I do have some members of the team who don’t do midweek efforts and use parkrun as their speed work. So like last week that is an option. although with HHM the goal, the long run is the key, but no reason you couldn’t do that on the Wednesday and combine it with either Horntye or the cafe run (there are always options). Let me know if you do want to switch it up slightly. But keep up the great work Jan.

119 Points Achieved

MONDAY

9pts | 30 Mins Swim

9 POINTS

Enjoy. Swimming is a great alternative to running and probably the best form of cross training.

10pts | 60 Mins Pilates

10 POINTS

Always a good session to work on flexibility and strength.

19 Points

Swim done 👍 Pilates – good focus on leg work/strengthening

Great work Jan. Always good for us runners when a session focuses on that leg work. If you ever do a heavy leg pilates session, we could even then ditch one of your S&Cs later in the week for some more running mins if you wanted? Otherwise we almost end up doing 3 S&C sessions which might be an overkill. Let me know what you think. So another 20-40 mins running somewhere in the week, or if you felt that was too much we can leave it out. But it’s being adaptable and flexible and changing as things evolve.

TUESDAY

28 Points

Felt a bit daunted when I first arrived 😩 Definitely worked harder than I would normally for an Efforts Session so will aim to put the same effort in when doing Ants sessions. Pleasantly surprised at how good I felt. Would like to talk to you about heart rate – my maximum seems to get scarily high and yet I don’t feel under undue stress when running so not sure what it means??

Great to have you along. You run with such grace, and make it look so easy. It’s great as a coach to watch someone which such good form. Paces look really good and I think it is important that we work hard in these sessions. HR is a good metric to use, if you have a reliable watch. Otherwise you might be getting some inaccurate measurements. But working at 170+ in a session like this is normal to be honest. Some people can go as high as 200. But we are all different. I think that was a great marker for what you want to achieve from an efforts session. So really well done Jan

WEDNESDAY

12pts | Jan’s S&C

12 POINTS

NOTE: You can click on any of the exercises to view a tutorial.

*Signifies you need to do each side (so twice the number of reps)

This should be a good all round workout which will hopefully help with you keep those niggles at bay. The idea being we can slowly add to these. Those doing the best with their strength are the ones who keep it simple and consistent, week in week out.

If time is ever an issue. You can do some supersets. What is a superset? It means combined 2 exercises together, ideally ones that are different.

For example you might do 1 set of Bent Knee Calf Raises, and rather than just twiddle your thumbs for 60 seconds before doing the next set, you do a wall sit inbetween.

12 Points

The S&C sessions are doing me the world of good! I’ve been using my resistance band around my quads for all relevant exercises – hope that’s ok? Pleased you’ve got me doing all the calf and the tib exercises which I think are the reason I’m no longer having Achilles and calf issues – a little stiff at times but no more than that. I can’t believe it!! 😄

So pleased to hear that. Yeah those calf/tib raises can really help. It’s easy to get lazy and not doing them when we are healthy, but they are so important. Especially as we get older. Really pleased you are finding them helpful. It’s part of my plans which have definitely improved in recent months and pretty much everyone on the team is doing some form of S&C now.

thursday

21 Points

A tough and tiring run. Legs felt unexpectedly knackered throughout! Maybe the Efforts Session took more out of me than it felt at the time (and I had swam that morning as well), plus a late-ish S&C session last night and straight out this morning for a run? I wouldn’t normally run until evening but Elena’s down from Leeds so want to spend some time with her . It’s panicked me a bit incase I feel like it from now on and/or for the Hastings Half 😩 On a positive note, no injury or niggles to worry about 😄 Thank you for the lovely feedback following Tuesday’s session 😊

Have I mentioned the rule of thirds? A third of runs are great, a third of runs are ok and a third of our runs feel rubbish, or tough. So this will happen from time to time, 33% of the time if the rule is correct. But when it does happen you know it’s just one of the rubbish runs, put it in that category and move on. Don’t worry about it, it will happen again, but there will also be much better runs ahead. Sometimes I’ve gone out well rested, on a beautiful day and just felt terrible. No reason at all, but I just tick it off, job done, we move on. So well done for getting the 70 mins complete.

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

39 Points

After Thursdays awful experience, I made sure I ran at a very easy pace – determined not to get out of breath or allow my legs to feel uncomfortably tired and I did it!! So although my Achilles tightened up and I wasn’t feeling as fresh as I have been, I enjoyed the run made so much easier by having such lovely company. Strava states that I only ran for 2.03 hrs but my watch recorded just over 2.10 which was accurate because I carried on running after the others stopped.

Well done Jan. I wouldn’t overthink the achilles tightness on a run like this. Because we are very close to the furthest you need to run pre HHM, so its likely things will niggle a little when running for this long. But you got it done and that’s the most important thing. They are a good bunch you ran with today, always so positive and smiley. Another strong week completed by you, that’s 6 on the spin now where you’ve hit your targets, which is brilliant.

MONDAY

9pts | 30 Mins Swim

10pts | 60 Mins Pilates

TUESDAY

28pts | 8-6-6-4-4

WEDNESDAY

12pts | Jan’s S&C

thursday

21pts | 70 Mins Run

FRIDAY

Rest Day

SATURDAY

39pts | 130 Mins Run

SUNDAY

Rest Day