The “Up & Down” is a hill running specific workout based on the ‘Out & Back‘ session usually done in the Base Period. It teaches you to run at the fastest pace you can sustain aerobically, that is, burning mainly fat and oxygen for fuel and incurring minimal oxygen debt while climbing long hills similar to…
Tag Archives: Workouts
WORKOUTS: Ferocious fartleks!
Autumn cross-country is almost upon us again and there is no better time to experiment with “Fartleks“, the Swedish concept of “speedplay”. When I look around the internet there are many examples of Fartleks but in our opinion, the format is still not being used to it’s full potential. This is a session to be…
TRAINING: How to manage stress and your workouts
The world is full of stressors: toxins, lack of sleep, emotional outbursts (that nasty boss or evil-eyed spouse!), physical exertion and more. Every time we are subjected to stress our mind switches into a state controlled by a part of your nervous system called the “sympathetic nervous system” – our “fight or flight” response. The…
Natural workout sample – Gate Protocol #1
This workout can be used by any runner who has been instructed in basic jumping, balancing, vaulting, lunging and sprinting techniques. I came up with it on the August Bank Holiday as a quick morning workout that takes less than 30 minutes including warm-up and cool-down. Equipment needed 1 x gate (1m high or so)…
Strong fartlek
Fartlek is a mixture of aerobic (easier) and anaerobic (harder) running without any set structure for when you decide to put in hard efforts. Likewise you can vary the exact intensity and length of faster running any way you want. Strong fartlek is similar to normal fartlek, except that the purpose is to get a…
Cross-country sessions and fartleks – OMNIUM
Fartlek training is a perfect way to mimic the unpredictable nature of cross-country running and to bring an element of real fun into your running workouts. Fartleks can take any shape or form and are always best done over natural terrain making them perfect simulations for the cross-country running season. I’ve designed and/or stolen many…
Max aerobic function (MAF) test
The “max aerobic function” (MAF) test is part of our ChampionsEverywhere program for prevention of underperformance in our athletes. This test does not focus on under-recovery and overtraining as much as it tries to detect whether your recent training has damaged your level of aerobic fitness and through this provide an early indication of problems…
Lydiard and Canova – coaches’ round-table
In part two of our series dedicated to comparing the teachings of Arthur Lydiard with those of enigmatic Italian coach Renato Canova, I asked a panel of experienced Lydiard-coaches of their opinions on the matter among them Colin Livingstone, coach of Welsh international Tim Davies, Keith Livingstone, author of “Healthy Intelligent Training” and manager of…
Workouts for running (training session types)
Our training programmes consist of a number of workout types each of which have their own article containing all the information you need to execute that particular workout correctly as well as improvise or modify it for special conditions. To give you a quick-start you can find an index of the workouts in the below…
Long recovery run
This article used to be “Long recovery jog” but as “jogging” really refers to a damaging hybrid movement between walking and running, we are now avoiding this term. Even for short runs, you should aim to keep proper technique. Your long recovery runs are slower and more leisurely versions of your long aerobic runs. Like…
Out and back (sub-threshold run)
The “out and back” workout is the fastest aerobic workout you will do during the aerobic phase. It teaches you to run at the fastest pace you can sustain aerobically, that is, burning mainly fat and oxygen for fuel and incurring little or no oxygen debt. This workout will allow you to run faster before…
Windsprints (sharpeners)
Windsprints are shorter anaerobic interval sessions introduced when it is still necessary to do some anaerobic training but advisable to drop the volume and increase the intensity. They are used for sharpening and becoming accustomed to changes in pace in racing. “If you run 20×400 metres, you will be at it a long time and…
