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Apologies if this has been done already...
I would like to get better at the harder AL races, but dodgy ankles, busy job, young family etc. means compromise.
What are the basic weekly sessions needed to progress (or at least not lose ground)?
Cheers
Lupi
Hi Lupi.
It all depends what your level of fitness is at the moment, current mileage, etc. But the short answer would be as much as you can, without constantly over-tiring yourself (something I have yet to master!)
I find recording your mileage/climb each week gives you a guide as to whether you are training consistently. People use watches and apps, but pen and paper is just as good and is what I use.
Ideally you need to be getting a regular good long outing on the fells. And don’t neglect speed/rep work, even for the longer races. Since I started doing track/road reps every week, my fell performances have improved. If you get those two decent sessions each week, then I believe (and stand to be corrected) that the rest of your weekly miles can be fairly steady, just building your cardio levels.
Of course if you’re regularly racing, e.g every week, then you have to consider whether you can get all your quality sessions in, and race, without breaking down.
Just look at it sensibly with regards to what time you have and what you can realistically manage. We all have constraints. I live miles from the fells and have to work round that. For others it’s family-life etc.
Thanks Travs, I have lots of room for fitness improvements (!) but usually manage a couple of AL races per year (mid pack). I was thinking of 1x long, 1xhill reps 1xfaster stuff per week, with bike commuting, rowing machine, short runs to fill in the gaps (and fit around family). Would this be reasonable?
Sounds perfectly reasonable to me.
Cross-training again sounds good.... personally, when I exchanged cross-training for steady runs (and therefore upped my weekly mileage by around 15 miles a week in a short space of time), the additional mileage benefitted my racing. But then a lot of people swear by cross-training.
I'm obviously nowhere near the top of the field as some on here but I have ditched a lot of my running in exchange for cycling. I commute 3 or 4 days a week by bike, the shortest route being only 5 or 6 miles but I try and extend this as time/weather allow. Sometimes this will be a 20 miler with a load of hills thrown in. I then run up to 3 times a week - 1 long run, 1 interval/hill rep session, 1 speedwork. Some weeks I'll race or have a cycle sportive so drop the long run - you get the gist.
I've found with cycle training (and I guess its true with running to some extent) that a 2 hour ride focussing on hilly and or rolling terrain has far, far more benefit than a much longer flat ride with the added benefit of taking far less time.