Hi folks, it’s Kelvin here.
We Run coach for Leeds and surrounding areas, as well as online coaching.
In this short video, I want to look at the big picture of coaching. There has been a lot of discussion recently in the videos between myself and Alexa about longer-term planning, and I do think this is really important. I want to think about volume versus intensity, and how that changes for different events.
Starting With a General Training Phase
Let’s assume that through the winter a runner has put in a fairly general phase of training. This might be moderate intensity and moderate volume, with some strides. Traditionally, some people would call this base training.
It might also include some functional movement and some lateral movements, just good general work for health and fitness.
Providing someone has been doing this and they are not building up from a very low volume, we can then start to think about how training changes depending on the event.
Volume and Intensity for a 5K
If we think about an event like a 5K, let’s say someone is aiming to race late in the season, at the back end of the summer or early autumn.
In the springtime, their goal is probably going to be to grow easy volume first, and then gradually funnel that down. As the event approaches, overall volume decreases while intensity increases.
How This Differs for Marathon and Ultra Training
This is the opposite of something like marathon or ultra marathon training.
After a general phase, training for an ultra marathon later in the summer or early autumn might actually start with quite a bit of intensity. Training can initially look quite similar to 5K training.
As the volume grows throughout the season, the intensity then decreases. So volume and intensity move in opposite directions, depending on the demands of the event.
Specificity as the Event Gets Closer
A useful way to think about this is that the further away we are from an event, the less specific the training is. The closer we get to the event, the more specific the training becomes.
Why the Half Marathon Is a Key Distance
What’s also interesting is that somewhere in the middle of this, whether someone is training for an ultra or a 5K, sits something that looks like half marathon training.
It might be weighted slightly one way or the other depending on where the event sits in the season, but it is a really useful distance to be good at. It is quite easy to flex up or down from the half marathon, and to a certain degree the 10K fits into this category as well.
There’s a common saying that if you do not have anything in your calendar and you want to drive fitness, get good at 10K to half marathon distance. From there, it is easy to flex down in distance and up in speed for a 5K, or the other way around towards a marathon or ultra.
Bringing It All Together
That’s how I like to think about training. As we funnel volume in one direction, we funnel intensity in the opposite direction. This pulses in and out throughout seasons and years of training.
It is quite rare to increase intensity dramatically and volume at the same time.
I hope that makes sense. If you have any questions, please pop them in the comments below. For now, happy running.
