First of all you need realistic goals, what do you really want from your running, short and long term.

Clear goals help guide and motivate you when things get tough.

They need to be event specific goals and you must have a commitment, and build your training and racing towards them.

You need a training plan, but keep it simple and uncomplicated.

It’s good to analyse, but don’t take the process over the top, enjoy your running and don’t stray too far from the basics of that, although to achieve your full potential, you do need to be dedicated, focused and not shy away from hard training.

You need to have the right positive attitude and determination, even when you have poor races, learn from them and move on.

Developing an umbrella or shield of self belief in yourself and not feeling guilty about exploring and discovering your capabilities, whilst bloody well enjoying your life and running.

Your life should have different facets to it, for you to become a whole person enjoying your life, it’s not just all about family, kids, work, study, home etc

Confidence in your training and a steely determination to progress to your goals, but also have patience, as you have to progressively build your training to it’s peak performance.

Plan and set goals, base build your endurance, strength & conditioning, speed, consistency, recovery, injury prevention, health and well being, nutrition & hydration, progression, event specific training and racing, peaking for goals.

N.B. Then recovering before the path of the next goal or plateau is started.

Summer Training and Racing 2019

Well coming up are more short road races and track leagues which will feature throughout the summer, along with various trail & fell races, as we are well into spring now.

N.B. A word of caution as to the tempting mid-week races, which dissect and replace key event specific sessions or runs, just that too many can lead to a quick sharpening of form, then to a loss of form or stagnation of progression to a goal peak race, unless some key sessions and long runs are maintained.

This is ok if having a short summer peak then a recovery and back to a base level to build up again, but not if there are key goals in September / October.

So Over the rest of the summer, there will be runs and sessions with differing event specific emphasis and goals, covering as mentioned above :-

1. Short road, 5k, 10k’s and trail races, but extending for longer in late summer.

2. Track races 1500m - 3000m - 5000m + Steeplechase for those that want it.

3. N.B. Most Fell, hill & trail runners will usually span a mixture of all above

4. Autumn marathons and half marathons.

5. Autumn Road Relays

Tuesdays from Crossford Bridge meet 6.45pm.

7.00pm warm up with faster sections or sessions starting at 7.15pm.

Summer runs in the River Mersey Valley, trails & fields.

These will be around Manchester University Fields, Crossford Bridge Fields & maybe Turn Moss Fields for repetition sessions with short or long recoveries, on grass, sometimes with small hills. 800m - 8k pace, usually around 5k.

Also some elements of speed training with faster sprints / strides or fartlek.

Other weeks Chorlton Ees Brook Trails, Power Station hills & paths and Sale & Chorlton Water Parks, for a variety of Tempo runs @ threshold pace on shorter runs or broken down into long reps @ 10k effort, steady state marathon tempo on longer runs, obla progression runs, or just steady runs for some

N.B. But may keep these to set loops, but split into 3 or 4 standard groups, as fed up of some leading others astray and tempo pace sections getting all messed up.

N.B. * All these will be fine tuned for some individuals and their requirements, but will follow a formulaic and progressive pattern, also reflecting racing plans, so that there is an event specific element for 5K, 10k, half marathon and marathon, reflected by volume, distances and recovery intervals.

• July will see a sharpening effect for those racing track or road 5k’s as main summer goals,

• Late Summer tempo runs could go up to 75mins for HalfM & marathon runners, with event specific pace sections totalling 40-55mins, but these would need a 6:45pm start from Crossford.

And may even be run on 10 - 15 minute loops @ Uni Field, Turn Moss or Sale WPk, with other groups catching up later after a 7.00pm start.

TELL ME IF YOU WANT THESE !!

Thursdays from Wythenshawe Track 7.00pm.

7.00pm warm up or run from home, and 7.20pm proprioceptive drills with sessions starting at 7.30pm prompt.

Track sessions in various groups usually focusing on 3-5K pace specific, but with some faster sections sometimes or greater volume for half and full marathons.

Also some may have fine tuned sharpening sessions for track or short road races, or coming up weekend races.

Some sessions may actually be on the grass later, in the park or University Fields in and based around 3K -5K pace most weeks, dependant on weekend racing plans, but also some fartlek style.

Saturday Morning Sessions will be selective and over the summer when not clashing with races, these will usually be at Manchester University Fields, for sub tempo pace 8-10K based rep sessions.

But sometimes from Wythenshawe others may do shorter faster reps if summer 5k sharpening.

N.B. If a demand then I could do long steady runs, some marathon @ pace, and ride my bike to supply drinks.

Sunday Morning Long Trail Runs, every Sunday, 10.30pm from Crossford Bridge for a 60 - 90 minutes steady run, Although after Saturday races it maybe more of a easier recovery pace, sometimes Half and marathon specific pace sections, preparing for races.

Based around the Mersey Valley, but could be either direction heading to Stretford Tip / Davyhulme / Carrington Moss / Dunham/ Trans- Pennine Trail and back on canal

Or start in opposite direction to go to Lymm on the TP trail and back via Carrington, or branch off to Dunham and back via Bowdon , Hale, Brooks Drive etc .

Others routes go to Princess Parkway, Northenden or Parrs Wood and return.

Or a couple of laps of both water parks and streams, Turn Moss, University Fields, Kenworthy Woods, Wythenshawe Park, so many variations.

I had favourite Challenge runs of via Golf course routes, with a couple of variations via Ashton-o-M, Flixton, Dunham, Hale, Hale Barnes, Timperley, Wythenshawe, Northenden, Chorlton, Sale, with a couple of variations, depending on if 90mins, 2hours or 2hour 30min run.

Or a nearby meet / start point, and also from a variety of venues for hill or trail runs.

Most weeks some groups will lead up to half or full marathons by doing long trail / road runs, progressing in time and introducing event specific pace some weeks during a 2 hour plus run, with some of the second half run at marathon pace, with that progressing over the weeks, e.g. 8 mls, 8mls + 3mls, then 8mls + 3mls + 3mls etc with more of your marathon pace on roads.

This should combine with a regular midweek 75 - 90mins with marathon pace for up to an hour.

N.B. Autumn Tuesday runs will be on roads when light fails in September.

David Rodgers : Spring 2019

Percentages for all endurance athletes, particularly for longer distances. You distinctly need to have your endurance base building from, where approx 80-85% is easy / steady runs, 5-10% have been tempo runs or sessions and 5-10% speed type sessions. Later these percentages should have changed as more tempo running has been carried out, repetitions and interval running varied, hills introduced and races are run.

Speed would not change from approx 10% of your months total all year (800m / 1500m middle distance up to 15% early summer), but tempo running in it’s various levels or forms, could go to 10, 15, 20 or 25% of your weekly total, depending on what stage in a competition phase you are at, particularly for marathon runners at event specific pace.

Easy recovery runs and steady maintenance runs, are slower than (steady state) marathon pace and are your staple running diet, and with a regular long steady run (LSD), tempo running in it’s various ventilatory thresholds, i.ei. lactate turn-point LT (usually between 10k & 15K pace) threshold pace to marathon pace (steady state), or even broken into blocks with a short interval recovery, then run at sub tempo or your 8-10k pace, ie 3 x 8-10mins, 5-6 x 5mins etc longer for marathons.

Obviously whether you are training for shorter distances or a marathon, dictates how far you eventually go up to for time or distance at a set tempo, also leading up to the competition phase, then you can be nearer to (LT), but also nearer to marathon pace means that you can fit more in at faster tempos and recover more easily.

The speed training would usually be at 5k pace in the early stages, but include repetitions on grass or track, fartlek, strides, short hill sprints etc. But also include sessions with 3k and 1500m pace or a mixture via pyramids, ladders, fartlek etc.

The next phase or smaller mesocycle, would introduce more faster running at tempo paces and strength or resistance, so would involve more hills and an increase in running at various tempo ratio’s.

When you get into your main competition phase the ratio could be nearer to E/S 70-75%: T 15-20%: S 10%

The increasing intensity of the speed training will sharpen you for your peak, but too much cannot be maintained for long because it brings you on quickly, but also can risk something breaking down if prolonged.

So in essence, the training components needed for successful progressive distance racing are shown below.

Volume & intensity, when and where application is an individual thing, we need to discover and apply, if you want to move on from mediocre levels of your racing potential.

Regular long steady runs

Steady / easy medium distance runs, ( can include a tempo section)

Fast distance runs at around the anaerobic threshold LTP, but include sub tempo long reps with short recovery.

Hill running, on long off-road runs, long hill reps, short reps, fartlek, short sprints

Repetition work, in various and numerous forms

Speed work, also varied in it’s form.

Event specific pace training, race pace practice

Easy Recovery runs,

Strength and conditioning can be done at home, if not in a gym, strength based to gentler mobility & yoga, working on eliminating any imbalances, so as too preempt or prevent injuries, making you more strong and stable for training and racing

All these are worked into the various training periods and phases, towards your peak goal.

Preparation Period (1 & 2), Competition period (3 & 4)

I like to work in blocks of approx 13 - 16 weeks and this further monthly cycles including a lower volume recovery week.

These are gauged and focused around your main competition goal.

1. General Preparation Phase (base build)

2. Specific Preparation Phase

3. Pre-Competition Phase

4. Main Competitions Phase

5. Recovery Transition

Enjoy the process and journey

Dave Rodgers : May 2019

To be completed