Training Programme - Advanced

Training Programme - Advanced

This programme has been developed by Stuart Dinwoodie from Chippenham Harriers and is targeted at the more proficient runner. It is 10 weeks in length with a recovery week after the race. The programme should be started on Monday 7th July 2008 so that you hit Race Day on Sunday 14th September 2008.

To get the most out of this programme you should already be running at least 4 to 6 times per week with a club, participating in road races and have a good understanding of interval and fartlek training.

To ensure you get the most out of the training plan follow the guidelines, do not do too much too soon, at the first sign of an injury stop training and seek medical advice as soon as possible.

It is better to train with someone or a club since some of the sessions included in the programme are very hard to do on your own as you will be pushing the body to levels they may have not gone to before.

If you own a Heart Rate Monitor (HRM) it would be very beneficial to use it for all the session to be able to record your effort levels. It is advised to make notes of what you achieved during the sessions as you will have some records to look back on in the future.

It is very difficult to explain effort levels as many of you will probably not want to get involved with too much technology, you will just want to run and have fun. So the Rate of Perceived Exertion Scale (RPE) will be used. The way this works is based on your physical and mental feeling of effort on a scale of 1 to 10 where 10 is the hardest.

Things that will help you to understand this would be to join this with the talk test i.e. if you were on a run and you can talk very comfortably and hold a conversation, you would be around 1 to 4 on the RPE scale. The next level would be while running you talk and have to take a breath after each sentence you would be moving into the 5 to 7 area of the RPE scale. And finally when you can only just about get one single word out at a time before gasping for a breath you would most certainly be around the 8 to 10 area on the RPE scale. You will find a lot of the runs on this programme are from RPE of 4 upwards.

Always have a gentle stretch of all the main muscle groups that have been used after each session. Never stretch before running as this stretches cold muscles and could cause an injury.

A copy of the week 1 to 11 training programme can be downloaded here.

Weeks 1 to 4

	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4
Monday	7-10 mins warm up 30 mins RPE 5-6 3-5 mins warm down	Rest Day	Rest Day	Rest Day
Tuesday	4-8 mins warm up Interval running – run hard for 3 mins RPE 7-9. Jog/walk recover for 1 min between each effort repeat 5 times. 3 -5 mins easy run	4-8 mins easy run Fartlek running - run RPE 7 for 60 secs RPE 8 for 15 secs RPE 4 for 30 secs RPE 9 for 90 secs RPE 2 for 45 secs then repeat the above for 5 times. 3-5 mins easy run	4-8 mins easy run Interval running – run hard for 2 mins RPE 8–9 maybe up to 10 towards the end of the session. Jog recover for 1 min between each effort repeat 10 times. 3-5 mins easy run	Split session - Morning: 40 mins RPE 3–5 Evening: 5-8 mins warm up. Run hard for 1 min RPE 7–8. Jog recover for 30 secs between each effort. Repeat 15 times
Wednesday	Rest Day	Rest Day	Rest Day	Rest Day
Thursday	3–5 mins warm up 45 mins RPE 6–7 3-5 mins easy run	3–5 mins warm up 45 mins RPE 5-7 3-5 mins easy run	3–5 mins warm up 45 mins RPE 5-7 3-5 mins easy run	3-5 mins easy run 50 mins RPE 5-7 5 mins walk
Friday	Rest Day	Rest Day	Rest Day	Rest Day
Saturday	5 mins warm up 20 mins RPE 5-6 3 mins warm down	5 mins warm up 30 mins RPE 5-6 3 mins warm down	5-7 mins warm up 40 mins RPE 5-6 3 mins warm down	Rest Day
Sunday	5-8 mins warm up 60 mins RPE 3–5 5–7 mins warm down	5-8 mins warm up 70 mins RPE 4–6 4-8 mins warm down	5-7 mins warm up 80 mins RPE 4–6 4-8 mins warm down	5-8 mins warm up 90 mins RPE 5–6 5–8 mins warm down

Weeks 5 to 8

	Week 5	Week 6	Week 7	Week 8
Monday	Rest Day	Rest Day	Rest Day	Rest Day
Tuesday	(This is an easier week!) 2-4 mins easy run. 35 mins RPE 4-7 3 mins easy run	3-4 mins easy Interval running - run RPE 7-10 for 4 mins. Jog/walk recover for 1 min. Repeat 6 times. 3–5 mins easy	4-8 mins easy Fartlek running - run RPE 7 for 60 secs RPE 8 for 15 secs RPE 4 for 30 secs RPE 9 for 90 secs RPE 2 for 45 secs then repeat the above for 7 times 3-5 mins easy	5-7 mins easy Interval running - run RPE 8-10 for 2 mins. Jog/walk recover for 1 min. repeat 8 times 3-5 mins warm down
Wednesday	Rest Day	Rest Day	Rest Day	Rest Day
Thursday	5–8 mins warm up 45 mins RPE 5-7 5 mins warm down	5-8 mins easy run 70 mins RPE 6-7 5 mins warm down	3-5 mins easy run 80 mins RPE 5-7 5 mins warm down	3-5 mins easy run 70 mins RPE 7-8 5 mins warm down
Friday	Rest Day	Rest Day	Rest Day	Rest Day
Saturday	2 mins easy run 30 mins RPE 5-6 3-5 mins warm down	2 mins easy run 40 mins RPE 4-6 3-5 mins warm down	2 mins easy run 50 mins RPE 4-6 3 mins easy run	2 mins easy run 40 mins RPE 4-7 3 mins easy run
Sunday	3-5 mins easy run 60 mins RPE 3-5 5 mins easy run	3 mins easy run 70 mins RPE 5-7 3 mins warm down	3 mins easy run 90 mins RPE 4-6 5 mins warm down	3 mins easy run 80 mins RPE 4-6 5 mins warm down

Weeks 9 to 11

	Week 9	Week 10	Week 11
Monday	Rest Day	Rest Day	Rest Day
Tuesday	5-7 mins easy run Interval running - run RPE 6-8 for 2 mins. Jog/walk recover for 1 min repeat 5 times 3 mins easy	3-4 mins easy run Interval running - run RPE 5-7 for 3 mins. Jog/walk recover for 1 min repeat 6 times 3 mins easy	Rest Day or a 30 min run RPE 3-6
Wednesday	3-5 mins easy run 60 mins RPE 5-7 5 mins easy run	Rest Day	3 mins easy run 45 mins RPE 5-7 3 mins warm down
Thursday	3-5 mins easy run 45 mins RPE 5-7 5 mins walk	3-5 mins easy run 45 mins RPE 4-7 5 mins easy	3-5 mins easy run 50 mins RPE 5-7 5 mins easy
Friday	Rest Day	3-5 mins easy run 30 mins RPE 4-6 5 mins easy	Rest Day
Saturday	Rest Day	Rest Day	Rest Day
Sunday	3-5mins easy run 70 mins RPE 4-7 5 mins easy run	Race Day!!!	3-5mins easy run 60 mins RPE 4-6 5 mins easy run