Virtual Training Session - Week Commencing 08 Feb

This week's session is recommended by Coach Dick.

Try a short hill session this time. If you’re doing a virtual 5x5 time trIal this week give yourself at least a day’s rest between the session and the virtual 5. As with all ‘race’ efforts, it’s crucial that you line up at the start of your 5 feeling fresh - both mentally and physically - and looking forward to doing yourself justice.

So think about that as you jog to your favourite slope. It should be a fairly gentle gradient that you can power up at a reasonable lick, and not feel that you’re fighting to climb up. And have it not longer than about 60 strides. So if your slope is longer than that, choose a start point about 60 metres or so below the top.

Do your usual warmup on the way to the slope, and then do a recce effort in which you do a safety check while stretching out your arms and legs in a slow-motion rehearsal of what’s to come while counting your strides. Turn at the top and jog very slowly back to your start, remembering to adjust your start mark to suit the 60 strides target. Do another slow-mo if you want to check everything’s ok.

Your running effort will be hard. Your arm swing should be deep and long and straight ahead. Your head will be erect and your stride will have a high knee-lift. You should keep this form for every stride in every effort. If you find that you’re starting to struggle and lose your smooth style, take longer to get to the bottom, and only start back up if your breathing is steady.

10 of these are plenty for a pre-race workout.