ORLA (O'DWYER) RUNS TRAINING PROGRAM

                                        

It's off-season time which also means...gulp...running time.

For a speed profile athlete like myself, traditional running is a simply terrible thing as I'm a million % better at sprint and rest programs and anything that puts me in the "middle" spikes my rate of perceived effort (RPE) and heart rate (HR) a pretty much as soon as I start.

As I've gotten (way) older (just turned 44), my repeat effort output has obviously declined while I've been able to maintain my max velocity and acceleration speed but that has also been the aim of my training in recent years, with a 3 - 4 week block for threshold running added in around January/February before getting back to my usual set up and practice games.

All "middle" training is left to whatever footy training sessions I can attend which is your classic model for "in the middle training" - not fast enough and not enough rest to gain any max speed benefits from it but also too fast and fatigue building to build sustainable aerobic capacity.

For this off-season, which I'm not sure if I'll be club coaching, school coaching, playing, private sector coaching or a combination of all 4 like 2022, I'm going running route which I haven't done for near on 20 years when that was all you did.

Here's a cycle of what I'm doing right now for my running training.

Session #1 x 20mins of continuous running st 70% of max aerobic speed (MAS) which is slow and is actually a speed I can't run at as it's between a walk and a run so I'm actually running at closer to 75% MAS but no big deal.

The aim is to run at the same pace for the entire 20mins so I've set out lap times and such to keep pace and the long term goal after 6 weeks or so is to be able to do the same workload (20mins @ 70 - 75% MAS = 2735m) at a lower heart rate meaning I can now do the same amount work but by using less energy.

Session #2 x Orla Runs which is a running pattern I've copied from Brisbane Lions AFLW winger and running machine, Orla O'Dwyer.

I used this in 1 of my AFLW Film Review videos to show elite running patterns for a winger, especially in the women's game where there are 2 less players on the ground and there is more space in defensive halves to cover which is the cryptonite of defenders.

Here's what it looks like...

For full access to this training program and plenty of others register for a level 2 membership at https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.