Speed Endurance Sessions
The speed endurance sessions are held at 7:10pm on alternate Tuesday and Thursday evenings allowing everyone a chance to join. Details of the sessions are contained within our training diary and training schedule. We meet in the car park in Hampson Park and the postcode for here is SG1 5QU. This gives us easy access to the wide network of cycleways in the Stevenage and allow different routes for different speed groups.
After an appropriate warm up we use a series of timed intervals (efforts) where we run harder/faster before running slowly (recovery period). During the recovery period we all re-group before starting the next effort….and so on. The training groups cover a route of about 4-7 miles and are based on pace groupings. Each group is named after a type of deer! Muntjacs, Roes, Fallows, Impalas and Gazelles! Runners need to be able to run at least 5km (within 45mins) continuously to take part in these training sessions.
We have specific run leaders for different groups to manage these appropriately for pace and distance and rely on the runners to put themselves in the correct group for their pacing, distance and their general well being, please see below for the pace chart:
The textbook definition of speed endurance (running at near maximal speed for a prolonged period of time) is particularly useful for sprinters, but will be of benefit to those running longer distances as well. The term is often used for longer distance runners more generically to mean training at a high speed, quicker than race pace, but not necesssarily at sprint speeds.
A general rule of thumb is that athletes are given 1 minutes recovery for each 10m they have just run - hence why in between the efforts which are planned there will be at least 1 - 2 mins. On the recovery periods the aim is to slow the running right down but keep moving and to loop back and re-group to the runner at the back of the group.
Our speed endurance routes are on the links below:
