FlexiPlan Essentials: Key Sessions for Holistic Trail Running
What those colourful little blocks on the FlexiPlan worksheet actually mean—and how to get the most out of each.
Strength
- Purpose: build muscular endurance, prevent injury, and stay durable on long climbs and descents.
- Examples: bodyweight circuits, resistance bands and dumbbells.
- How often: 2–3 times per week.
Tip: focus on quality, not quantity. 30 minutes is often enough.
I aim for 3 sessions of 30–40 minutes each week. I don’t split into “leg” or “core” days—I mix it all in. That’s how the trail serves it up, so that’s how I train.
The most valuable sessions? The ones that simulate trail conditions I’m working to improve. Whether it’s steep descents or technical scrambling, I try to replicate those demands in my training to build confidence where it counts.
I listen to my body and adjust based on recent trail efforts and what’s coming up. If I’ve got a big elevation week ahead, I’ll dial up the squats and lunges to prep the legs.
Thanks to this consistency, I’ve stayed injury-free for years (not counting the occasional tumble off my bike).
What I often see—on Strava and in my own past—is runners skipping strength. Then they’re sidelined and stuck in physio. A good strength plan could’ve prevented that.
Cross-training
- Purpose: boost aerobic capacity without the pounding. Keeps you moving on “off” days, gives your muscles a break and mixes it up.
- Examples: cycling, swimming, brisk walks, hiking, skiing.
- How often: 2–3 times per week, or as recovery after long runs.
Tip: perfect for active recovery. Bonus: easier to listen to podcasts.
Instead of driving to Top4Running, ride your bike. Double win: you’re helping the planet and getting in some low-impact cross-training.
I’ve made my mountain bike my primary transport. I commute to work, ride for errands, even do my shopping runs on it.
After a few months of this, the impact on my trail running was wild—better stamina, stronger legs, smoother recovery. Long runs felt easier, and cycling became the perfect active recovery tool.
I often mix cycling with walking or short hikes. I prefer cycling for longer zone 2 efforts—it builds aerobic base without the pounding of footstrikes. But fast hiking is great too, especially for building climbing efficiency and those uphill transitions.
Mobility
Maybe this belongs with strength, but it deserves its own spotlight.
I use a big, thick yoga mat (185 by 70 centimetres) so I can sprawl out and do full-body mobility work comfortably.
My focus is posterior chain activation—hips, shoulders, spine, head. I start most mornings with 5–10 minutes of flow rope: breathing-focused, shoulder-friendly, super chill.
Trail running is wild and uneven. You need mobility in your feet, ankles, hips, spine and shoulders to move fluidly and avoid injury. If you want to run like a goat, you have to move like one too.
Trail runs
- Purpose: build your base. Stay steady, smooth and stoked.
- Examples: forest loops, lunchtime park runs, easy techy trails.
- How often: 2–3 times a week, blended with strength and rest.
Tip: keep it conversational. If you’re gasping, you’re going too hard.
These short runs (5k, 7k, 10k) make the FlexiPlan scalable and gradual. You can mix and match through the week without nuking your legs.
The old 10% rule (don’t increase volume by more than 10% per week)? These distances help you build volume without sneaking into injury territory.
I usually alternate between volume weeks and tempo weeks. One week might be higher mileage, the next more intensity—keeps things fresh and stops burnout.
Some days I rip it. Others I shuffle along, fasted, early morning, focusing on form and breath. No pressure, just flow.
Long runs
- Purpose: build endurance, mental grit and solid fuelling habits—this is your aerobic engine room.
- Examples: weekend epics, back-to-backs, slow-burn distance days.
- How often: once or twice per week, scaled to your goals.
Tip: treat it like an adventure. Plan your route, your fuel and your stoke level.
This is the soul of the FlexiPlan for me—my trail time. Anything over 15k counts as a long run, but my sweet spot is 23k, usually on Saturdays.
Zone 2, time on feet, and fuel before you need it. I break each one into stages and plan it like a mini adventure—the full approach, from visualisation to fuelling and the halfway trick, is in how I plan a long run.
Tempo runs
- Purpose: raise your lactate threshold—basically, teach your legs to go faster without falling apart.
- Examples: warm-up, then 20–40 minutes at “comfortably hard”, then cool-down.
- How often: once or twice a week, or every other week depending on the block.
Tip: you should want to stop… but know you can keep going.
These are my “let it rip” days. I love running the trails at speed, especially after heavy elevation or longer distance blocks. It feels sharp, fast, alive. Sometimes it’s just a race against a looming storm cloud—pure trail motivation.
Tempo days help me connect with my stride. I feel the difference between pushing and overreaching, learning when to back off to avoid injury, and when to charge.
They’re also great for balance. Zone 2 builds your base, but these upper-zone efforts build power, pace and confidence.
I always ease into them, building split by split and finishing with a kick—the same approach as my progressive mid-week runs.
A cautionary tale: one winter, I got greedy. Cold wind, end of a long run, went for the sprint. Damaged a nerve. Ended up limping home and teaching my right leg how to walk again. True story. Don’t be like past me—warm up, pace smart, and respect the cold.
Elevation days
- Purpose: build climbing strength and dial in your downhill technique.
- Examples: hill repeats, stair sprints, hilly trail loops.
- How often: once a week—or more if you’ve got a vert-heavy week on the radar.
Tip: don’t just hammer the uphills. Downhills are gold for training too—form, control and confidence matter.
I’ve always loved the climbs. There’s something deeply satisfying about powering up and floating back down with flowy form.
I rotate between two types of elevation days:
- Short and spicy: 7k hill intervals—up, down, repeat. Often by headlamp before sunrise: just me, the climb and the first light.
- Long and grindy: hilly long runs where elevation stacks naturally over distance.
Sometimes I blend them. I’ll hit 8k of hills in the middle of a 15k long run, then cruise the rest home at an easy pace.
And stairs count. I ditched elevators years ago. Between meetings, I sneak in stair sprints. It’s not unusual for me to climb 40 floors or more in a day—and every one of them is trail-relevant.
For technique on the climbs and descents, see chasing elevation and trail running posture.
Rest days
- Purpose: recovery, adaptation, sanity.
- Examples: nap, stretch, sip coffee slowly. Eat that croissant—no regrets.
- How often: 1–2 times per week, or more if your legs file a formal complaint.
Tip: call it “glorious sloth mode” if that helps. You’ve earned the horizontal life.
Mondays are my usual rest days—it just fits. New week, soft start. Sometimes I take Tuesday too, especially if the weekend involved back-to-back long runs or big elevation.
Rest doesn’t mean lying in a heap (unless it does). For me, it’s active recovery: an easy bike ride, a slow walk, or light mobility work. Just enough movement to stay loose while giving the legs a proper break.
I also swear by spa-like rituals: saunas, massages, or even just lying on the floor pretending to stretch while secretly falling asleep.
I sneak a bit of rest day into every day. My evening ritual includes a deep-tissue roller session, one of those spiky massage balls that both hurts and heals, and a tea-tree foot rub that keeps my trail feet happy and hydrated.
Recovery isn’t lazy—it’s strategic. Skip it and you’ll pay the price. Honour it, and you stay in the game longer, stronger, and with happier feet.
Ingredients, not rules
These colour-coded sessions aren’t rigid rules—they’re ingredients. The FlexiPlan lets you mix and match, swap when life gets messy, and still build the strength and endurance the trails ask of you.
Whether you’re training for a 10k or a mountain ultra, this system has your back (and knees, and calves).
