It’s now 8 weeks to the next club target race – The Great North Run Half Marathon on 11th September.
The last 6 weeks of training have been longer steady runs. We now suggest you have 1 easy week before beginning 5 hard training weeks that will involve reps and hard tempo runs at your race pace. The final 2 weeks will be a taper for the GNR.
The sessions next week can also be done as hard sessions depending on individual requirements: E.g. if the GNR is not your target race then the 20/18 session can be a demanding session depending on the pace you do the 20 minutes out in.
The following 5 weeks of training sessions after are the sessions that will really count towards your GNR performance.
Its advised not to drop mileage on an easy week but to hold it and start dropping it about 3/4 weeks before the race.
Similarly the hard sessions can be used to target any Autumn marathon or other ten mile/half marathon race.
Just keep building your mileage until 7 weeks out then push at the sessions for 5 weeks and taper 2 weeks out from your Autumn target race.
Happy Running!