Coach Education Resources
Hills, HIIT or the Gym?
A 12-week trial in masters trail runners compared uphill intervals, circuit training and both combined. Only the uphill groups got faster on the trail. Here’s what each one changed, what the sessions looked like, and how to build hills and heavy strength work into a week.
Races Are Lost on the Way Down
Downhill running is cheap for the heart and lungs but hard on the quads, and unprepared legs fade late in a race. What a single descent does to muscle, which runners coped best, and how to coach and train the descent.
Strength Training for Runners
Strength work doesn’t make a fresh runner much more economical. It keeps a tired one together. Here are eight categories of lifting for runners, a worked training week, and what the studies show for each, including where the evidence is thin.
MAS and ASR Calculator
A pace and zone calculator for endurance coaches. One maximal run gives MAS, anaerobic speed reserve, six zones and example sessions with every rep target worked out for the athlete in front of you.
Race Pace and Strategy Planner
Turn a recent race into a projected finish, target splits, and a race-day pacing plan for any distance from a parkrun to an ultra. It reads your course from a GPX and factors terrain, heat, altitude, and your training
The Ultra-Marathon Gender Performance Gap
The gap between men and women in ultra-running isn't one number. It's about 1% at the median and 22% at the podium, in the same races. This interactive post shows why the answer changes with which runners you count, and how to read any gap figure before you repeat it.
Sprint Interval Training for Improving Aerobic Capacity
This meta-analysis highlights the effectiveness of SIT in enhancing VO2max, a measure that reflects the body's ability to utilise oxygen efficiently during exercise. Examining 16 randomised controlled trials, this paper concluded that SIT leads to a "small-to-moderate" improvement in VO2max. More specifically, this improvement translates to an average increase of 3.6 mL kg-1 min-1, or about an 8% enhancement. Notably, the authors emphasised that this magnitude of improvement is approximately equal to the gains observed with traditional endurance training, which typically involves longer durations of moderate-intensity exercise.
The Science of Endurance Running
This paper draws on the extensive current literature in the field to provide a general guide and starting point for further study by presenting a short overview of the elements that contribute to endurance and how these can be trained in athletes. The full version of the paper can be downloaded using the button below.