With Coach Kelvin, offering Online Running Coaching for We Run and the We Run Virtual Running Club, and 1:1 Running Coach for Leeds and surrounding areas.
Introduction: Keeping Everything in Play
In this video, I’m going to share some thoughts on a concept – and that concept is: within your training, most of the time, nothing gets left behind.
Understanding Intensity Distribution
What I mean by that is intensity distribution.
When we’re thinking about different intensities that are more intense than LT1 – lactate threshold one, which is the top of zone two – that includes:
- Tempo
- Threshold
- VO2 max
- Speed work, which is different from VO2 max
Speed work refers to shorter reps that don’t reach VO2 max but are much faster – things like strides.
So nothing gets left behind. What do I mean by that?
Keeping All Elements Present, Most of the Time
We want to keep all of those things in our training most of the time. At certain points, we’ll just emphasise different elements.
An example might be the long run. If someone is starting a preparation phase before marathon-specific work, they might do a long run once in a training block – so, once in four weeks.
That’s a bit like what a 10K runner might do too – putting in a long run once every four weeks. But obviously, that’s going to grow – potentially to something almost weekly.
There’s a bit of debate about that. I often programme biweekly long runs in marathon training. But the point is, it’s going to grow and change. Still, we always have the long run in there.
VO2 Max Sessions: How Often?
It’s similar for things like VO2 max. We probably want to keep a VO2 max session in the block most of the time.
That doesn’t mean every week for everyone. For someone training for a 5K, there’s probably going to be a weekly VO2 max session. But if someone has already built their VO2 max and is just maintaining it, we might include one VO2 max session twice in a four-week block.
Avoiding Overload with Smarter Structure
The other thing I’m mindful of is that trying to keep everything in there all the time can be quite stressful for a runner – both physiologically and mechanically.
So we might think about supporting a certain intensity. For example, if I was rolling out of a base building phase – which is predominantly easy running – again, nothing gets left behind.
I’m going to keep an element of threshold in there. There will be more threshold and tempo for runners training on lower volumes, and I’ll keep strides in there.
And I’ll develop a VO2 max session within that phase.
Bridging the Base and VO2 Max Phases
What I might do is take one of the weekly stride sessions and start to elongate it.
So instead of doing 20-second strides, we might grow that to something like 6 to 8 x 45 seconds.
Then we might take that to a hill – so 6 x 45-second hill reps.
Then we might take that to 5 x 1-minute hill VO2 max reps. That could be the start of the VO2 max phase, where we need a minimum of 6 to 8 minutes of VO2 max work.
Again, we’re always bridging gaps. We don’t just give someone 16 x 1-minute hills – that would destroy them.
So we use support sessions.
What a Balanced Block Looks Like
Within our training, most of the time – I’d say maybe 10 months of the year – you should be able to look at a four-week training block and see:
- Tempo
- Threshold
- VO2 max
- Strides
- Maybe hill strides too
Wrapping Up
I hope that makes some sort of sense.
If you’ve got any comments, please drop them down below. And for now – happy running!
