A productive weekly training program

I’ve never been the most talented, nor had the best ride. I’m a lot bigger and heavier than those I compete against. But I’ve been able to improve by following this structure and keeping things as productive as possible.

It’s a structure that I follow, as well as a lot of my athletes too. It’s yielded many results and PB’s.

This easy, everyday maintenance running should make up the bulk of your training. Somewhere around 75 - 80% of your training.

If you follow heart rate you should try remaining within zone 2 on this easy run. That means your average heart rate should not be above 72% of what your max HR. Easy Runs do not necessarily have a pace they should just feel easy. You should be able to have a conversation with someone the whole way.

This is where we really need to push boundaries. Banking training at race pace and faster than race pace. A typical session could look like this: 10 x 400 meters (75 seconds recovery) @ target 5k pace. Starting at 85% effort finishing at 95%. Rest can be static, walk or an easy jog.

It always helps having a teammate to a group to do the sessions with.
Knowing you’re not suffering alone just makes things easier.

Very similar to Monday. Recovering from your harder day yesterday.

It’s always a good idea to include cross training on this day. Especially if you feel like your body needs a bit of a break from the impact of running.

If you’ve just taken running up recently, then I’d probably recommend another easy day today.

However, if you’ve been running for a good period of time and your body is feeling good and ready to go, then these sessions should be your ‘half’ harder day. Include hill work or tempo work.

Hill work: hills will always be a crucial part of training even for in training for flatter races. They help build strength, improve form, increase power and a whole lot more. You often hear that hills pay the bills. When it comes to running, they really do. Don’t neglect them and get some good elevation gain within your weekly training.

Tempo work: here we are working harder than normal but not all our racing. You can say a few words but not a full sentence. Working comfortably tough. Remain disciplined and keep the tempo work controlled to get the most out of it.

It’s always a good idea to have a full rest day within a week. Allowing the body to absorb the training. On this day you can do things like Yoga, or what I often tend to do is put on my favourite playlist and do a sequence of stretching, specific to wear my body feels the tightest.

As runners it’s often in the hips and hamstrings.

Prepare the mind and body for the weekend ahead.

Here you have the option to either do a quality session and if that’s the case then your longer run tomorrow should be easy. Or do an easier run and have a harder, structured, longer run the next day. If you go with the session, you should be working very hard, but not as hard as your tracks/interval session. It’s always quite a nice idea to give parkrun a good go if you have one around you.

If you went harder on the Saturday, then keep this long run easier. Forget about peace and allow the mind to drift while you plod away.

If, however, your Saturday was easy, then I’d recommend a harder longer run. It always helps adding structure to these runs to get the most out of you. It helps them tick by a bit faster.

Typical examples could be by adding 3×10 minutes at effort, within your longer run, or if you’re building up towards something longer like the marathon you could do something like 3-4 x 5K efforts.

I hope you find this helpful.
Try stick to it as consistently as possible.

The hardest part is always the beginning. But once you keep showing up and do it time and time again, then body will adapt.

Train Smart, be productive, and let’s go get it!

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