Most runners tend not to think about what running actually is. What is your body doing when you run? Are you thinking about your running? Or are you simply putting one foot in front of another and hoping to do so as quickly as possible? What makes you fast? Is it just aerobic fitness or can you actually become a 'better' runner?
If you were playing golf, or football you would work on technique - running is also a skill that can be developed and improved. This, amongst other reasons, is why drills provide a vital element to training, even for marathon runners.
Threshold Sessions are part of heart rate based training approach. Simplistically, each training session is broken down as a % of the maximum heart rate: Long Slow Distance runs (65-75%, conversational pace), Threshold Training (80-85%, controlled discomfort - 4-5 word answer pace) and Interval training (90-95%). They are designed to provide positive training adaptations as your body learns to process a build up of lactic acid in your blood as training intensity increase.
Clearly, a heart rate monitor helps a lot for the excercise, but 80-85% is the pace where you can hardly speak.
The idea behind threshold training is to build up speed endurance. Without going into too much detail further useful information can be found under the following links:
Threshold is a fundamental element in marathon training. Tuesday sessions at the Chasers will normally include some threshold work for but questions, tips and ideas on how best to incorporate threshold and tempo training into your programme contact our coach and personal trainer Tom Craggs on tom.craggs@googlemail.com.
The idea is to gradually increase the time of the threshold sessions (e.g. 1min per week) and reduce the recovery time. That said, a threshold session should not exceed 1hr (excluding warm up and cool down) and the recovery time should not be less than 1min. The sessions should always include a warm up and cool down phase of at least 5min. Make sure you don't have threshold sessions on two consecutive days. Always have a rest day/recovery day in between.
If you take them seriously, you will find that after a couple of weeks it will have a significant impact on your race performances!
Mile reps are done as speed work for marathons. During the build up for a marathon up to six sessions can be done. The idea is to build by 2 each session. There should be between 2 and 4 weeks between each session. The ultimate would be to do 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13 x 1 mile during the build up. But building to 9 is normal for runners attempting mile reps for the first time.
For more information ask Tom Craggs (the club coach) at the next Thursday track night.
tips/overview.txt · Last modified: 2012/05/31 23:14 by Rhonda Wells
