Her Trails 50km

WEEK 2

OBJECTIVE

Your objective this week is to SHOW UP to your sessions. What does that mean and why is that important? In the early days of any program, one of the most important things we need to do is to formulate and build our training habits and consistency. This starts with simply showing up. It’s easy to lace up and get out the door when we are fresh and motivated, but it is showing up consistently and on the days you don't feel like it, that will make ALL the difference! There are many factors that can make it tough for us to show up to our training each day. Be it a busy schedule, a bad night's sleep, fatigue, soreness from a new program, anxiety about not completing the session or the expectations we place on ourselves, sometimes just getting started is the hardest part of all. There are a few key things you can do on these tough days, especially in the early weeks of this program that will help you overcome this challenge and cement the consistency that will underpin your success. (1) lock in a training partner, (2) get your logistics sorted the night before & (3) Drop performance expectations! For a more detailed look at these points check out the weekly email. This weeks video shares some general nutrition advice from Sam & Jo - simple tips and strategies we implement and have learnt throughout over a decade of trail and ultra running. Also coming from the perspective of working Mumma's who train!

TRAINING LEVEL CHART

Reference this training level chart to help you understand your efforts for each training session.

LEVEL 1- 3

EASY RUNS/RECOVERY

LEVEL 4-5

MODERATE

LEVEL 6

GOAL RACE EFFORT
[aka HALF MARATHON PACE]

LEVEL 7-8

THRESHOLD
[aka 5KM/10KM PACE]

LEVEL 9-10

STRONG SPEED
[AKA 1 MILE – 400M PACE]

DAY ONE | DAY TWO | DAY THREE | DAY FOUR | DAY FIVE | DAY SIX | DAY SEVEN

DAY ONE

Base Mile Run

20 min Level 1-3

Consider your HIPS as the intention for this session.

  • Cue: Neutral and stable hips will allow your leg to fully extend behind you so that it can pull forward into the next stride, it will increase your power and help protect you from injury, so this is what we are going to begin working towards achieving. For this run, focus on keeping your hips high and forward. Holding your hips up and forwards as you run will help engage your glutes and will bring your centre of mass closer to over the landing foot as you strike the ground. It will also result in a lighter and quicker contact-time and slightly increased cadence (stride frequency) as you reduce any tendency you may have had to over stride.

Note: Don’t dismiss the low intensity of this session as a non-essential training session. Our base mile runs are where we build out aerobic base, which is a critical feature of every endurance athletes training program. These sessions will improve your overall fitness and will also prepare the body to tolerate a greater workload later into the program. It is also a great session to calibrate your previous weeks efforts, which includes both the training sessions and your active recovery and recovery days.

DAY TWO

Strength 

This practice is all about learning your body language. Coach Bec will take you through exercises that make you work all three planes of motion, challenge your stability and teach you how to activate your muscles.

DAY THREE

Base Mile Run

20 min Level 1-3

Consider your CADENCE as the Intention for this session.

CUE –

  • Running cadence is also known as stride frequency and refers to the number of strides you take per minute when running. Whilst it is sometimes used as a performance metric, the most important reason to learn about and work on cadence is that it can help reduce your chance of injury. A quicker cadence generally leads a runner to landing on their mid-foot as opposed to runners with longer strides. This longer stride (that happens with slower cadence) causes runners to extend their legs out in front of their body, creating a breaking effect. This can slow you down and lead to injuries.
  • Your running cadence is affected by many different things – including your body composition, your running style, and the type of workout you’re doing. On average, most runners will have a cadence of 150 to 170 SPM (Steps Per Minute), while fastest long-distance runners are up in the 180 to 200 SPM range. For this run, focus on trying to increase and maintain your cadence. Most watches use built-in accelerometers to measure cadence, so you can review your data after the session and if you like, share your results and how you found this exercise in the Her Trail Facebook group.

DAY FOUR

Mobility Session

This full body mobility session by Coach Bec is a 17 minute practice that you can do before or after a run, on it’s own, or before your active recovery session.

Note: Mobility can be challenging for the brain and these small movements when done for the first (cough second and third) time are difficult for most of us. Every time we repeat these movements we will develop the motor neuron pathways that enhance your brain-body coordination!

DAY FIVE

Active Recovery

20 min Level 1-3

You can substitute this run for cycling, swimming, rowing or elliptical machines. We just want your body moving at a low intensity for an active recovery session.

NOTE: Active recovery sessions are great after strenuous workouts. In fact they are often considered more beneficial than inactivity, resting completely, or sitting. The purposes is to keep blood flowing throughout the body that allows the muscles to recover and therefore rebuild from intense physical activity. We preference complete rest over an active recovery session if you are injured or are in a lot of pain.

DAY SIX

Long Run

60 min Level 1-3

Embrace the adventurous mindset on this run and if possible seek our an undulating trail to do this session on.

DAY SEVEN

REST DAY

Priorities and relish in your Rest Days. This is where we recovery, recuperate and consolidate the efforts of the previous days sessions. If you skip this session you are not allowing your body time to adapt to the strain of running and strength.