2025: your year for running & cycling success

TRAINING BREAKDOWN

“Grab your low-hanging fruit!”

By Emma O’Toole

Hey there,

This week’s newsletter couldn’t come at a better time as we’ve welcomed in the New Year and things are starting to return to post-festive normality. This week we’re diving into how you can set yourself up for success with your running and cycling by grabbing the low-hanging fruit, key workouts for guaranteed results, and actionable take-aways from this newsletter that you can implement into your training plan today. So, stick the kettle on and get ready!

FITNESS:

1. Grab your low-hanging fruit!

Warm ups and cool downs. 2 simple quick wins that you can add to your training plan right now that will help ensure you’re primed for your upcoming session and also help speed up the recovery process from your workout to make sure you’re ready to go again.

The amount of runners and riders who bypass their warm up/cool down is high! And I get it and have been there, we can always find that extra 5 minutes to end your workout on 10km or 50km instead of 9.7km and 49.2km, right? but those extra 5 minutes before/after your run are hard to find. Similarly, jumping straight in the shower and cracking on with the rest of your day/evening is the go to for the vast majority of us, not spending a few minutes investing into your recovery.

For me, both warm ups and cool downs are two fold:

There is what you do on your run/on the bike….

… and what you do before and after you run/ride.

Most of us are pretty good at easing into our runs/rides with a gradual increase in intensity at the beginning of our sessions and gradually decreasing it towards the end.

However, it’s what you do before and after you run/ride that is often neglected and that really is your low-hanging fruit here.

Dynamic warm ups:

A dynamic warm up helps to prepare you for the work you’re going to put it through with simple, yet effective exercises that prime and potentiate your body. It’s also a great way to check in with how your body is feeling before you set off on your workout.

Dynamic warm ups carry numerous benefits but here are 2 that really stand out:

• Decreased risk of injury:

A dynamic warm up gradually increases your heart rate, blood flow, and body temperature all preparing your for your upcoming run/ride. Muscles and joints are less flexible and more prone to strains, pulls, and tears without this. Think chewing gum- when we get it out of the packet it’s hard, inflexible and can’t really be manipulated. Once it’s warm (aka we chew it) suddenly it’s supple, flexible and ready to do with it what you wish!

• Increased performance:

Have you ever been out for a run/ride, caught short on time and just hammered it from the start? Maybe there was a slight anxiety that crept in as your heart rate suddenly went through the roof, but your pace/power output isn’t matching the effort level? We can see this in practice if we think of a runner/cyclist whose gone from 55bpm resting heart rate to suddenly 155bpm + in the space of a few minutes, that a tripe+ increase. A solid warm up gives your body, and mind, the time it needs to adjust to the upcoming workout to avoid huge heart rate spikes.

Skipping the warm up can make your muscles feel tight and unresponsive, impacting things like your stride length, power output and overall running/cycling efficiency. This is partly because a solid warm up helps to increase your range of motion, an increased range of motion throughout your musculature is key to your performance.

Static stretching cool downs:

After you finish your run/ride kickstart the recovery process by spending 2-3 minutes on a short cool down. This also acts as a great opportunity to reflect on your session, make any mental notes about what went well with that run/ride and what could be improved; plus, again, check in with how your body is feeling.

Here are 3 benefits of cool downs off the bike/run with static stretching that might make you rethink why they’re not in your current training plan:

• Improved blood flow- what is thought to be the cause of a “rebound effect” where during static stretching, blood flow appears to decrease. Once the stretch has been released, blood flow then appears to increase significantly beyond what it was pre-stretching.

• Improved range of movement (flexibility) - Numerous studies have shown that static stretching can improve joint flexibility.

• Improved relaxation by increased parasympathetic nervous system activity both in the short term (same day) and long term (over multiple weeks).

Dynamic warm up and static stretching cool down investment and reward:

• Investment:

  8-13 minutes, (5-10 minutes pre run/ride. 2-3 post run/ride).

• Reward:

  Reduced risk of injury, increased performance, better mindset towards your run/ride.

Click here for a FREE 5 minute dynamic warm up for cyclists and runners and here for a FREE stretching 3 minute cool down routine.

RESULTS:

The beauty of running and cycling is that everyone has their own goal. That could be distance based, time based, ranking based to name a few. There’s a lot of information out there online at the moment really highlighting the importance of “running slow” or “riding easy” with a focus on zone 2 work. Now zone 2 work is essential. There is no other way to put it that this should be a staple in your training plan throughout the season to help develop your aerobic fitness and support your running and riding.

Where this comes a little unstuck, is where runners and riders have a performance oriented goal in mind but never expose themselves to “race pace” work.

Let’s take the following example:

Henry is targeting a 4hr marathon. To achieve this Henry needs to run consistently at 9:09 minutes per mile or 5:41 minutes per kilometre. Henry has clocking up the distance on his long runs, sitting around the 4-5/10 effort level and that equalling 10 minutes per mile mark.

Henry also includes threshold work into his training, for instance 4× 1 mile repeats at 7 minute 50 mark built into an hour steady run.

The problem with this is that Henry has not done any work at his target race pace. He doesn’t know what it feels like to sustain 4, 5, 6 miles at race pace and now he is expecting to run 26.2 miles at that pace.

The same goes for cyclists who are targeting a certain FTP. If we’re always riding far below or way above (for short periods of time) that target, our bodies won’t know what it feels like to sustain that output.

Race specific work like this is not something we want to be doing year round, but it should be an integral part to a runner and cyclist’s training plan if you’re training for a certain performance orientated goal.

Here’s a one of my favourite pace runs close to the end of a marathon training block for an experienced runner with a performance orientated goal in mind:

Long run:

5 mile warm up (steady zone 2)

3× 5km at <10s target race pace with 3 minute recovery blocks in between.

3 mile cool down (steady zone 1-2)

and one of my favourite FTP rides in a FTP power block:

20 min ramp warm up (progressing through the power zones 2-4)

40 minutes under overs (20× 2 minutes @ 95% target FTP, 2 minutes at 105% target FTP)

20 minute cool down (zones 2-1).

Exposing yourself to time spent at your target goal pace or power is essential if you have a target goal in mind.

RESILIENCE:

Strength training.

Strength training really is your running and cycling enabler. It’s the secret amour you wear during every training session and race/event. The research to support what runners and cyclists are experiencing everyday is out there (and has been for a while) to support this and it just keeps on coming.

The key: consistency.

Just like with our running/riding, if we were to stop training we would see a fitness and subsequent performance decline. We’d likely feel sluggish and like our legs were dredging through tar, our heart rate would seem higher and breathing more laboured: The same goes for your strength training.

To get the benefits from it, it needs to be integral to your training- a weekly staple.

The good news is all you’re looking for is:

• 2× sessions per week.

• 30-45 minute sessions (typically).

• Full body workouts.

• Strength sessions that adapt to your running and cycling training as your year unfolds.

You don’t need a fully functioning gym or loads of equipment at home, you can make great progress starting off with bodyweight and then with a kettlebell/dumbbells at home (or we can get creative with readily available at home objects!)

If you’re looking to get started with strength training and make it consistent this year, you need a plan. If you’re interested in a 12 week strength training program for runners and cyclists please click the poll below and I’ll send you the details.

So that’s it folks! Grab your low-hanging fruit and set yourself up for running and cycling success in 2025!

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