A few people have asked me recently the types of sessions I do in training during November and then I seen a thread pop up on 8lane not so long ago about sessions for this time of year. So after seeing that I've gone back through my training diary and picked out a few that I've found to be key over the last year or two. I'm not expert, I'm no coach but I think I can give an honest opinion of what can only be described as those sessions you love to hate in the winter! I've done these mixed in with fairly high volume weeks apart from the track session which was the week of a race. 

I thought some of you may be interested in these so here goes...

Grass session: 3x 3mins/6mins off 3mins recovery throughout.

In this session you get 27minutes of hard running with a good recovery so you're able to really go hard on the reps and get used to running that bit harder at this time of year. I'd say you have to look at 5k pace for the 3min reps and 10k pace for the 6min reps.

Track Session: 3x400m, 6x800, 3x400 off 90sec and 3mins between sets recovery.

Here it's a chance to get your legs moving. I'd do this sort of session before a race and you're still getting 18 laps worth of volume in. I haven't written in my diary what pace I did the reps at but i'd imagine they were around 3k pace for the 400's and 5k-10k pace for the 800's.

Grass session: 8x1k off 90secs recovery.

I always see this as a key session for me as I use it as a marker for my fitness. I will do it in the summer on the track and the winter on the grass and after i'll take my 5 slowest reps and add them up for an indication of what 5k shape i'm in. Obviously as this is the winter session on grass you don't really want to go hammering them at 5k pace because you'll probably find you won't complete the session. I did the reps between 5k and 10k pace.

Grass session: 5x5mins off 1min recovery. 

This is a session where you're not aiming for any specific point to begin with, I usually just aim to try and get further each rep. I would try and find out where the mile marker is to give you and idea of where you're getting after 5mins in relation to that. I personally wear my Garmin which gives me my pace so I can look back after and find out how I've got on. I find it a very good volume session to get ready for those long 10k cross country races and I know it's a big favourite of George Gandy here in Loughborough. You can always make this session 6x5mins too if you're well into your training.