Run3sixty

19/01/2024

Anyone for a wind assisted parkrun tomorrow?? Every Saturday’s a great day for a .

13/01/2024

Great pre-parkrun strength workout 💪 this morning, followed by a training effort at parkrun 🏃🏼🏃‍♀️. Nice work team!

Lovely to meet up with fellow trainers doing great work down at the Team East Lothian training facility too: Seahorse Fitness and Coastal Peak Fitness

Big thanks to all the parkrun volunteers, without you it wouldn’t be the success it is, week in, week out. 🙏

25/11/2023

Well…winter made an appearance this morning 🥶. But it was hot, hot in here! 😎.
⬇️
TEL Hallhill. Sat. 0900. 1000.

Great work team.

23/11/2023

Short days, wind, rain…are you struggling to keep your running up?

I get it. It’s difficult keeping it going during late autumn and into winter, the conditions are rarely inviting!

But here’s the good news, it doesn't take much to maintain your fitness and you can spend that extra time out of your running shoes; being a good family member, friend and community member.

To maintain the fitness you’ve built across the year, you do of course need to keep active but you can slash your usual volume by around 40-45%.

This is also a good time of year to work on your strength training; focussing in on areas of weakness (you know…those places where little niggles tend to develop!)

Strength training and maintaining consistency with regular, short runs will make a huge difference as you enter your next training block when spring comes around.

14/04/2023

Just like the miles and hours of physical training we accumulate over a long period, we should also practice and develop our mental skills too - periodised over the same timescales. Link through to discover the 7 mental skills we should be training to develop our mental toughness.

Just like the miles and hours of physical training we accumulate over a long period, we should also practice and develop our mental skills too - periodised over the same timescales. With that said, what are those mental skills we should be training to develop our mental toughness?

03/04/2023

Are you up for an endurance challenge?

Just under 8 weeks out from the West Highland Way Challenge Race and my eyes are firmly on the 3-day training camp I have planned across 14-16 April, and you can join in if you're up for the challenge.

You can choose to attend 1, 2 or all 3 days to maximise your fitness, challenge yourself and squeeze the most out of the training camp experience. Encourage a training buddy, or loved one, to join you in the challenge. Or at the very least invite them along to support you at some point. The more the merrier!

Spaces are limited, so secure yours today. Click https://bit.ly/X-TC for full details and booking.

And link through to my blog to learn more about what a training camp is, why and how you should include one in your own race preparation: https://www.run3sixty.co.uk/post/the-what-why-and-how-of-training-camps-and-your-opportunity-to-join-one

23/03/2023

After some easy days of recovery from Tempo workouts on the bike, this week’s training marked the point of switching the focus from building VO2max to pushing up my lactate threshold. It also marked a turning point in my road to recovery which has enabled me to find my feet again! More of that later, but first, reading back I realised I glossed over a proper definition of lactate threshold; which is an important metabolic marker and determinant of performance. So let’s look at that now.

Think of this as the top (sustainable) speed that will get you to your destination. Now let’s imagine there’s a shiny new electric car sitting in the driveway. Spec says it can hit a top speed of 145mph. Well, aside from it being illegal and reckless to drive around at that speed…it is simply not sustainable, it would quickly run out of charge and grind to a halt. Rather it would be much more sensible to dial that back to a (legal) speed the battery charge will sustain for a lot longer.

Much like your running; if you blast out the door and exceed your top sustainable speed, your batteries will soon run down. This is the point where blood lactate accumulates faster than you can process it. You’ll recognise this as your legs starting to feel heavy, accompanied by an intense burning sensation, ultimately forcing you to slow down or stop altogether.

Read the full article on my blog:

Can you cross-train your way to completing a 95mi trail running ultramarathon? After some easy days of recovery from Tempo workouts on the bike, this week’s training marked the point of switching the focus from building VO2max to pushing up my lactate threshold. It also marked a turning point in m...

22/03/2023

Try cross-training this weekend to reach your running or general fitness goals. Join a strength or cardio focussed group class (or indeed both!). Hallhill, Fridays and Saturdays, 0900 and 1000. Full details on the website: https://www.run3sixty.co.uk/group-training.

16/03/2023

You’ll remember the original question I’m aiming to answer; can you cross-train your way to completing a 95mi trail running ultramarathon? And that I intend to answer that question following the same training block strategy, style of workouts and training load volumes using a stationary bike and SkiErg to supplement the enforced reduction in running (as a result of injury).

Week one involved a transition to the bike for the bulk of the week’s training volume. Both cycling options were stationary, either; the BikeErg or a road bike on turbo trainer.

First finding - stationary cycling is a pain in the butt!

I do not have much in the way of natural padding and my cycling shorts clearly aren’t up to the job. How do you cyclists do it? Not too much to elucidate - you really don’t want the intimate details - other than 1) it’s all good for mental toughness, which is a theme you’ll discover as you read on and 2) I have found a solution, again, read on.

Find the full article on my blog:

Can you cross-train your way to completing a 95mi trail running ultramarathon? I intend to answer that question following the same training block strategy, style of workouts and training load volumes using a stationary bike and SkiErg to supplement the enforced reduction in running (as a result of i...

04/03/2023

RUN3SIXTY is broken. Or more accurately...its humble ultramarathon-running owner, and your faithful narrator, is broken.

It started with a back problem, the right hip thought it was too hip to be cool and joined in, and not wanting to miss out on the action the adductors and hip flexors completed the party. The net result? My running is now reduced to a bare minimum...which is not ideal with 95miles of the West Highland Way Challenge Race looming on the horizon. May 27th, exactly 12 weeks out from today.

Injury and running is common. Very common. Currently with 984,000,000 Google search results as proof, it's inevitable at some point for a runner. I've been pretty lucky to date (and done a lot of things right) to avoid it. But it's caught me up! Or maybe I caught it up when I hit 50 last year - running stronger than ever, but recovery taking that little bit longer.

Either way we're having to get along with one another, work things out, make concessions and seek professional help together. Just as I'd advise my clients to do; I took some rest, cut the intensity and volume way back and sought out the support of a good physiotherapist. I'm doing the rehab exercises daily, following advice to keep the running easy and limited whilst cross-training to make up the shortfall in training volume.

In previous years, 12 weeks out from a race, I'd want the modality to be as specific as possible; spending most of my time running the trails, not on a bike. I would therefore treat any cross-training as a nice extra - a training stimulus that sits on top of the running volume BUT without the same deleterious impact on the muscles, tendons and joints.

Now, this takes me to the point of this article. It's becoming increasingly apparent to me that normal service will not resume in time to safely progress to the necessary running volume and avoid reinjury. So I've decided to go all in on cross-training and undergo my own little experiment in the name of sports science. OK, sample size of one...but we've got to start somewhere!

In the process I hope that a) I learn a thing or two and can benefit those runners I coach, and b) anyone reading this, and subsequent posts, can find some hope and direction if they ever find themselves in a similar situation.

Hence the title of this post; can you cross-train your way to completing a 95mi trail running ultramarathon? I intend to answer that question by spending hours going literally nowhere! On a stationary bike and SkiErg. I'll follow the same training block strategy, style of workouts and training load volumes I'd normally apply from this point in my training. I will still maintain a low level of running, c.3hrs in the week (all recovery runs), to maintain some resilience to the specific demands of running. The balance however, and fitness build, will come from cross-training 5hrs to 11hrs a week over the period. So, 60-80% of my training will not be running. That really hurts for a runner to say!

'Tune in' for further instalments to see how the training plan unfolds, learn from my experiences, mistakes and triumphs as the race inches closer. Indeed, if you've any advice or wisdom you can share please comment in the post.

RUN3SIXTY is broken. Or more accurately...its humble ultramarathon-running owner, and your narrator, is broken. This series of articles tracks how, and if, cross-training can replace running training to complete an ultramarathon.