COACH CLASS

Try these six coach-recommended sessions to upgrade your training

COACH CLASS

Try these six coach-recommended sessions to upgrade your training

WORDS : TINA CHANTREY

Yes, it’s cold and there’s a good chance you haven’t seen the sun in a while. Getting out the door, especially in the evenings, is a mammoth task. The UK winter is not the most inspiring place to be when you’re a runner. But with a few new sessions to get stuck into you can breathe new life into your winter training programme. We asked some experienced running coaches for their favourite sessions to help you maximise your run time.

ACCELERATION RUN

“This is one of my all time favourite sessions,” says Andy Blow (1), international level triathlete and founder of Precision Hydration (precisionhydration.com). “You start at a jogging pace to warm up and, either each mile or each kilometre, you lift the pace in a linear way to a degree that means, by the end of the session, the final mile or kilometre is run at a hard effort (usually between 5K or 10K race pace).

“You need either a measured loop, or a GPS watch, to give you real-time access to your splits to make it measurable and repeatable. The session can be anywhere from three to seven miles long, depending on your fitness level and training goal. I used to start at three miles in the late winter and build up to six over a period of about two months to allow for some progression in the level of endurance required. The differential in pace from mile to mile depends on how long or short the run is and it really does require (and therefore train) good pace judgement to get it right.