Running
Vertical & Mountain Specialist
Vertical-focused trail plan with hill sprints and steep climbs. Twelve weeks, five runs a week.
- Distance
- Half marathon
- Length
- 12 weeks
- Runs per week
- 5
- Level
- Advanced
- Goal
- Time goal
Who it's for
You run most days and are used to structured workouts. It is built around a specific half marathon time you want to hit.
Hill work is built in for a hilly course.
It is made for trails, not the road.
How the weeks work
It runs for twelve weeks with five runs in each.
If life gets in the way you can stretch it to 16 weeks, or tighten it to 10 if you are already fit.
The last 10 days are a taper: less running, a little intensity, so you start the race fresh.
- Hill repeats: run up at a strong effort, jog back down, repeat.
- Hill sprints of 8 to 10 seconds up something steep, walking back down to recover fully.
- Hike-run practice: power-hike the steep climbs and run everything else, the way most people race on trails.
Setting your paces
Start with a 1 km time trial. Your result sets the paces for the rest of the plan, so run it honestly and on fresh legs.
Making it stick
- Protect the key sessions. The easy running around them can move.
- Compare each benchmark with the last one and adjust your paces, up or down.
- Practise your race-day fuelling on long runs, not on race day.
