Runner and Coach Hanny Allston’s Wave Training Theory
What every runner can take away from The Trail Running Guidebook
Hanny Allston’s The Trail Running Guidebook is filled with wisdom for long-distance trail runners. It includes guides to nutrition and gear for endurance runners, covers daily training, running technique, and racing, but here I want to focus on the chapter that deals with ‘Wave Training’.
Wave Training is Allston’s own theory, based on her running and coaching experience. It has been used by Allston and other elite athletes; however, the basic principles can be adopted by runners of all abilities. As someone who runs for enjoyment and to maintain a basic level of fitness, I certainly found that Wave Training provided me with a useful structure to follow.
About Hanny Allston
Hanny Allston has achieved elite-level status in a range of running sports, including orienteering, marathon, mountain, road, and distance track running. Allston represented her country and won gold at multiple World Orienteering Championships and Junior World Orienteering Championships, and she holds numerous race records from the marathon to ultramarathons. She is also a businesswoman and coach to elite-level athletes.
Reading The Trail Running Guidebook
Hanny Allston wrote The Trail Running Guidebook after nine years in the coaching industry and twenty years in the world of elite sports. She notes that her theories on training have been influenced by her own mentors and coaches, and that she has had to adapt her training principles over the years in order to create training schedules that complement the busyness of modern life.
Between 2011 and 2012, during the pre-London Olympic campaign, Allston lived and worked at the Australian Institute of Sport. Here, the entire environment was geared towards performance, and athletes could train with this as their highest priority, with limited external demands.
Athletes were carefully coached and supported, and Allston contrasts this world to the world of recreational athletes. Outside elite circles, runners must be their own nutritional experts and chefs, and often their own coaches, fitting training in around the demands of work, family, and social commitments. All of these things contribute to life’s richness, but they are also stressors, and Allston has come to believe that one of the contributing factors for injury or burnout comes from following advice tailored to elite athletes, and expecting this to translate to an already full life and schedule. So, is it hopeless? Can amateur trail runners still achieve success? Of course, they can. They just need to train smarter.
Wave Training Theory in Action
Allston has based her guidebook on a training plan and mentality that is not solely focused on times and race results as the measure of success, but on a sustainable training plan for adults with a full life and responsibilities outside of their sporting endeavours.
Yes, Allston’s training guide is still aimed at helping you achieve your goals — whether that be a certain distance, a certain time, or mastery of a new sport — but it acknowledges that the generally accepted training wisdom that has been based on the performance of elite athletes must be adapted if it is to suit the rest of us ‘ordinary’ human beings.
As the name suggests, Wave Training follows a plan that ebbs and flows.
Before reading Allston’s book I had heard a lot about different training plans that varied their intensity based on four-week cycles. Then, recently, I read an article about the pros and cons of a ten-day training cycle.
Allston’s Wave Training follows a three-week cycle. After working with this training theory as an athlete and coach for seven years, Allston included details of the refined plan in her guidebook, including the unique quirks that she has dreamt up to keep her training fresh and fun.
The first week of a Wave Training plan is a moderate intensity week, the second is at a harder intensity, and the third week is a rest week with a long run, or a ‘mission’ thrown in at the end.
Moderate Week
Monday — Easy
Tuesday — Moderate
Wednesday — Hard
Thursday — Easy
Friday — Moderate
Saturday — Hard
Sunday — Rest
Hard Week
Monday — Easy
Tuesday — Moderate
Wednesday — Hard
Thursday — Easy
Friday — Moderate
Saturday — Hard
Sunday — Rest
Rest Week + Mission
Monday — Easy
Tuesday — Easy
Wednesday — Moderate
Thursday — Easy
Friday — Rest
Saturday — Mission
Sunday — Rest
The structure is designed to fit into a normal, busy schedule, and to give runners performance gains without risking the injuries that can often come with a punishing training plan that continually builds without respite.
The hard weeks mirror the moderate weeks but allow you to build up your training sustainably. If you are working towards a new goal, then each moderate week will be based on the previous hard week, and the hard week that follows will allow you to step up the intensity or length of training sessions again.
The ‘missions’ in your easy weeks are more than just long runs. They’re meant to provide a range of benefits, from race day preparation to adding a sense of fun and variety to your training. Allston suggests that you plan ahead and run somewhere new for each mission. This makes them an adventure to look forward to, and can also give you valuable insights of running over new terrain in a range of conditions. Because you are well-rested, you will gain a more accurate picture of your current level of fitness and ability. Missions are a way to prepare you mentally, physically, and practically for trail races.
I’ve really enjoyed following Allston’s Wave Training model. Before this, my training was ad hoc and unstructured and probably didn’t deserve to be called training at all. The Wave Training plan is easy to follow and easily adapted for any level of fitness. I especially look forward to the missions. Having them in mind as an adventure to look forward to rather than an endurance session to endure makes the entire training cycle better.
You’ll find that there’s far more detail in the book than I can go into here, but if you’re interested in following Allston’s Wave Training, then you will find plans covering a range of distances on her website, and these will help you to really put it into practise yourself.
