Outside of your long run you should have at least two key sessions.
- Hill sessions
This usually consisting of 20 to 40 minutes of up hill running. Finding a good gradient hill and running for between 60 seconds and 3 minutes up the hill. Make sure it’s not too steep and concentrate on your form when running. The benefits are great from hill work. It increases your aerobic capacity (you’ll need to use less oxygen at longer distances) and improves your running economy (you use less oxygen to run faster). It also builds strength in your glutes, quads and calf muscles.
- Tempo runs
A tempo is a faster paced run and is great at increasing your speed endurance. There are a few ways of finding the right tempo pace for you. The most common would be to run at 30 seconds slower than your current 5K form or add 15 seconds to your 10k form. Tempo runs are meant to be “comfortably hard” so don’t push the pace, you should be able ask a question but not be able to have a conversation. The benefits of adding a regular tempo run to your program include improvements in running efficiency, particularly at increased speeds and improvements in top speed. By running for sustained periods close to your limit, this limit will, over time increase, enabling you to run faster before you reach this limit.
It is also very important that you warm up and cool down correctly. Do at least 15-20 minutes of easy running before and after both these sessions. Most importantly enjoy your running 🙂