With no immediate races on the horizon, it can be a bit difficult to know how to be training at the moment. There is absolutely no right and wrong here but for us, it’s just about having fun and enjoying training without the pressure that sometimes comes with prepping for a race! So if you’re feeling a little lost, we’ve come up with a few things that will keep you engaged and help spice things up a bit over the coming weeks! So here we go…
1. Explore new routes from your doorstep
Strava’s new “Routes” functionality on the mobile app creates fun new courses for you to try.
You can choose the distance, whether you want the run to be hilly or flat, and even the type of terrain you prefer (road or trail) and Strava will build you three routes for you to choose from.
If you have a compatible watch, you can follow your new route on there or simply just use your phone to navigate. For us it’s been a great way to explore some quieter streets and see more of the local area.
This is currently just for Summit members only but here is a link for a free month of Summit membership which will give you loads of time to scope out some exciting new runs near you! This is just to help you out, there is no financial benefit to us, in other words not an ad!
2. Photo challenge with friends
Since you can’t go running with your friends at the moment, you can challenge each other to spot different things out on your solo runs. For example pick a colour and then 4 things to spot of that colour like a red bus, a red flower, a red post box and a red door.
You could even get involved with some street name bingo! Find a street that has a first name, a place name, a compass point and a colour, or choose your own categories!
Check out the one Sarah did a few weeks ago:
https://www.strava.com/activities/3303561474
Give it a try, you’ll feel more connected to your friends as well as your surroundings!
3. Become the King or Queen!
Are there any Strava segments in your area that you think you could have a crack at? Use the Segment Explorer to find them and see if you could knock someone off the top spot and claim the crown for yourself!
If you have a compatible watch, you can even set up live segments so it will beep at you when you are coming up to it so you know when to give it full gas! Or you could incorporate a few efforts during one run to make it more of a fartlek session.
Earning a crown will give you that similar sense of satisfaction that you would get when you receive your medal at the end of a race!
4. Sprinkle in some speed
Now is a great time to be running predominantly easy miles to keep a good base level of fitness and enjoy running without much of a structure but even so, it can be fun to add in some speedwork every now and again.
Try this pyramid session: start with a 10-15 minute warm up jog followed by a few drills (high knees, butt kicks, leg swings and strides). Then run 1-2-3-4-4-3-2-1 minutes at your 5-10k pace and have a 2 minute recovery walk between each one. Finish the run with a 10-15 minute cool down jog.
It’s one of our favourite sessions that we include in a lot of our training plans. Enjoy!
So there we have it! A few ideas for you to inject a bit of fun and variety into your upcoming weeks. Of course make sure you stick to your local government guidelines when doing any of these.
Let us know which ones you try and how you get on! Hope you are all staying well and safe and hopefully see you at a race in the not too distant future! Keep on #gettingitdone!
Ben & Sarah
