So we go for the 200s to start with. Based on the feedback you’ve provided me so far I think 55 seconds at first would be a good result. That’s 4:34 pace. So not a million miles away. I like to be competitive with myself in these sort of sessions. So I’m always trying to hit my targets and every time I do it’s a win, if I miss it, a loss and I give myself a little talking to. You might find you’re quicker or a bit slower, but it will be a good marker to see where you’re at. If you can get a few angles of you running, that would help too. The 50 mins run is roughly 4 miles. I’ve put in Wednesday this week as I guess Tuesday will be rugby but just let me know if you ever need to move things around.

35 Points Target

35 Points Achieved

The week was a little hectic and unorganised so I had to reschedule a run which wasn’t ideal. I still managed to do the Friday 200s but was rather fatigued on Saturday. Combined with reenactment training that day, Sunday is a little sore. I will see how I feel on Monday, although I’m hopeful because I normally suffer from DOMS- hopefully the soreness today means it will ease by tomorrow rather than my normal experience. I just need my body to adapt to the intensity I think.

Long run was boring, I much prefer my 4 miles with my run club which I’m aiming to do this coming week

Well done Rebekah. A solid start and yes hopefully the body will adapt to the DOMS and you’ll be good to go again on Monday. Again once the body does get used to it, that pace should improve further. Always do the longer runs with the club if you can as running solo can be a drag. The best thing about being a runner is the community.

MONDAY

10pts | 8 x 200 Metres

10 POINTS

1km WU @ Easy Pace RPE: 3
8 x 200 Metres @ Target RPE: 9 (60 Secs Recoveries)
1km CD @ Easy Pace RPE: 3

Love 200s. Train faster to race faster. Go smash it. Enjoy.

10 Points

Not great. 1st 4 sprints not too bad. Breathing but it’s not doing much. Last 4 were bad, couldn’t keep pace. Neither the breath nor the energy. Absolute max effort on last 2 and was super slow. Managed to do all 8 reps though. Had to walk some of through cooldown and the easy pace for that was below the recommended

I’ll be honest when checking your splits on Strava I was optimistic that you did actually hit the pace, albeit only for a small section, but it was there. Don’t be too disheartened, your pace was around where I expected and it does take time. Getting used to running at that effort is the key. The 60 second recoveries between the 200s can be static, so you can really catch your breath and if need be take longer before going again. For me this is quite promising and it’s a game of patience really. Keep doing these sessions over the next 3-4 weeks and I think by the last one you’ll hopefully be impressed by your progress. A good strategy I use is to record my time and then use that to motivate myself to try and beat it. So whether it be 55 seconds for the 200 or 50, keep track and then hopefully as they start getting a bit quicker you then realise you are making progress. But well done Rebekah. I think this is a good start personally.

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

Have moved to tomorrow. On 4 hours sleep from A&E trip (nothing serious) last night.

thursday

15 Points

No such thing as an easy run, they’re all hard. Tiring and thoroughly boring, last 10 mins very tiring

Sorry to hear you didn’t enjoy that and do I appreciate running is not easy, especially when new to it. I have been removing the word “Easy” from a lot of the sessions for that reason. Looking at your Strava my feedback would be to slow down a touch. There is definitely quite a bit of truth to the popular social media advice from running influencers “slow down to get faster” And Steve Magness who is one of the most reputable running coaches in the world just released his latest you tube video title “RUN SLOWER”. It we look at your stats on Strava compared to your dashboard paces, you actually averaged 6:47 per km on this run, your easy pace is predicted at 7:47 per km. They are guides and are flexible. But you ran this one at quicker than marathon pace. If I went out and ran 50 mins at quicker than my marathon pace it would not be easy. So we run slower. And that would be my advice. I would say next time you head out, try running at 7:30 per km and see if that helps drop the effort level. Still focus on good form, but just slow the pace. You might then find it easier and hopefully more enjoyable. We can save the harder efforts for the 200 metre sessions. All that said, great job and getting out there and doing the run as set on the plan 💪

FRIDAY

10pts | 8 x 200 Metres

10 POINTS

1km WU @ Easy Pace RPE: 3
8 x 200 Metres @ Target RPE: 9 (60 Secs Recoveries)
1km CD @ Easy Pace RPE: 3

Love 200s. Train faster to race faster. Go smash it. Enjoy.

10 Points

Still pretty tough, but did a slower warm up and static recovery. Need to learn how to breathe effectively cos thats still hard. Managed to run a little more of the cool down than last time but still slow

Splits look quicker. The pace is there in parts so it’s possible. One of the reasons new runners make such quick gains is due to the improvement in our neuromuscular system, not just the fitness. So when you went out on Monday for that first session your brain is sending signals to your leg muscles to run really fast. But the legs, especially the fast twitch fibres which has probably been inactive for a while, they’re like “what the hell is going on here? We’ve not ready for this”. So it’s believed at first we might only be able to recruit 10% of our muscle fibres. But the more often you send those signals, those fast twitch fibres start to wake up “oh, ok, here we go again, wake up lads, let’s do some damage”. So hopefully in 4-5 weeks you’ll be recruiting a much higher percentage of those muscle fibres as well as improved fitness. So have faith. Keep working hard and hopefully that pace will continue to drop. Well done Rebekah.

MONDAY

10pts | 8 x 200 Metres

TUESDAY

Rest Day

WEDNESDAY

thursday

15pts | 50 Mins Run

FRIDAY

10pts | 8 x 200 Metres

SATURDAY

Rest Day

SUNDAY

Rest Day