My earliest memories of running are with my Dad when he helped me train for my primary school cross country race in year 7.  A 2km run along the roads near my home, where Dad would let me sprint off at the end.  Ever since, running has been a passion and the pursuit of PBs has ebbed and flowed, until recently where I’ve hit a bit of a groove with the marathon. To experience, exceptional performance in running, choose the best footwear for your runs like Tarkine Trail Devil shoes.

In May 2019 I attempted my first marathon in Adelaide; I had a blast and ran 2.26 (75/71).  My wife was in her last trimester of pregnancy at the time and the marathon felt like a bit of a swan-song given running looked likely to take a back seat to our new adventure of parenthood.  Fast forward to October 2019 and I’m lining up for the Melbourne Marathon, having swapped out some traditional training sessions for hybrid sessions and extra milage on my commute to and from work.  I was seemingly in better shape than Adelaide and a little wiser about how to tackle the event.  I ran 2.21 (71/70) which had me in sight of a new goal, sub 2.20.

Over the summer I rolled into a third marathon block and headed over to Lake Biwa, Japan in March 2020.  This was one of the last international races before the Covid-19 pandemic and I managed to sneak in under my target time running 2.19.57 (70/69).

Racing for the next 18 months was fairly unpredictable and Raf and I decided to focus a little more on the track the over the summer of 2020/21 before training up for the Gold Coast Marathon in July 2021.  The training block went well for Gold Coast however, like many other, we were disappointed to learn that the race was cancelled due to the pandemic.  I took a couple of lighter training weeks, and then started to build back up for either the Melbourne or Perth marathons.  It became clear fairly quickly, due to travel restrictions, that Perth would be the likely preferred option.  Perth is typically quite a windy city and the marathon course is on footpaths so, on face value, it wasn’t quite as appealing as say the Gold Coast or Melbourne marathons.  However we were blessed with some good conditions for mid-October and the home crowd certainly helped (I had a lot of family and friends on course) and I knocked down my PB a little further to 2.18 (69/69).

I thought it may be useful to share some of the key marathon-specific sessions that I’ve completed as part of my marathon training blocks, which typically span around 15 weeks in total.  In the first 8 weeks Raf has us focus on building our fitness (training load) through longer threshold workouts, higher mileage and a long run of around 2.5hours.  From weeks 8-13 we roll into a marathon specific phase which typically includes three key marathon-specific workouts.  The last two weeks is the taper.  I should note that I practise my race day fuelling during the marathon-specific workouts.

 

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Session 1 [strength endurance]:  2hours 45mins @ steady pace

A run this long, and at a stronger pace, means that we are running over marathon distance, which may be seen as a little controversial.  However, the pace/intensity isn’t such that we are above our aerobic threshold, which is very important.  We also reduce our training load before and after a workout like this as the legs can be a little tired over the following few days.  The focus of the run is time at the given intensity and I use my heart rate and pace zones as the guide.

Session 2 [transitional specific]:  75mins steady into 3 by 16min @ marathon pace / 4min float

We’ve completed a number iterations of this sort of session ahead of a marathon.  The pre-fatigue is time at a steady pace (for me 3.45-4.00min/km) which is between a tempo effort and easy pace, followed by a quick shoe change and then into 60-75mins of marathon pace intervals.

Session 3 [moderately specific]:  9 by 2km @ marathon pace / 1 km float

This is perhaps on the easier side of the marathon-specific workouts as the ratio of the float recovery to marathon pace efforts is relatively high.  The floats for these workouts are around 20-30seconds slower than marathon pace and we typically try to target a course/location that mirrors the profile of the marathon we are training for.

Session 4 [highly specific]:  4 by 6km @ marathon pace / 1 km float

This session was completed two weeks after Session 3, described above, as part of the preparation for Perth.  The ratio of marathon pace to recovery is a lot higher for this session and is probably about as ‘close to the fire’ as we get when it comes to these marathon-specific workouts.  Raf wouldn’t prescribe a workout like this unless an athlete’s training stress (i.e. fitness load) is sufficiently high enough to tolerate this workout.  Reflecting on this workout post-race, what we ran for this correlated very highly with the race performances for our training group.

Thanks to Runner’s Tribe for the opportunity and happy running.

Cheers

Dean

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Ever since I was a very little girl all I had known was to run and be fit, healthy and active. That is what my parents are, My Mum Emma and my Dad Marcus were competitive road runners when I was growing up and still run, So being in that environment it was only a matter of time before I fell in love with it too. I won my first 2km road race at the age of 4 crossing the line holding hands with my brothers (we are triplets by the way), At the age of 8 I started little athletics with my two brothers. I loved the longer distances and the sprint hurdles. All through little athletics the 1500m and the 90m sprint hurdles were my favourite. I first represented Tasmania at the age of 10 at the Australian All Schools in 2014. From then I was selected in many State cross country teams. I never really placed that well 13th was my best but that made me want to run more and to get better.

At the age of 13, I started to take my running more seriously and began to train regularly with my parents coaching me. In the 2018/ 2019 track season, my dad said that I should try the Steeplechase as I was a confident jumper and really good over the longer distances. 

I stood on the start line next to my brother not knowing what to expect, after the first lap I knew this was going to be my event. In that race, I broke the Northern centre record by 7 seconds. Later that season I competed in my first Steeplechase at Nationals, placing second in the U/16 girls and running a 12 second PB. Then in October of 2019 at State All Schools I broke 5 State records in the U16 to U20 age divisions in the Steeplechase running a 15 second PB in a 6:47. That time was the fastest in Australia for a U18 and put me on the world U18 ranking list in 16th that year and I was only 15 years old.

 

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In December of 2019 I won the Australian all schools in the U16 2000m Steeplechase in a 6:48. I had a great season from December to March getting ready for Nationals again and hoping to run faster but then Covid hit Australia and Nationals were cancelled along with many other races which made training and racing extremely hard for the rest of 2020. The next big race I had was Australian National champs in April 2021, I had a really rough season and was not race fit and lacked a lot of confidence that I would normally have, but I went into the race knowing what I was capable of and knowing I had won Nationals before. I ended up winning the race by 4 seconds with a 200m sprint finish, the race wasn’t pretty and was one of the hardest races I have ever run but I felt as though I had to prove to myself and to others what hard work and determination looks like.

Since then I’ve been consistently training with Mum and Dad as my coaches still, and I have big plans for the season of 2022. I want to make it to World Juniors in the 3000m Steeplechase and to keep improving my times. Other than running  I’m about to study Certificate 3 in Beauty Therapy which I’m really excited about, I also work in a Childcare Centre and absolutely love it. I also spend a lot of time on my grandparents’ farm of a weekend with my brothers. 

 

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A typical week for me consists of 2 harder sessions 3 longer slow runs and 2 strength/ weight sessions. My 4 absolute favourite sessions are: 

1. 5x 3 minute Hill reps,  averaging 750m each rep, jog back downhill for recovery. 

Here in Tassie we have the best training location in Trevallyn which has some of the best hills. This session always leaves me in a world of hurt but I get the most satisfaction from this session. It always helps when I have dad on the bike right next to me and mum about 60m up the road for me to chase down, which is sometimes hard because she goes faster than she needs to. 

2. 3x 400m on, 200m float, 400m on, 200m float, 300m on.

400’s @ 1500m pace, 200’s @ 45sec, 300’s @max. 5 min break in between sets.

This is a 1500m workout, I try to do these in 5 minutes. 

The first time I did this session was at a TTP training camp, and Abbey De al motte took the session. I have loved doing it ever since. I find this session isn’t too hard but is still very beneficial. 

3. 7x 440m with 5 hurdles each lap 2min rest in between.

This session Dad made for me, is to get me ready for 3000m steeples. We put the hurdles in the same place as the steeples are and run the extra 40m to mimic a normal lap of steeple. I do each lap at my goal 3000m steeple pace. 

This session is a lot of fun but always hurts a lot. 

4. 200m effort 200m float x12 

I love this session for endurance but also speed, the last few efforts really hurt and it really builds up the lactic but is defiantly worth it. 

They are my 4 absolute favourite training sessions and that I feel I get the most out of. I would like to say a big thank you to Runner’s tribe for having me share my story and training. I hope everyone that reads the blog can get something out of it. 

Thanks Abbie 

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I have been in a few training groups over the years, competing for both NSW and Victoria. Notably, my time with Stephen Ellinghaus’s group in Melbourne had a profound impact on me and helped guide my future development as an athlete. Even after leaving in 2018 to return to Sydney, I have always considered Steve as a mentor, and value his considered advice. 

On my return, I joined Central Performance Track in the hands of the most incredible coach, Ben Liddy, and supported by a group of amazing squad members who are now some of my closest friends. My training in this group shifts and changes according to the season, period of training and my specific circumstances. As a middle-distance athlete who takes on a broad range of distances from 800m to 6km cross country, I tend to tackle a variety of different sessions, relatively specific to the next upcoming competition. Here, I will focus on four key sessions that were essential to the few training mesocycles prior to qualifying for World Juniors earlier this year. 

Thursday Fartlek

1 x 4min, 2 x 3min, 3 x 2min (60 seconds float recovery)

Combined with my long runs, this was the base work of my endurance as it pushed me into the high end of the aerobic zone, expanding my aerobic capacity for the last 600m of the 1500m race. These types of sessions were deceptively challenging, particularly the float component towards the back end where it was sometimes difficult to keep the legs ticking over as my heart rate crept higher. I like to think of this as the endurance exposer, giving myself and Ben an indication of where my level of fitness really lies. 

Hills at North Ryde Common

8 x monster loop (600m)

Although this doesn’t seem to receive too much excitement across my training group, hills at North Ryde Common are possibly a favourite of mine. Early on Saturday mornings we tackle the appropriately named hills – heartbreak and monster. Such a session certainly tests my mental strength, as the shifting inclines require switching gears from powering uphill to rolling down. Hills build my strength, power and versatility for speed fluctuations during races. 

Speed session

These sessions out at Homebush, or any other available track around Sydney, were undoubtably the most challenging, however usually paid the greatest reward. There would be times to hit, usually with low volume and high intensities. A session of this kind includes 4 sets of 300m/200m at 800m race pace on a 3 min cycle recovery. These sessions shoot up my heart rate, pushing me well into the anaerobic zone, and improved my lactate clearance and speed for the last 200-300m.  

1km repetitions

5 x 1km (200 jog recovery)

This kind of session typifies middle-distance training. It requires good pace judgement and mental strength to endure the slow grind towards the last few reps when the legs become heavier. Although, once I can establish a rhythm, the reps pass quickly, and I can walk away feeling rewarded, knowing I have a solid session under my belt. 

As for the next athletics season, I am excited to get out there and see what I can do before I head off to Stanford University in September to continue my running on Californian ground. 

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My running journey began in the humble streets of Sydney’s inner west, tagging along with my Mum on her weekly run around the block.

My parents soon realised that this wasn’t a temporary obsession but something that I truly enjoyed, and signed me up for Canterbury Little Athletics. Friday nights became the highlight of my week and I soon found true love in the middle distances; particularly the 800m. 

At 10 years old, I joined Pulse Performance where I was coached by Dani Andres, my first real coach (sorry Dad!). Being given the opportunity to train within such a high calibre group, my dreams immediately grew larger and I knew that running was what I wanted to do.

When I was 14, I moved to Westfields Sports High School as a part of the Athletics Program where I was coached by Brett Mathison. Westfields was definitely a unique schooling and training environment that I believe I greatly benefited from, having dropped 8 seconds in both my 800m and 1500m PBs in my final year at Westfields. Matho coached me to my first NSW team and multiple state medals, and I am beyond grateful for everything that he taught me both on and off the track.

In June 2021, I joined Central Performance Track where I am currently coached by the incredible Ben Liddy. One month after starting, we went into lockdown which meant I had to train on my own. Liddy was amazing in regularly checking up on me and ensuring I still felt part of the group, which helped me greatly in training during this time. He has created an incredible environment filled with the most friendly, supportive and talented runners I’ve ever met, and I am so grateful to have landed a spot within such an amazing group.

A typical training week for me will consist of 3 sessions, 3 longer easy runs, and 2 strength & conditioning sessions. 

With that being said, here are my 4 favourite sessions and a little bit about each of them:

SPEED

• 4×150 @ 400m effort (4min rest) 
• 2x (200 (4min) 180 (3min) 150 (8min)) @ 400m effort

Although the reps are shorter and the recoveries are longer, these sessions never fail to leave me brimming with lactic. It is all thanks to these sessions that I can now drive home normally with a pounding headache and shaky legs!

They’re a great way to get the legs moving and get a feel of that 400/800 race speed. The last few reps always replicate the feeling of the end of a race, and being able to hit the right times in the final reps always leaves me with lots of confidence going into races.

SPEED ENDURANCE

• 12×200 @ 800m effort (90sec rest)
• 400 (4min) 300 (3min) 300 (4min) 6×200 (75sec) @ 800m effort 

These types of sessions are undoubtedly my favourite. I learnt the hard way that you’ll pay for it if you don’t keep the first few controlled or go out too fast. 

The recovery is just long enough to get your heart rate down and head ready for the next rep but you always start to feel it fairly early on. These types of sessions teach you how to maintain a solid speed under fatigue which is super helpful for any race.

They are really challenging but enjoyable nonetheless and are a good indicator of my 800m fitness.

LONGER REPS

• 5-6×800-1000m on a 4:00-5:30 cycle

These sessions are a staple session throughout the year which I use to maintain my aerobic base fitness. The number of reps, distance and recovery will be carefully formulated by Liddy, ensuring they’re always a solid grind.

Running reps on a cycle is always interesting; the faster you go, the more rest you get, and vice versa, so it’s important to get the pace/effort correct from the start!

XC REPS

Our XC hill rep sessions are completed along the thick grass and grueling hills of Macquarie Hospital in North Ryde. Sessions will be different variations of the 2km, 1km and 600m loops with 1-3mins rest, sometimes finished off with some shorter hill sprints. 

They never fail to leave me in a world of pain, but the feeling of satisfaction at the end is definitely worth it. 

There’s certainly no better way to kick off your Saturday mornings!

Thank you so much to Runner’s Tribe for giving me the opportunity to share a little bit about my running, and thank you to everyone who took the time to read this.

Ava

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Running both the 800 and 1500 makes training interesting and at times very painful as both races have different energy system requirements and thus requires different training methods and sessions. This can make for some weeks with four high-quality sessions. To account my weekly layout is a bit different. To some this is blasphemy, but I do not long run on Sundays, instead, I do speed work with some of the sprinters in my group and long run on Wednesdays instead. Backing up Saturday’s session with training Sunday makes for a pretty tiring weekend especially when pair with working at Chadstone Shopping Centre. 

 

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Anyways, here are 4 of my key sessions:

Hills

As wired as it seems hills are probably my favourite type of workout. I am not sure as to why, but they have always seemed to bring a smile to my face. We are very lucky in that Melbourne has a wide selection of hills with varying gradients that we can use to alter the stimulus of the hill and thus the focus of the session. Lower gradient hills such as Yarra Park next to the MCG are better are great for developing greater running economy and aerobic strength. Higher gradient hills such as Airlie Street next to the tan, Walmer Street in Kew, or Stanley Avenue in Oakleigh – which I personally believe is the toughest of the three – are good for developing anaerobic endurance, power, and mental toughness. Depending on what we need to develop during the season will determine what type of hills we get. I feel hills are vital for everyone especially middle distance and distance runners – there are a plethora of research articles that suggest this conclusion.  

Caulfield Park sessions 

These have been a tradition in the Hippo Athletic Club long before I was born. Traditionally the session is 6 by 3 minutes with a minute’s rest. Whilst the route has changed slightly – thankfully it is a lot flatter now – since the likes of Mark Hipworth, Peter Bourke started the doing the session in the 1980s. Special mention to Hippo who is still doing the sessions! I remember way back when I was about 9 years old. I would warm up for tennis by walking across the carpark and joining in on the strides that the group was doing. It wasn’t until my first session back at Caulfield Park (in about 2016) when I connected the dots that it was the same group. Warm up takes place religiously between 9 and 9:10 (for those who run on Kenyan time) each and every Saturday. Numbers ebb and flow depending on how far away the easter weekend is. The session itself ranges from 30 second intervals for the sprinters to 3 minutes for the distance group. Typically, as well, the rep range is 4-8. Regardless, each rep is always on a 4-minute cycle which makes to time recoveries if you get a bit muddled up on the watch. This session changes purpose as training cycles shift. During our base phase, it tends to be a relatively faster session. As we get into the thick of summer though, Saturdays at Caulfield Park become the key aerobic session for us. 

1k + 8-10 * 400

This workout we do year-round. Us in the middle-distance group mainly consist of 800/1500 guys and thus it is important to keep that connection and feel of the track all year round, so we are better adjusted come speed endurance workouts in summer. This also makes it a great marker of our fitness. During the winter these sessions tend to be a little more relaxed and tempo style of track work and slowly over the season the times drop. This session does a really good job at building strength as the k at the start adds just enough fatigue to feel it in the last couple of 4s. The 4s also tend to be steady through the first half then we cut down and come the last rep the competitive juices can begin to flow. This has become a comfort workout for us and it’s always nice seeing it in the weekly plan. 

3 x 600 (2 mins rest) + 4 x 300 (4 mins rest)

What makes this session so good is also what makes me wince when I find out we have it in the week. It hurts a lot. This is one of our ‘tweener’ workouts that ticks both 800 and 1500 specific boxes without swaying too much either way and negating the other. Despite the fatigue built up in the session – which usually leads to a day of laying in bed – it is a really enjoyable session and teaches you how to run fast on tired legs. It is one of those few sessions which I find really mimics how that last 300 metres of a race feels, which is hard for a workout to do. 

 

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These sessions – particularly the track sessions – are ideal for the schoolboy athlete, who is around 16/17, and who is targeting the 1500m and running around low 4 minutes and is looking to peak for the school championship season (October – December).

It should be noted that these more intense sessions should be done, initially at least, with an experienced coach in attendance and by an athlete with at least a few years of regular training and racing. Athletes should learn pace judgement and always run within their capacity. Training should be hard, but never to the absolute limit.

The quality interval sessions should be undertaken after a number of months of aerobic base building, with long, steady runs, mixed with weekly hill/fartlek runs and are a more specific session for middle-distance runners. Training should be in moderation, with gradual increases in intensity and volume.

The training sessions here were devised by my former coach and PE teacher, John Cropper. John taught in the outer western suburbs of Sydney and the Wollongong/Illawarra region, where he was also an accomplished soccer player and soccer coach. He was also a 2.40 marathoner who won a number of fun runs in the ‘80s. Here are four key training sessions for the aspiring schoolboy middle-distance runner:

FARTLEK:

Fartlek is a great session to do all year round. It can be short and sharp or take the form of a longer run with occasional surges. There is a tendency for it to be overly structured, with strictly times surges and jog/float recoveries. Something like the ‘Mona Fartlek’ is an example of this. Fartlek, from Swedish, translates as ‘speed play’. The runners of early last century who began to run fartlek, did so as a looser, much less structured session, running as they felt, surging for a few minutes, easing off, doing sprints of varying lengths – all part of a longer, continuous run. Basically, the idea was to do a hard session but make it fun.

Kids, between 14 and 17 beginning to run fartlek, could just go out – individually or as a group – and run for, say, 30-40 minutes and run slowly for 5 -10 minutes to warm up, then throw in surges. You could, say, run hard to fixed points, say a car or telegraph pole up ahead a few hundred metres ahead, then ease off, then run hard for a few minutes, then ease off, find a hill or two and sprint the hills, and continue this until about the 25-30 minute mark of the run, then take a 10 minute warm down jog. Ideally, you would do a session over undulating terrain, over a bush track or on a golf course or parkland.

A more structured session we did was something like this: 10 minute warm up run, 2 minutes hard, 1 minute easy, 2 minutes hard, 1 minute easy, 1 minute hard, 1 minute easy, 1 minute hard, 1 minute easy, 5 or 6 50m-80m sprints with 30 seconds recovery jog between them, 2 minutes hard, 1 minute. Easy, 2 minutes hard, 1 minute easy, 1 minute hard, 1 minute easy, 1 minute hard, 10 minutes warm down run.

This is a great all-round conditioning session and gets an athlete used to changing pace. The athlete should also be encouraged to maintain rhythm and a steady pace during the float recovery sections of the run. Another advantage is that, with the shorter sprints within the fartlek session, it keeps an athlete in touch with some sort of speedwork all year round.   The great Olympic champion and multiple world record-breaker, Sebastian Coe was known to sharpen his speed regularly, even while in an aerobic base-building phase. He once said that he never liked to be “…more than a fortnight away from a fast 400m”.

A regular fartlek run can be run on one or two set courses throughout the year. If the runner can complete a loop of a course, with set timed surges and recoveries, in faster times over a period of a few months, it is clearly a great way of gauging fitness gains. Steve Moneghetti famously ran weekly sessions of his eponymous fartlek sessions on a 5.9km lap of Ballarat’s Lake Wendouree and knew that completing a lap in under 18 minutes meant that he was in good shape and training was going well. When he first devised the session early in his career ( a session which takes exactly 20minutes, not including warm-up and warm-down), Moneghetti would not even cover a full lap in the 20 minutes. It’s important to remember:  fartlek should be hard, but it also should be fun.

HILLS:

Hills should be an important component of any middle- and long-distance runner’s regular training regime. Whether it’s regular steady runs over hills or specific hill rep sessions, coaches and athletes should seek out hilly terrain in their area – or outside their area, if they live in a flat region.

New Zealand champion Rod Dixon was an Olympic and World Cross Country Championship medallist, and a New York Marathon winner. He grew up running across the tough, hilly terrain around Nelson in the South Island, and this built the endurance and strength which carried him through a long elite-level career, in which he ran a range of world-class performances from 1500m to the marathon.

Dixon’s experience on the hills served him well in many races. Often in road and cross-country races, he would run the hills hard and maintain the surge at the crest. This would catch his rivals off guard. The tendency of many runners is to relax at the top of a tough hill, but Dixon would often accelerate at the crest and often opened a gap, then he carried his momentum down the other side of the hill and would be able to pull away from his rivals

Many of the all-time great Australian athletes – including Herb Elliott and Rob de Castella – would run hills in training to build fitness, strength and the sheer toughness required to compete at the highest level. Elliott, guided by the legendary Percy Cerutty, famously ran the sandhills of Portsea when preparing for major races, often running himself to the point of collapse. For relatively inexperienced teenagers, a more moderate approach is advisable.

A regular, weekly hill repetition session with an active (jog down the hills) recovery. Is a great workout.

It can be on a circuit, where an athlete will run a series of hills over a course, or you can pick one particular hill and run reps up and down. One of our great sessions was on a Sunday morning, when we would run the ‘Torture Course’, a series of steep hills on a loop of dirt tracks in bushland not far from our club track.

Another session was 8 reps – between warm-up and warm-down runs – up a steep 200m hill, with a jog down recovery. We ran hard, but not flat out, pushing hard beyond the crest of the hill. It is a good idea for a coach – or the kids themselves- to check pulses in the middle of the session, to see that they aren’t overdoing it Anything north of about 155bpm, and it’s a good policy to back off a little. Moderation is important until kids develop a good strength and fitness base.

Hill sessions done right will develop and anaerobic fitness, and they will naturally enhance good sprinting form – rear leg drive, high knee lift, arm drive – as well as improving strength and muscular endurance.

HIGH-REP, SHORT RECOVERY INTERVALS:

These were a key session. An example would be 14 x 400m or 20 x 200m. The 400s would be run at about 5km pace (at the time for me, around 75 sec) and, over a few months, the pace would increase to about 71-72 (about 3km pace). The 200s would be run in about 32-34 sec (roughly 4.00-4.15 1500m pace). They would be run in around 31 closer to competition time. The recoveries would be 60 seconds, dropping to as little as 50 seconds on occasion, as a way to make the session a little tougher.

Sebastian Coe ran sessions like these. A few weeks prior to his Olympic title defence in LA ’84, he ran a session of 25 x 200m in slightly faster than 1500m pace (27-28 secs), with a recovery of no more than 45 seconds. Coe had plenty in the tank at the end of the session and decided to go hard on the 25th rep and he ran a 22.5. This indicated to him that he was back to his best form, and he was right; Coe won a silver in the 800m and dominated the 1500m, smashing the Olympic record. 

This is a tough type of session and best to take it slow and gradually run within yourself when you are inexperienced. These sessions adapt the athlete to high-intensity output for longer periods and also help athletes develop better pace judgement, as well as enhancing  VO2 max and minimizing the need for higher mileage in training. This type of session will get an athlete fitter quickly if they have had time off and have competition coming up.

The athlete running these interval sessions can also cover a fair bit of ground in a session. Considering a set of 14 x 400m, an athlete may cover over 11km, most of it at a fair pace, when you factor in the reps and recovery jogs, as well as a 2km warm-up and a 2km warm-down. Again, it’s a tough session, so take it slow early.

QUALITY INTERVALS:

These are done primarily by middle distance runners, but they can be a useful session for distance athletes returning to the track, as a way to sharpen up and get the athlete used to running faster for sustained periods.

For the high school middle distance runner, aiming for an end of year peak, these reps are generally done over about 6 weeks, from, say mid-August, continuing through to October, then sessions would be run in mid-season, during the summer, through until Feb-March. It’s probably best to phase them in gradually, with no more than a couple of sessions a week, along with a race or time trial during the week to get the athlete ready for the big events. During this time, the athlete would drop their mileage a little and focus on quality, with maybe a slightly shorter weekly long run and a few easy or steady recovery runs during the week.

The aim is, as mentioned, for the athlete to cope with sustained faster running, and to enhance the athlete’s cruising speed (the pace at which the athlete is comfortable). Both the cardiovascular and muscular-skeletal systems will adapt to the workouts over several weeks, and results will follow.

My own sessions would be various race pace sessions, or slightly quicker than race pace. For example, I would do 6 x 300m in 44-45 (800m pace), 8 x 200m in 28-29 (quicker than 800m pace) or 6 x 400m in 61- 62 (slightly quicker than 1500m pace). They are to be run in sets of 2, with 90 seconds recovery and 4-6 minutes between the sets. 

The aim is to slightly increase the pace by about a second per rep over a few weeks. Perhaps the runner could also decrease recovery periods by 10 seconds, to make the sessions a little more tough.

The most extreme example of these high-intensity sessions might, again, from Coe. Coe used some of the sessions to gauge his preparedness for races. Two of these race pace type sessions were particularly tough. Coe regularly ran 6 x 800m on the road, on a stretch of the Rivelin Valley Road in his hometown of Sheffield. He would run 6 x 800m in 2 minutes, with 90 seconds rest. Before a world record mile in 1979, he ran the session in an average of 1.53 (about 3.47-48 mile pace), and he ran the last one in 1.49! He beat the world record by half a second and ran 3.48.95. Another session was 8 x 300m in 39 with (1.44 800m pace) with only 60 seconds rest. At his peak, he was able to average 38 seconds, and this equates to about 1.41.5 800m pace. His long-standing world record, run in 1981, was 1.41.73. Remember, athletes the calibre of Coe had years of hard, scientifically developed training, so these types of sessions should not be attempted, by athletes until they have good coaching, and years of experience. You need to get good advice and tailor your training to your own talents and fitness level.

Outside these sessions, junior athletes running the middle-distance events at around the 2 min 800m, 4 minute 1500m and the 8.30-50 3km should run a long run once a week, maybe gradually build up to as much as 18km or so when in the aerobic base phase and drop down to 13-14 during track season. They should do regular steady runs of 8-11k on easy days and have one easy day a week, where they run no more than 8km. Weights are a good supplementary session, maybe once or twice a week, but it’s best not to do weights for 4 days before a competition. Stretch before and after races/training – every day. Always listen to your coach and don’t be discouraged if things take a while to happen. Most importantly, have fun.

John Cropper produced a number of State medallists over the years, and encouraged many less-talented kids to achieve beyond what they though possible. As perhaps the least-talented and most injury-prone athlete to ever qualify for junior and senior national championships, the author can certainly attest to the efficacy of these training methods.

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Background

I think I always knew that I would one day shift to focus on trail running and cross country, even though I’ve spent a fair amount of time training for track and road races. It always came more naturally to me with my nordic skiing background and I love the challenges of technical terrain.

I started training for long-distance running by accident.. I was running as a form of cross training for nordic skiing in Australia, to race in juniors and for my school at the time. I really enjoyed all aspects of it, the long days out on the trails and the quick after school runs between homework. I decided to enter the school cross country races and Sydney Harbour 5k on a whim. I ended up winning SH5k and meddling in the school cross-country – it was then that my family suggested I get a coach, and I was quickly referred to Gary Howard at Run Crew. I’ve never looked back! I still Nordic ski and have begun to dabble in skimo for fun, however trail running has taken the front and center focus. 

Fast forward to 2017, and after consistent sessions with Run Crew I had my first big win, the Australian U20 XC Championships. I’d seen massive improvement which proved to me the power of building a good base and engine and how this could be achieved through practicing a different endurance sport. It converted very well to distance running. After finishing my undergrad degree at Sydney Uni, I went to Boise State University to do my Masters of Vocal Performance and run in collegiate competitions. 

As I am writing this article, I’m on my way back to Boise to begin work and training for mountain running. It’ll be winter time which means a few more nordic and skimo sessions will be factored into my program. 

Key factors of training. 

Consistency is key. 

I am a firm believer that the key to being a great distance runner (or any sport for that matter!) is consistency. It shouldn’t be about nailing every single session in terms of speed and paces, after all, we are only human and not machines. We have the opportunity to focus on a few things each session to improve. This can be mindset, form, a pace, a feel, the terrain – there are so many factors. My coaches always refer to it metaphorically, like a coin jar where each session we complete, we make a deposit. I particularly love trail running because of the varied terrain and the challenges that come with it. It brings in other factors that you don’t find out on the track. 

Recovery 

Another message that was ingrained into my training philosophy from a young age is that you get stronger when you recover. 

When we train, we damage muscles and place stresses on the body, which are only repaired and replenished when we recover properly. What are the key components to recovery? 

My number one is sleep, it’s the only time the body completely recovers. Think about it this way, if I sleep 8-9 hours for 7 nights a week, and another athlete sleeps 6 hours a night, I sleep 14 more hours a week. That all adds up. If this isn’t possible, taking a 20-30 minute nap in the middle of the day can add up. When training at high volumes it is so important to allow the body to repair. 

Nutrition is also a very important factor, and to stay on top of this I see a sports dietician regularly. I think it’s important to remember that you can’t perform at your best and go about life outside of sport without proper nutrition. High level athletes are like sports cars, they need a lot of good quality fuel. 

Keep easy days easy and hard days hard. 

This is another component I integrate into my training. We need to train all the different systems – endurance base, anaerobic, aerobic, top end speed. If we take every session hard, we don’t recover well for the next session and over time this more often than not leads to burnout. 

Diversity and cross-training. 

I believe that to be a great athlete it’s important to expose the body to different ways of moving. Luckily for me, my nordic skiing background introduced me to cycling, swimming, climbing and surfing from a young age, so I’ve never had a problem with cross-training. It’s a great way to take the loading stress off the body but still build a great endurance base. Many runners could benefit from adding a cross-training session in, or if they are running into injuries at a high mileage they could consider swapping out some runs for cross-training. 

The Running Community – finding people to train with. 

Training with others presents us with the opportunity to better ourselves. Personally I like to do a few runs a week on my own, but for harder sessions and long runs, sharing it with others always improves my running and makes training a more social environment. 

One of the things I love about trail running is the community that surrounds the sport. I find it more adventurous than the track and there’s definitely a sense of camaraderie at every race. This is especially true for longer distances, where it becomes just as much mental as it is physical and everyone wants to see everyone finish. It’s atmospheres such as this where we witness others achieve things they didn’t think they could, and it can be quite emotional.

Favourite Session? 

My favourite session when I’m training with Run Crew in Australia is 3x3km and 10x300m hills. I love the diversity of the session, and just when you think you’ve burnt the tank on the 3k’s, you’ve got a bunch of hills to do. The session is often wrapped up by 8:30am and you leave feeling like you’ve accomplished a lot before the day has really begun. 

When I’m training in the mountains, I love a good long run that has a few good hills in it. The long run arguably is the most important sesson of the week. 

 

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 Sponsors, causes, anything I’d love people to get behind. 

Passions outside of running.

I am very passionate about protecting wild places and educating myself, others, and the outdoor industry on climate and sustainability. We need healthy environments to be able to enjoy the outdoors. We also need educated athletes and the public to be able to enjoy the outdoors responsibly. 

I recently had the opportunity to join the team at For Wild Places as a copywriter and content creator. I am so thankful for this opportunity as it allowed me to merge my passion for writing, the outdoor community and climate activism, and work with people who have similar values. My first project is to help launch The Pilliga Ultra. The Pilliga Forest is the single largest remaining stretch of temperate eucalypt woodland left in Eastern Australia (only 3% remain). You’d think that a rare ecosystem such as the Pilliga would be a top priority in Australia’s conservation efforts, however this is sadly not the case. These biodiversity hotspots are poorly protected, and are at risk of further development, clearing, and in the case of the Pilliga, the proposal site of the Narrabri Coal Seam Gas Project spearheaded by gas giant Santos. For Wild Places has teamed up with the Wilderness Society to launch a brand new Australian Ultra Event, The Pilliga Ultra. The Pilliga Ultra will take place on the 26th of March, 2022, and is offering 5km, 20km and 50km options. I would strongly encourage anyone who is looking for an adventure, a great community and to use running to save a wild place to consider entering a race, volunteering at the event, or sponsoring an individual/team. 

 

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Earlier this year I had the opportunity to travel to Moab, Utah, with the Salomon USA crew. I’d never been to the area and it had been on my bucket list for a long time, particularly for running. To date it was one of the best trail running experiences I’ve had. The people I met were so passionate, and many laughs were had over the camp. We also had a series of workshops throughout the camp which further opened my eyes to the opportunities in the growing sport of trail running. I’m really excited for the future of this sport.

Thank you for the opportunity to contribute to the Runners Tribe community! 

The post Lara Hamilton | Peaking – The most important aspects of my training as a mountain and trail runner appeared first on Runner's Tribe.

Hey everyone, my name is Sarah Schiffmann, I am 18 years old and I am currently coached by Scott Westcott, who is based in Newcastle. I live an hour north from there, so I usually train with the group once a week, on Saturdays, and do the rest of my training solo. But I’m looking forward to being able to train with the group more often now that I’m finished school.

I first started running in primary school competing in the school cross-country and athletic carnivals, I soon realised that distance running was what I was best at, whether I liked it or not I wasn’t going to be good at anything else. When I was around 9 I started to travel to Scone a few times a week to run with Nicky Western and her three sons. It was running with Nicky and the boys that I realised for me, running wasn’t only a sport but something that I loved and had great fun doing. There was never a dull moment running with them and with her help, I competed at my first cross-country Nationals in 2013 and placed 5th. Throughout most of high school, I was coached remotely by Guy Creber who helped me achieve some great results. Winning national titles in the 3000m, 1500m and cross country, and also qualifying for World Cross Country in 2019.

I made the move to Scott’s group at the beginning of 2020 and since then have improved both my 800m and 1500m pbs, and placed 2nd in the Zatopek 3000m earlier this year. Having Scott as a coach is inspiring in itself and being able to train as part of his group with the likes of Rose Davies makes it even better. 

I have recently signed to Ole Miss and I am looking forward to joining Coach Vanhoy’s team next August.

 

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I currently train 6 days a week, which includes 3 session type days. Pretty much all of these sessions will vary week to week (except the strong run, which is a weekly staple). Most of the sessions I do will vary, they will have a similar concept but be slightly different in length, pace or recovery. I really like how varied the sessions are, especially when I’m running solo, it makes it a lot more enjoyable rather than just doing the exact same sessions week to week and I have found that it has helped me keep motivated and excited to see what the session is. I have also started doing sprint training once a week with Tim Eschebach which I have been loving, I think it has been super helpful for me to try and improve my speed and technique. 

I don’t really have a favourite type of session, but any session I do on a Saturday morning with the group is easily my favourite. But if I had to pick it would probably be something with hills or a mix of all different length reps.

So 4 key sessions for me are as follows:

Strong Run

The first session is the “strong run”. I generally do these once a week on a Thursday and usually do 10km, averaging between 3:50-4:00/km. It’s done more so off feel rather than trying to hit a certain pace, just getting into a nice rhythm and feeling good throughout.

Sprints 

I go to sprint training once a week on a Wednesday afternoon with Tim. I usually go for a 15min jog before we start. 

The session is generally something like:

Lots of drills and hurdle run-throughs 

3 x 2 x 150m builds with walk back recovery between reps and a long rest between sets

2 x 150m, 100m with 30s between reps and a long rest between sets 

Strength 

Along with sprints, I have also recently started doing strength sessions once a week with Tim which I have been really enjoying. I do this straight after the session on a Saturday and think it has been beneficial for me so far. The strength session usually includes some exercises like squats, step-ups, hip thrusts and some plyometrics in-between. 

Mixed reps and hills

We do these kinds of sessions fairly often in cross-country season, sometimes on the gravel at Gun Club Rd or on the Fernleigh in Newcastle. But I like these sessions because they include some longer more tempo speed stuff and then some short fast hills to finish. 

An example of one of these sessions done at Gun Club Rd was:

3km warm-up 

3km, 5’ rest

1km, 3’ rest

600m, 3’ rest

4 x 30” hills (jog back recovery)

3km cool down 

Once again a big thank you to Runner’s Tribe, and thank you for reading! 

The post Ole Miss Bound | 4 Key Sessions by Sarah Schiffmann (coached by Scott Westcott) appeared first on Runner's Tribe.

I have been running since about 10 years old, through school competitions. Since then, I have found a strong love for the sport and with that a lot of success. My favourite event to compete in would have to be the 1500m due to having strong times in this event as well as medal-winning performances. Having run against the likes of Stewart McSweyn, Ryan Gregson and Jack Rayner at the Stawell gift handicapped 3000m invitational event and that race became one of the best racing experiences I have ever had and possibly one of the best runs I have had in the sport.

My love for the sport not only comes from how much I enjoy it but from my training partners and training group. Competing and training in the sport is one thing, but to do it with such a great community around you makes it all so much more worth it, having been with my training group BXCT for 5 and a half years now and building so many strong friendships with the people around me. Always keeping each other accountable but also making every session a good one.

Having looked back through my training programs and picking being able to only pick 4 sessions, those sessions are:

Sessions:

Session 4:

My 4th favourite session would have to be a Kenyan fartlek. A Kenyan fartlek is probably one of the simplest yet most effective sessions that we do, helping to really improve our aerobic fitness. It involves running on an out and back course at a solid pace that’s comfortable but not too hard, for around 12-14 minutes and then turning around and coming back at an effort pace that feels comfortable but is faster than what you started with. The goal is to come back faster than you went out, say you go out for 10 minutes you might aim to run back in 9 minutes.

This session is often done during our winter season to help build our fitness for mainly the cross-country races but also to be prepared for the track season. 

Session 3:

Another very simple session but defiantly one of my favourites is 1km reps, usually a common session that we do both in winter and summer. Ranging from about 4-6 reps depending on the amount of volume we are doing at that point in time. But this session is always a good indicator of fitness and when done with a good group it becomes a very good session.

Session 2:

My second favourite session would have to be the track session that our group does, this session is 3 sets of 5 200s with 30 seconds break in between each rep and usually a few minutes in between sets. We do this session at around 1500m pace which now is around 30-31 seconds per 200. Sessions like this one help to get the body used to those fast paces along with building a higher pain tolerance, really helping us prepare for the bigger races towards the back end of the season where we want to peak in performance.

Session 1:

And lastly my number 1 favourite session, Pre’s session. Steve Prefontaine is a favourite within our running group and to do the sessions that he used to do is pretty amazing. We do 15 laps of the track but each lap is split in half (200/200) basically becoming a 200 on 200 off session. The first 200 is at about 33-34 seconds and the second 200 is at 43-44 seconds. I personally love this session because it is a long track session, and they defiantly have to be my best/favourite sessions.

They are my 4 favourite sessions that I not only enjoy the most but that I think helps me the most in terms of my running. Thanks for reading about myself and the training I do, make sure to follow my Instagram if you want to follow along with my running career. 

 

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