Our 8 week plan is written by our head-coach to improve running technique, endurance and speed.
All sessions are coached and begin at Three Hills Sports Park at 6.30pm.
Each Thursday there is also a social run led by qualified coaches.
Tuesday 22 October – Thursday 12 December
| Date | Session | Location (Always meet at Three Hills) |
| Tuesday 22 October | Winter handicap #1 | |
| Thursday 24 October | 3 minute, 2 minute, 1 minute reps 1 minute recoveries | Lucy Avenue |
| Tuesday 29 October | 1 kilometre x 5 (main group) 1 kilometre x 7 (endurance group) | The Leas (outside The Metropole) |
| Thursday 31 October | 3 minute reps x 5 (main group) 3 minute reps x 6 (endurance group) | Lucy Avenue |
| Tuesday 5 November | Hill training | |
| Thursday 7 November | Pyramid intervals: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 minute reps 1 minute recoveries | Lucy Avenue |
| Tuesday 12 November | Winter 9 mile | |
| Thursday 14 November | 2 minute reps x 10 (main group) 2 minute reps x 12 (endurance group) | Lucy Avenue |
| Tuesday 19 November | Winter handicap #2 | |
| Thursday 21 November | Fartlek training | Lucy Avenue |
| Tuesday 26 November | 1 minute reps x 10 1 minute recoveries then 1 minute reps x 10 30 second recoveries | The Leas (outside The Metropole) |
| Thursday 28 November | Parlauf | Lucy Avenue |
| Tuesday 3 December | Hill training | |
| Thursday 5 December | (4 minutes, 2 minutes) x 3 1 minute recoveries | Lucy Avenue |
| Tuesday 10 December | (400 metres, 200 metres) x 5 (main group) (400 metres, 200 metres) x 6 (endurance group) | Three Hills Sports Park – Field |
| Thursday 12 December | 1600, 1200, 800, 400, 200 metres | Three Hills Sports Park – Field |
Session types
Hill training
Always a firm favourite amongst our runners; hill training takes place on Radnor Cliff, Sandgate.
Runners will meet at Three Hills Sports Park as usual.
Winter 9 mile
The winter 9 is a hilly long run that should be tackled just below race pace.
Runners will meet at Three Hills Sports Park as usual.
Fartlek
Fartlek is Swedish for ‘speed-play’.
It is an unstructured form of interval training with continuous movement.
Unlike tempo and interval work, fartlek is unstructured and alternates between moderate to hard efforts with easy efforts throughout. After a warmup, you play with speed by running at faster efforts for short periods of time (to that tree, to the sign) followed by easy-effort running to recover.
The goal is to keep it free-flowing so you’re untethered to the watch or a plan, and to run at harder efforts but not a specific pace.
from Runners World: https://www.runnersworld.com/training/a20852351/whats-the-difference-between-fartlek-tempo-and-interval-runs/
Paarlauf
Paarlauf is a continuous relay involving two runners. (Paarlauf is german for ‘pairs’).
Two runners will run around a track in opposite directions: one running fast and the other running easy.
When they meet, they swap pace.
The fast runner begins their slow recovery jog and the easy runner begins their sprint.
This continues for a pre-set amount of time.
Beep test
The beep test is a short exercise to measure fitness and aerobic capacity.
Runners continually shuttle-run 10 metres from line to line before a timed beep: The time between beeps gets progressively shorter as the test goes on.
Once the runner can no longer reach the line before a beep they are ‘out’ and are given a score between 1 and 21, depending on how far they have progresses.
Read The Beep Test, A Comprehensive Guide from 5-a-side.com
Mountain run
The mountain run is not as scary as it sounds! It’s a social run from Three Hills Sports Park to Summerhouse Hill, and back.
Runners will set off in groups with the aim of reaching the summit to admire the view at the same time.
The social run group may take a different route to the summit.