What is the weekly workout?
The weekly workout is a coach-set but not coach-led session that you can include in your training. Who you run it with and where and when you run it is completely up to you.
The sessions here are a variety of workouts including hills, tempo runs and interval sessions.
Most importantly, as stated in each of the session plans, please remember to warm up appropriately with some easy running and dynamic stretches.
When you have completed the session, cool down with 10-15 minutes of easy running, eat carbs and protein as soon as you can, stretch and drink plenty of water.
Alternating tempo run
This session is an “alternating tempo run”. If you’ve never done a tempo run, they are a prolonged run at a moderately to comfortably hard effort and they are great for developing your endurance. Alternating tempos add a little extra spice to the mix by fluctuating between a faster and slower pace, which makes it both more interesting and helps to improve your body’s ability to shuttle the by-products of lactic acid.
Session details
Use the training paces from the vdot calculator (vdoto2.com).
- Warm up for 10-15 mins with some easy running and dynamic stretches.
- Run continuously for 21 mins, alternating between 3 mins at Threshold Pace followed by 3 mins at 30-40 seconds slower than Threshold Pace. For example, if my Threshold Pace was 7 min miles I would run 3 mins at this pace followed by 3 mins at 7.30-40.
- As this is not an interval session, there is no “rest” period. Depending on your level of experience, you may want to shorten or lengthen the workout. We’ll leave that up to you.
- Cool down with 10-15 minutes of easy running; eat plenty of carbs and protein as soon as you can; stretch and drink plenty of water.
Interval session
This session is an interval session where you will be alternating between effort and recovery. This type of session is great great for developing your confidence at maintaining a consistent pace.
Session details:
Use the training paces from the vdot calculator (vdoto2.com).
- Warm up for 10-15 mins with some easy running and dynamic stretches.
- Then using an appropriate flat loop ( eg Logix Park or the perimeter of a park such as Richmond in Hinckley or Grove Road in Burbage) choose a starting point; run for 2 mins at or as close as you can to your ‘interval pace’ ( from the vdot calculator). Put a marker at the point you get to ( a chalk mark/ pebble etc) then jog back to the start point along the same route ( jog back should take at least 3 mins and should be at easy pace).
- Repeat x 7 ( i.e. total 8 including the first one).. the aim is consistency so each time, you should consistently arrive at your marker after your 2 mins of effort.
- The recovery element in between each rep is imperative in order to enable you to maintain consistency.
- Cool down with 10-15 minutes of easy running; eat plenty of carbs and protein as soon as you can; stretch and drink plenty of water.
VO2 Max intervals
This session is “VO2 Max Intervals”. Before you try this workout, it is a good idea to have a go at the ‘Interval Session’ then try this one the following week. The interval session has you doing two minute intervals but in this one we are upping that to three, which takes you into VO2 Max territory.
VO2 Max is a term you may have heard before before but perhaps aren’t sure what it means. Put simply, it’s the maximum volume of oxygen your body can utilise per minute to power your muscles. The higher the number, the fitter you are. VO2 Max is to an extent genetically pre-determined which is why some people are elites and others aren’t, but that doesn’t mean you can’t train it to get faster!
Session details:
Use the training paces from the vdot calculator (vdoto2.com).
- Warm up for 10-15 mins with some easy running and dynamic stretches.
- Run for 3 minutes at or close to your “Interval Pace”. Stand, walk or jog for 90 secs and then repeat. You are aiming to complete a total of 6 repetitions. This should give you a total of 6 minutes at VO2 Max (the first two mins don’t count as your body needs this time to prime itself – sorry!).
- You can adapt this workout to your ability by running either closer to your 10K pace (a little slower than interval pace) or closer to 3K pace (a little faster than interval pace) and choosing the type of rest accordingly – standing will be easier than jogging!
- Cool down with 10-15 minutes of easy running; eat plenty of carbs and protein as soon as you can; stretch and drink plenty of water.
Hills reps
This session is a hill session ( this particular session is recommended by Jo Pavey – British long distance runner and five time Olympian). This type of session is great for building speed as it develops leg strength and power in a dynamic way.
To complete the session, you will need to find a hill ( or a length of road with a constant incline) which would take you three minutes to run up steadily. Examples of locations you could use are included in the comments.
The first 60 seconds of the video link below give some useful tips about posture and arm drive to help you improve your uphill running technique.
https://youtu.be/AEoqq7ickBc?si=ToFClXs99oSRkZr-
Session details:
- Warm up for 10-15 mins with some easy running and dynamic stretches. Ensure your warm up finishes at your chosen location for the session.
- Then run 5 x 1 min uphill reps with a jog down recovery in between each ( back to your starting point). You are aiming for the reps to be consistent so you might like to drop a pebble / chalk a line on rep 1 to check your consistency.
- Rest for 2 minutes.
- Then run 5 x 45 second uphill reps with a jog down recovery in between each ( back to your starting point).
Rest for 2 minutes. - Then run 3 x 30 second uphill reps with a jog down recovery in between each.
Rest for 2 minutes. - Finally run up the hill for two minutes accelerating for the last 30 seconds of this two minute effort.
- Cool down with 10-15 minutes of easy running; eat plenty of carbs and protein as soon as you can; stretch and drink plenty of water.
Tempo speed sandwich
This session is a tempo speed sandwich. A tempo run is a prolonged run at a moderately to comfortably hard effort. This session takes this that a step further by adding a bit of variable speed in the middle to spice it up!
Session details:
- Warm up for 10-15 mins with some easy running and dynamic stretches.
- Run continuously for 7.5 mins at a comfortably hard pace (the pace you can hold for an hour max).
- Jog for 2 minutes.
- Run for 30 secs at a pace slightly slower than your tempo section, followed by 20 secs hard and 10 secs all out. Repeat 4 more times, for a total of 5 minutes continuously.
- Jog for 2 minutes.
- Run continuously for 7.5 mins at a comfortably hard pace (the pace you can hold for an hour max).
- Cool down with 10-15 minutes of easy running; eat plenty of carbs and protein as soon as you can; stretch and drink plenty of water.
You can increase the challenge of this workout by repeating the increasing speed section again, separated by a two minute jog.
Pyramid session
This session is an interval training session but works on the principal of a pyramid.
Pyramid style workouts include a change in distance or pace as you go ‘up’ and ‘down’ the pyramid. By switching up your speed for a specified amount of time, you have the opportunity to increase your tempo and endurance.
The session can be done in any location but would be more productive on a flatter route to ensure consistency. It would be helpful if you loaded the timed sections into your garmin ( see link below) to ensure your timings for each interval are accurate. If you don’t use a garmin, there are timing apps that can be used on a smartphone which are equally as good.
Session details:
- Warm up for 10 mins with some easy running and dynamic stretches. Ensure your warm up finishes at your chosen start point for the session.
- You will see the terms ‘threshold’ and ‘easy’ pace in the ‘how to run’ column. Use the vdot calculator to check your pace for each. ( link to vdot calculator in comments).
| Interval | How to run |
| Warm-up | 10 min-as above |
| Work interval | 1 min at threshhold pace |
| Rest interval | 1 min at easy pace |
| Work interval | 2 min at threshold pace |
| Rest interval. | 2 min at easy pace |
| Work interval | 3 min at threshold pace |
| Rest interval | 3 min at easy pace |
| Work interval | 4 min threshold pace |
- This is the top of the pyramid 😊
- Continue to run as follows (note the next rest interval is 4 mins before you work ‘down’ the pyramid)
| Interval | How to run |
| Rest interval | 4 min at easy pace |
| Work interval | 3 min at threshold pace |
| Rest interval | 3 min at easy pace |
| Work interval | 2 min at threshold pace |
| Rest interval | 2 min at easy pace |
| Work interval | 1 min threshold pace |
| Rest interval | 1 min threshold pace |
- Cool down with 10-15 minutes of easy running; eat plenty of carbs and protein as soon as you can; stretch and drink plenty of water.
Mile reps
This session is called “Mile Winders”. This is a great workout for building your endurance when running at pace and can be incorporated as part of a pre race build up for anything from 5K to Marathon distance.
Use the training paces from the vdot calculator (vdoto2.com).
Session details:
- Warm up for 10-15 mins with some easy running, dynamic stretches and a few optional strides.
- Run for 1 mile at your marathon pace. Rest for 90 secs. Repeat, but this time aim to increase your pace by just a few seconds. Repeat for a total of 3-6 reps depending on your ability level, aiming to increase the speed on each one by a few seconds.
- Cool down with 10-15 minutes of easy running; eat plenty of carbs and protein as soon as you can; stretch and drink plenty of water.
Kenyan hills
This session is a hill session. It is based upon the ‘Kenyan Hills’ …a concept which is believed to have been around since the 1970s. There is no specific evidence of where the name ‘Kenyan Hills’ came from however, it is generally believed it is derived from a Western athlete returning from a training period in Kenya.
What makes them different from our traditional hill workouts?
In brief, in terms of effort, rather than using the downhill as recovery, you should try to run the entire duration ( up and downhill) around your tempo / ‘moderately hard’ pace. (Remember to use the VDot calculator to work this out or look at our ‘effort guide’ in the comments below to see tempo and threshold pace compared).
Ideally, you should be aiming for a hill that is between 400m and 800m long, which would take somewhere in the range of one to three and a half minutes to ascend depending upon the distance you choose and your speed. (Winchester Drive/Salisbury Rd or Woodland Avenue in Burbage are ideal).
Session details:
- Warm up for 20 mins with some easy running and dynamic stretches.
- Start running up your chosen hill at your tempo pace. Then turn immediately at the top and run down the hill with a long-relaxed stride but maintaining the same pace, then repeat without resting.
- Continue for 5 minutes and then take 2 minutes of recovery before repeating three more times keeping the same consistent pace up and downhill for each ‘set’.
- Cool down with 10-15 minutes of easy running; eat plenty of carbs and protein as soon as you can; stretch and drink plenty of water.
The 2 minute recovery in between each 5 minute ‘set’ is imperative to be able to complete the uphill/downhill sections with the required effort.
A key benefit for Kenyan hill training is that they are great for getting used to continual change of pace as you go from running uphill to downhill. This helps you get used to races where surges and changes in pace are commonplace – cross country races for instance.
Fast finish run
This session is a “Fast Finish Run”. These types of runs are great for recruiting additional muscle fibres towards the end of an easy or long run, once you’ve put a little fatigue in your legs.
Session details:
This is a flexible session so feel free to adapt it so that it works for you.
Go for an easy paced run and run the final quarter at a considerably faster pace. It’s that simple! I recommend the shorter the run, the faster the pace. So it may look something like this:
- 6 mile run: 4.5 miles easy, 1.5 miles 10K pace.
- 12 mile run: 9 miles easy, 3 miles comfortably hard.
You can also “turbocharge” your fast finish with an even faster finish by running the last 300-400m at your mile pace.
Cool down with 10-15 minutes of easy running; eat plenty of carbs and protein as soon as you can; stretch and drink plenty of water.
Quarter mile reps
This session is all about consistency.
Session details:
Start with a 1-1.5 mile warm-up jog ensuring your warm-up finishes at the session location
You will need a flat stretch of pavement / road just over 1/4 – 1/2 mile in length along which you can run in both directions.
Use the vdot calculator (vdoto2.com) to work out your ‘interval pace’ and ‘repetition pace’.
- Run 5 x 0.25 miles at your interval pace with 60 seconds walking rest or very slow jog in between each aiming to maintain the same pace for all 5 reps.
- 60 seconds walking rest after rep #5
- Repeat 5 x 0.25 miles at your interval pace ( or for slightly more of a challenge, run this second set at your ‘repetition pace’) aiming to attain the same pace for all 5 reps.
- Cool down with 10-15 minutes of easy running; eat plenty of carbs and protein as soon as you can; stretch and drink plenty of water.