w/b 28th Aug and New schedule

As promised, please find attached a new schedule through till Xmas!  as ever, I have mixed up long, medium and short efforts across the week but constrained the long ones to Wednesdays and Thursdays since these sessions can over-run a little.  I have also ensured one track session per week.  Some old favorites and a couple of new sessions:


Track (Speed).  Similar to the "Step-down" session we previously did around Loansdean.  3 sets of 400m, 300m 200m, 100m with 100m walk/jog recoveries with an extra 200m recovery between sets.  The aim of this session is to learn to get faster as you get tired.


Short Hills.  This sounds like an odd session - 10 x 10s sprints uphill.  60-90s recoveries.  So efforts shorter, and recoveries longer, than a Tabata session and only 1 min 40s of effort in total!  The goal here is strength.  This is in effect like doing squats with weights in the gym.  I have added it in for a bit of variety.


Track (200).  Nice short 200m efforts, but the two sting in the tail are that the recoveries are 200m JOGGING, NOT WALKING and that there are 20 efforts.  This this session is about speed, but it is also very much about pacing as well.


In line with this third new session, there is increased emphasis on endurance over the winter months, with 9s and tempo sessions, but also hills and "800s" on the road and track.  I hope you enjoy and benefit from it!  If you are not on my email circulation list and want a copy, email me at hamish.mcallister-williams@ncl.ac.uk


Plan for the week
Today - no run planned - some people may be meeting late afternoon/early evening
Wed (6:30) - Bypass.  Two 1.8m tempos (option 3)
Thurs (6:30) - Track (800S).  5 X 800m with 2-3 min recoveries:  1st 800m at 5K pace;  2nd 700m at 5K pace then 100m faster; 3rd 600m at 5K pace then 200m faster, 4th 500m at 5K pace then 300m faster, 5th 400m at 5K pace then 400m faster.


Finally, I just wanted to float an idea of a forming a spring marathon group.  The idea is for people to meet up say once a month for a drink and to discuss training progress towards a spring marathon and possibly have a Facebook page or some other form of social media link for people.  In terms of training, the idea would be to essentially follow the usual schedule with a long run at the week end.  People may want to do some training with other members of the group depending on fitness levels.  What I will also do is start to look out maybe one session per week in the schedule and adapt it for people doing marathon training.  However, before I go to the trouble of doing this, I wanted to find out if there is anybody interested and what marathon they are aiming for.  Just email me (hamish.mcallister-williams@ncl.ac.uk).