Types of Training Sessions and Runs

THE BASICS

I will talk about general practical advice that works, based on 40+ years experience of competing, and coaching while working alongside some of the finest UK endurance coaches.

Coaches who have a long success rate of taking young athletes or Juniors and improving them to a successful senior maturity, with some at World and Olympic level and many National Champions, team wise and individually at 800metres, 1500, 5K, 10K, steeplechase, Marathon, Road and Cross Country. Plus practical knowledge gleaned from being team manager of a successful top club in the Uk

What are the essential elements that make a training plan work.

First of all consistency; this is the one simple answer to improvement and involves sticking to a plan without any breaks or lapses for what ever reason, this does not preclude the recovery days or week, as they are an essential part of a training plan.

Progression; your goals that are set out in your training plan are arrived at through a process of building endurance, stamina, strength, speed endurance, pace judgment, economy and a sharpening speed.

Staying injury free; not doing anything stupid training wise, that your body is not ready for or your fitness levels do not dictate, and carrying out basic stretching and strengthening exercises to give a strong and flexible body core i.e. abdomen, back, legs etc.

Do not have a dramatic change in running surfaces ease into any change, and where possible stick to good parkland or trails for easy / steady runs using road surfaces for tempo/pace runs and a track for intervals, although these can be done on any good firm surface that has no danger of going over on ankles, park grass or paths, golf course, tracks and trails.

Wear the correct cushioned footwear that suits your running style and using racer / trainer shoes for faster paced runs, try to avoid spikes on the track, unless it is very slippery and do not wear worn down shoes.

Staying healthy; ok we are talking about a healthy balanced diet, with plenty of water. Regular sleep pattern of at least 6 hours, preferably 8 hours, and sticking to the same daily pattern as much as possible as the body hates change and reacts to it negatively.

Obviously take care around people/ groups where there are flu, infections or colds.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I will first of all introduce here running as a youth and building up that training age, then talk about training for senior mature elite or advanced runners and then the type of training for the average club runner, social runner or beginner to progress and improve

Training consists of stressing a particular physiological system followed by a recovery or active rest, to allow it to re-build itself stronger than before.

Both the stressing and the recovery are equally as important.

Often we forget the rest or recovery part when we first start running, or are keen to do well in some race.

You must also not just stress everything! You must have a certain amount of focus of stress on the particular factor that is important to your events or races you are training for. This is called event or training specificity.

So event specific training is necessary for both physiology and psychology, creating neural pathways that your brain can tell your body , " this hurt is ok, I've done it before, I've got this covered, keep on doing it".

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Four Principles For Correct Training : General Training Plans For Elites

N.B. This copy below I adapted for Simon Mills.

This piece centres on the cornerstones of any sound career-long running program, which include progressively higher mileage, periodization, and extremely limiting the amount of hard interval training, particularly in youth.

This is based on a natural and practical approach to running, not theories or philosophies. There are many scatterbrained theories on training, but serious runners don't need theories; they need what has been proven in the real world.

Here's the truth:

It is not possible to reach ultimate potential without first establishing enough of a lifetime base to make your training count when you become physically mature.

A good proportion of today’s runners do not understand this; they try to get a quick fix in this sport, and it simply doesn't work.

A runner hoping to be part of the nations top runners, and achieve their potential, absolutely must try to obtain the ability to train at 100+ miles per week by the peak of their career, in order to reach fruition. There are not really any exceptions to this.

1.) Long-term development. It takes years for runners to attain their capacities.

Most runners employ a "fast food" training scheme, particularly as young athletes or when at University. It is easy to run hard intervals on the track, which gives them an alluring quick fix, yet the long-term results are usually mediocre at best, in most cases.

Every time you race, you're drawing not only off of training you did a few weeks or even months ago, but also off of running or other activity that you did many years ago!

The nature of that activity must be predominately aerobic for best future results in running, as a bank or reservoir is then prod

2.) High mileage. This is the missing ingredient for most in distance running today.

An emphasis on low to moderate mileage during the 1980s and most of the 1990s and into the new millennium is the sole reason for our failure to produce the number of elite runners that we had during the 1970s and early 1980s.

Those guys back then ran high mileage, and - surprise of surprises - the only UK or U.S. runners who have been among the world's elite during the last decade are also high mileage runners!

My program aims to develop runners from youth to the point where they can train effectively and consistently at 100 miles per week by the time they reach physical maturity.

Anything less than that is opting out and is inferior to the training used by elites around the world. Again, this is a long-term approach. There are no quick fixes to doing this correctly. It may take many years to reach the point of being able to run three weeks out of every four at 120+ miles per week and also be able to add an ample amount of faster-paced running in there.

It will pay off enormously if done correctly, but several years of only moderately good performances might have to be faithfully endured in order to get to the highest possible level. Probably 99 out of 100 runners lack this kind of patience and perseverance, and those runners will most likely never fulfill their promise.

But this is not to say that speed does not play a big part in a training approach

3.) Less hard track training every week.

Far less of the stressful anaerobic interval training on a track, should be done .

The bulk of harder training should be comprised of what's commonly called "threshold" or "high steady state" running.

The idea in this is to work with your body rather than against it, watching for the yellow warning light that says you're about to go too hard, as opposed to sailing through a red light, struggling and fighting yourself, and undermining the effectiveness of the workout.

But you should also do what is called "alactic" speed work; i.e., short buildups, strides or speedy running of less than 35 seconds at a time. And also develop and maintain joint integrity and muscular strength through occasional sprint drills along with hill sessions

4.) Periodization. This refers to shifting training emphasis at times, between each off-season and competitive season peak.

And also over the course of an entire running career. There are times to run slow, times to run long, times to run a fast relaxed pace, times to guts it out and push a hard continuous pace, times to do tough anaerobic training, speedwork, etc.

This varies and applies very much on an individual basis with a training plan to suit each individual's strengths, but the principles themselves pretty much apply to everybody.

For the Average Runner

A proper training approach relies on four Basic Principles, to generalize a little.

Starting with the basics and differing from the super serious athletes in training approach which is a bit unrealistic for the masses, so that the pace of runs and an overall lower mileage apply.

1). Long-Term Development – It is essential to get as much as a base as possible.

Just how much of a base (whether it's 30, 40, 50, 60 or 100 miles or more a week, depends on a variety of factors , how long you've been running, how injury prone you are, and how much time you have, etc.).

Just remember, you will not reach your ultimate potential as a runner in your first few months or even years of running. There's definitely a cumulative effect.

They key is to think long-term and TAKE IT SLOWLY.

Don't rush to build up your mileage or get into shape for a goal race a few weeks away. This will most likely just cause you to get hurt, injured and end up slower and less fit.

No one can become a world-beater in 3 months. Only when you give yourself a year to gradually get in shape or back in shape after a long break, can you get to a point where you can train consistently and run races.

And it will take a few years after starting running, before you run more than 100 miles a week and your body can handle it.

2) High Mileage Yes, High mileage definitely is very important - especially if you want to be the very best.

However, not everyone has time to run 15 miles or more every day whilst balancing your studying, a career, a family life and a social life - there simply wouldn't be enough time without making sacrifices.

However, it still is important to get your mileage up if you want to do well in any races - whether it's 800metres or marathon.

The key is remaining injury free. More is better but only if you don't get hurt.

Also don't obsess about your weekly mileage totals. Just focus more on getting in one long run every one or two weeks and 3-4 high days close together. Be patient and take a long term approach.

3) Less hard track training –. Yes that's right, you shouldn’t come away from sessions completely drained.

What I’m saying is run hard less often and you'll probably end up doing better in the long term.

It sounds counter intuitive but it's true. You don't need to be running killer workouts all the time in order to get fast.

In fact, if you'd back off a bit and just make sure that you regularly workout moderately with occasionally really hard ones, you'll end up faster in the long run.

Why does this happen?

Because your body needs time to become fully recovered. If you're tired, it's hard to run fast or stay injury free.

4) Periodization – This sounds complex but all it refers to is trying to focus on a few peak races a year.

Perhaps one in the spring, one in summer, one in autumn and one in the winter, and then train differently at different times of the year, making sure you peak for your big races.

I've found that beginning a period, one should probably spend most time just running easy and steady state or tempo, then 2-4 times week, run four 100-meter strides near the end of your runs with like 1 minute rest in between.

Because by just running farther and not as hard you make your body stronger and stay injury free so when it's really time to get race sharp you are able to push it.

Where If you try to stay in race shape all year long or most of it, it's very hard on you both physically and mentally. One of two things will likely happen - you'll get injured or you'll lose your motivation.

Running well requires four major components to be trained. These are VO2max, Anaerobic Threshold, Aerobic Endurance, and Efficiency.

There of course many other factors but the above four cover 80% of running related performance.

I will briefly describe what each factor means and then cover the types of training that stress that aspect of running performance.

But the type of miles these runners log is actually more important than the amount, because the goal is to build a strong aerobic foundation with miles that are run a little faster than recovery pace but slower than lactate-threshold pace, or somewhere between 60 and 75 percent of maximum heart rate.

These comfortable, steady efforts are often called base miles because they form the "base" of a runner's training program, and should account for 80 to 85 percent of total weekly mileage (with the other 15 to 20 percent coming from higher-intensity training).

Physiologically, base miles are important because they boost aerobic conditioning, develop slow-twitch muscle fibers, increase blood volume and glycogen storage, strengthen connective tissue, and enhance the body's ability to burn fat.

But perhaps the best reason to build your base mileage during the winter is because of the positive impact it will have on your spring and summer racing seasons.

Runners who emphasize base training throughout the winter will establish a substantial aerobic foundation that will carry them through to early summer.

And the low-intensity, repetitive nature of base miles strengthens ligaments and tendons so that you'll be stronger and more injury-resistant when it finally comes time to turn up the heat during spring speed-work sessions

Types of Training Sessions

BUILDING AN ENDURANCE BASE

Long Steady Runs

• • Long runs are the key to your marathon success and an essential part of building your endurance base and stamina.

  • Your long runs should be run preferably over a hilly course and on trails, include a combination of soft and moderately hard surfaces as long as a good paced effort can be maintained, and you are not up to your knees in bog, so try to minimize impact and shock.

  • As a marathon event comes closer gradually start making your long runs less hilly and run a greater portion of them on harder surface terrain, so that you get used to running on the road.

  • You should start your long runs at a moderate intensity while the desired general pace is steady, not slow and about 30-40 seconds slower that marathon pace, but include sections where you are pushing on the pace some of the run, for most weeks.

  • Although after racing, take the run at an easier pace to recover.

  • These runs are a great time to run with a training group.

  • When building up, try not to increase each week by more than 10%.

Medium Long Runs : Steady State Tempo

• • Medium long runs are what you are going to use as your longish mid-week aerobic run, also called steady state, AT or LT.

  • They are similar to long runs in terms of desired running pace, still able to talk although not in flowing words, but you should work up to marathon pace, and should not be exhausted but easily recoverable for the following day.

  • You should try to run these over hilly courses and all terrain or off-road where possible.

  • For longer race distances run 30 – 60 minutes at marathon pace, building from an easy/ steady 10 to 15 minutes to start and finishing with an easier last 10 to 15 minutes.

  • You can build up this middle section to one hour

  • An alternative is 3 minutes hard and 3 minutes easy/ steady and increase from 30 – 60 minutes over the months

Tempo Runs

• • Tempo runs are used to prepare your body to run economically at a controlled pace, with the first and last 7-10 minutes at an easy pace.

  • For 10k this is done for 15 – 25 minutes at 10mile pace or 30 seconds per mile slower than race pace.

  • For longer race distances run 40 – 45 minutes at marathon pace.

  • These can be broken down into intervals runs of i.e. 3 - 5 X 1 mile at 10mile pace or 6 - 8 X 1mile at marathon pace, with recovery between each interval a very short easy jog.

Aerobic Runs

• • Aerobic runs are similar to medium long runs in terms of intensity, however the duration is shorter. These runs are never the primary focus of the week and should be used to generate a smaller amount of training load. They are not as easy as a recovery run but not as demanding as a medium long run.

  • Aerobic runs are often coupled with strides or a fartlek run, so that the majority of the run is of moderate aerobic intensity, with strides interspersed throughout.

All Training Sessions Should Include a Warm Up and Cool Down

• • Warm-up for at least 10 minutes and cool down for at least 10 minutes. This should be a jog at very low intensity. During the latter part of the warm up you should complete some drills as a form of dynamic or active stretching; these include high knees, butt kicks, bounding and short stride out sprints.

  • Each session outlined includes time for the warm up and cool down period of the run. These periods are extremely important to allow maximum benefit from your session and to enable you to recover more quickly for your next session.

Recovery Runs

• • Recovery runs are just that, they are used as an active form of recovery.

  • They should be done at a low intensity over flat natural terrain.

  • Don’t worry about the pace of these runs, they should only ever be nice and easy, even when you are feeling fresh and ready to go.

Created by Dave Rodgers 01/11/2007