training effect of hills. This is a session that I do regularly in my
local park. It's slightly specific to this location. However, it's also a version of
Kenyan Hills. Kenyan Hills, basically, you need to be running hard on any of the flat
sections, hard up the hill, and then you use the downhill for recovery. In this specific
situation, I run hard up this diagonal that cuts through the path, I turn left hard up
the next section, and then hard along the top. As soon as I start to feel myself going
downhill, that's when I back off and I use that for my recovery. I do that continuously.
You can do it anywhere. You just need something that's on the side of a hill. Even housing
estates are quite often good for this because they're built on a hill. You might even have
the four sides so you can run hard on three of them and then you recover downhill. They're
great for winter because then they're usually floodlit as well. The part of this session
that I really enjoy is it's not so hard on your legs for the impacts because you're running
hard on the flat and uphill, but then you're really easy downhill so it's not so stressful
for your bones. [music]
Let's talk how to make this into a session. Obviously, it depends on what you're training
for, but also the loop that you're running and how long that is. The version I use here
tends to have me running hard for about three minutes, and then I get about a minute and
a half to two minutes of recovery. At the moment, I do that four to five times, but
when I'm getting fitter and training for the longer distance, I'll up that to eight to
ten. You might be worrying that you can't get outside to do a session like this or you
don't have hills near you. If you've got a treadmill, then you've got an incline button
on that and it's a really good opportunity to use that.
You could replicate this session into a similar block, maybe break it all down into a minute.
You could have it on zero incline, run hard for 60 seconds; put it up to 5%, run hard
for 60 seconds; back down to zero, hard for another 60 seconds; then that final 60 seconds,
you still keep it on the flat but you really back off, and that's your recovery instead
of going downhill. Your heart rate can still drop, but you're actually taking away that
added impact of running downhill. It could be a bonus. Whatever you do choose to do,
though, keep that variation and make sure it's continuous, just like it would be if
you were outside. Obviously, I've only chosen you a selection
today. You still need to include some long runs plus some runs with longer threshold
efforts to add around this. Hopefully, these are giving you ideas to help you spice up
your training, and you can adapt them and choose bits that you like to suit you. If
you guys have any sessions that you think I might like them, please let me know because
I'm always looking for new running inspiration myself and I'll give them a go. Also, let
me know how you get on with these and if you've got a favorite. You can do that all in the
comments section below. Give us a like and a follow on our social media channels.
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