Following on from his recent Fast Running interview we take a look at a sample fortnight in Nigel Martin’s training.

As we discussed in the previous interview, the Sale Harrier normally has a couple of bigger weeks followed by an easier week.

The easier week can often finish with a race and below is an example of what Martin’s normal weeks of around 80-90 miles and his race taper weeks can be like. Everything the runner does in on Strava and there are some links within the weeks below.

As with any athlete this is just a snapshot of the training work needed and Martin himself admitted that “Armagh and Wilmslow were not just down to one or two sessions, but three years of uninterrupted training. It’s been three years without time off for injuries or getting carried away that culminated in my best ever performances.”

Over the past few years there has been great, steady progression for the full time engineer. Dedication and hard work, but also sensible levels of training load and adequate recovery are all ingredients that have led to PBs of 13:54 (5k), 29:55 (10k) and 65:26 (half marathon) for the northern runner.

The strong group of runners that are part of Norman Poole’s group up in Manchester is clearly an important part of the work as well. For harder sessions and longer runs the athletes work together to share the hard and easy miles.

With the next goal the Highgate Harriers Night of the 10,000m PBs and then building towards an autumn half marathon and/or a spring 2020 marathon.

Two example weeks of training

Saturday am: Norman Poole’s group training. In the winter we do long grass reps (e.g. 3-4 x 8-12min off 2min recovery) and during the summer it more 5-10k track work. Something like five lots of 2k reps off one minute recovery.

Saturday pm: 30min easy, so around four miles at 7:30 pace.

Sunday am: 15-17 mile long run. I’ll run this with others wherever possible and it’s usually a comfortable seven minute mile pace ro around there.

Sunday pm: 45 min strength and conditioning exercises and heavier weights.

Monday am: Five mile recovery run ~7:45-8min pace

Monday pm: 10k easy – 7:30-7:45 pace

Tuesday am: 30 minutes at  7:45 pace

Tuesday pm: Eight miles at 7:00 pace with 10 surges/accelerations, just to keep the legs ticking over.

Wednesday am: 30min at 7:00 pace with four lots of strides.

Wednesday pm: Group Training. In the winter these will be long tempo runs of around 40-50 minutes and sometimes a shorter tempo with some 400s or 12-14 400s with a really short recovery like 40 seconds. In the summer again it’s focused on 5/10k training and we do 20 minutes of strength and conditioning afterwards.

Thursday am: 25 minutes easy at 7:00 pace

Thursday pm:  Seven mile run to a weights session  (around 7:30 pace) then an hour of weights and 15-20 minute easy run afterwards.

Friday: Five miles at ~7:45 pace in both the AM & PM.

Week leading up to Wilmslow Half (65:26 and 1st place)

Saturday am: Long run of 15 miles including a parkrun (15:54) and 2 x (5x30s) hill sprints.

Sunday am: 10k in ~40:30

Sunday pm: 9.6k in 40mins

Monday am: 4.5mile at ~7:50 pace,

Monday pm: Group session – Four x one kilometre reps on a road loop at ~2:52 pace for each kilometre.

Tuesday am: 30min ~7:50 pace

Tuesday pm: 30min: ~7:40 pace

Wednesday am: 30 minutes at 7:00 pace with four lots of strides

Wednesday pm: 10 minute tempo on the track (~4:58 pace) and then four 400s in 63, 63, 63, 62.

Thursday: Five mile ~7:00 pace

Friday: Rest

Saturday: Five miles at 6:48 pace with four lots of strides.

Sunday: Wilmslow half marathon in 65:26.

RELATED: How I train: Aly Dixon

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