Runners

UNLEASH YOUR SPEEDBoost your pace with just one short session a week.Give it your full attention and put in the maximumeffort – you’ll be amazed by the results you get``````WEEK SESSION``````4-5 × 8-sec hill sprints``````5-6 × 8-sec hill sprints``````6-7 × 8-sec hill sprints``````7-8 × 8-sec hill sprints``````8-9 × 10-sec hill sprints``````9-10 × 10-sec hill sprints``````4 × 60m flat sprints``````10 × 10-sec hill sprints``````6 × 60m flat sprints``````10 × 10-sec hill sprints``````6 × 80m flat sprints``````10 × 10-sec hill sprints``````6 × 80m flat sprints``````4-5 × 10-sec + 1 × 20-sec hill sprints``````6 × 80m flat sprints``````WARM UP with a couple of miles of easy running and a fewstrides before you perform your sprints. (Or do them at theend of an easy run.)DON’T BE TEMPTED to start with more repetitions thanrecommended, only add on one rep at a time and performthe session just once per week.TAKE FULL RECOVERY between each sprint (90-120 seconds, asa guide). If you have not done any sprinting for some time,ease in with a pace slightly less than 100 per cent effort.``````JULY 2018 RUNNERSWORLD.CO.UK 043``````INFORMEDASCENTWant to getfaster? Find asteep hillHARD FACTSYou may haveto makefriends withpain, or at leastnot treat itas the enemyand, indeed, developing your aerobicfitness with steady runs and thresholdtraining, you gradually gear yourspeed training more specificallytowards your race demands and yourgoal pace – maintaining your newlyhoned pure speed with the occasionalsprint workout.``````MIND OVER MPHCould your mind help you run faster?Science suggests it can. Researchers atOxford Brookes University showedthat for two groups whose trainingincreased their physical capacity (VO 2max and lactate threshold) by the sameamount, the group whose training wasmore uncomfortable – short, hardefforts rather than long, moderate ones- was able to perform much better insubsequent performance tests. Theresearchers believe it comes down tomaking friends with pain. They testedpain tolerance and found that thosesuffering through 6-8 x 5 mins ofintense effort increased their paintolerance by 41 per cent. The prolongedgroup didn’t improve at all. ‘Practising digging deep in trainingmakes it easier to face increasingeffort and discomfort in the closingstages of a race,’ says Gaudette. Helikes to get runners to do ‘hammerintervals’, in which one or two intervalswithin a set are run all out. ‘Becausethe rest interval stays the same, youdon’t completely recover as you wouldin a typical interval session and youstart the next hard rep still tired,’ hesays. ‘This provides a more race-specific workout and teaches yourbody how to push when it counts.’ An example hammer workout forrunners training for a 5K could be8 x 800 metres at 3-5km race pacewith two minutes’ rest, bringing downthe ‘hammer’ (running as fast as youcan) on intervals 4 and 7. Maintain thetwo-minute rest period after eachhammer and do your best to get backonto 5K pace afterwards. For less experienced runners,Hutchinson believes that part ofgetting faster comes down to learningto distinguish between warning signsand stop signs rather than enduringthe suffering. ‘When you first startrunning, being out of breath andfeeling your legs throbbing make youfeel like you absolutely have to stop,’he says. ‘As you get more familiarwith those feelings, you learn thatyou can ignore them for a while.’Which means the better you’ll beat knowing when to push yourself.Maybe it’s time to start thinking aboutinvesting in another medal rack.