Monday is the first Brancumhall cross-country session of this season (these sessions are every second Monday from now until the National Cross-Country in late February). Refer to this post from last week for an explanation of why these cross-country sessions (and races) are an important part of our winter training.
As this may well be the first time in off-road shoes or spikes for a while, the session may seem like a slight step backwards from the most recent threshold session we did on the road a few weeks ago. However, this is to allow the muscles and tendons to adjust to running on soft ground in different shoes and not to introduce any injuries by introducing too big a change too soon.
The session is 4 x 6 minutes at threshold with a 2 minute jog recovery (a few weeks ago we did a 6 x 6 minutes threshold on the road). Use the usual lap on the outside perimeter of the football pitches in an anti-clockwise direction. As always, remember that threshold is a level of effort; not a specific pace. On soft ground, your threshold effort will be at a slower pace than on a flat road.
For those new to Brancumhall, the session is around the outside perimeter of Brancumhall football pitches on the grass. The way the weather has been this past few days, the conditions will be soft to very soft underfoot. A trail shoe, spikes or a fell shoe with rubber studs would be best in those conditions. If you are wearing spikes or fell shoes for the session, then bring your usual road shoes too such that you can run to/from Brancumhall. Usually, some kind person will take their car from the club to Brancumhall and transport your off-road shoes for you.
Alan
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