Training Week March 30-April 5
If you’re a runner over 40 trying to stay consistent, improve your fitness, and avoid the cycle of injury and burnout, this is for you.
There are no shortage of complex training plans out there. Most of them look impressive on paper, but they’re hard to sustain in real life. Especially when you’re balancing work, family, and the reality that recovery isn’t what it used to be.
This is different.
Full Stride Running Club is built around a simple idea: the vast majority of us masters runners don’t need more complexity - we need a common sense structure we can stick with consistently that provides results.
Each week, I’ll share a straightforward training plan based on what I’m actually doing myself. It follows a proven format:
- One faster session (tempo or intervals)
- One long run
- Everything else easy
That’s it.
This approach is designed to help you build aerobic fitness, stay healthy, and gradually improve without constantly feeling exhausted or risking injury.
The Community
This is where it becomes more than just a plan.
If you’re following along:
- Share how your week went in the comments
- Ask questions
- Encourage others
Most runners train alone. I wanted to create a better option.
This is a way to stay connected, even if we’re all in different places. If you’re self-coached, this gives you a clear path to follow. If you’ve been inconsistent, it gives you a structure to return to. And if you’re already training well, it might just simplify things in a way that keeps you moving forward.
The goal isn’t perfection.
The goal is to keep showing up, week after week, and let the results take care of themselves.
Here’s this week’s training program:
Monday - Rest or easy run 30-40 minutes
Tuesday - Easy run 40-60 minutes, finish with 4-6 x 80m relaxed strides
Wednesday - 15-20 minute warm up, 3x8 minutes tempo run with a 2 minute jog recovery, 10 -15 minute jog to cool down. (Tempo pace is approximately 10-15km race pace or 85-90% maximum heart rate)
Thursday - Rest or Easy run 30-40 minutes
Friday - Easy run 40-60 minutes
Saturday - Easy run 40-60 minutes + 4-6 x 80m relaxed strides
Sunday - Long run 60-90 minutes
How to adjust this training for yourself:
Easy runs - do as much as you like based on your experience and ability. For experienced runners, I’d suggest a minimum of 30 minutes and no more than 60. Keep it as an easy effort, as slow as you want but no faster than about 80% of maximum heart rate. You can approach it progressively, starting very slow and working into a slightly quicker pace as you get warmed up. No straining or forcing the pace though.
Strides - These short should be run about mile race pace or similar effort. Keep them relaxed, focus on good form and don’t try to sprint.
Tempo - Pace as indicated above but be careful not to exceed 90% of max heart rate. It’s tempting to push a little too hard on these sessions. The goal is to gradually push your threshold up from below, not to exceed it. Going too fast isn’t better than running the correct pace and extends your recovery time between sessions.
Long Run - Run as much as you like depending on your goals, experience and the event your training for. Could be anywhere from 60 minutes to 2 hours and 30 minutes. Longer runs than this take too much out of you and may affect the quality of the rest of your training.
That’s it for this week. I’ll post a new schedule each week for you to follow along if you like.
Let me know how your training is going in the comments.
Cheers,
Dan.