Hello there,
I am a competitive trail runner and I will run at my national championship over the short race (20 k and 900 m of climbing) by the end of march. I love to follow most Canova principles like hill sprint or long and fast run close to race pace. This season I would like to get my running to another level, so I was thinking on adding special block to my training schedule.
From what I understood, to get the most benefit of the special block, you have to run around race pace for a long time in the morning and faster during the second session of the day. So I was thinking on doing that kind of workout :
Morning 2 X 5 k @ race pace over a HILLY loop.
Afternoon : 15 X 400 m @ 105/110 % race pace on a XC terrain with some gentle hills. This one would be faster than race pace (probably around my threshold).
For the moment I have a weekly threshold workout. Usually interval like 25*400 m /30 second rest or longer stuff like 10*1k. I was thinking on cutting that session to replace by the two smaller threshold workout. I also do a Hill session and a long run with tempo (usually 10/12 k around race pace).
So I wanted to know if any trail enthusiastic did something similar in the past ? I was also wondering if that plan looked good and when I have to do it ? Shall I wait the end of my training cycle or can I do it know.
Thanks in advance !