Hill Sprints, Under & Overs & Overhead Strength — Training Update #8

Back from deload — 18 rounds at Cardiac Hill, threshold running, a brutal shoulder combo, and the Q2 workshop announcement.

I only started feeling genuinely fresh again by Tuesday after a very much needed deload week.

I headed down to Williamstown for an easy 11km along the beachfront. Pace sat around 5:22/km — felt smooth, controlled, and importantly left plenty in the tank.

That's usually a good sign recovery has done its job. Sometimes it's just a big mental refresh for me.

6:45am. Pitch black at Brimbank. Fresh. Nobody there except me and the rabbits. Perfect.

Hill sprints remain one of my toughest sessions because they force you to produce high power output while reducing some of the impact forces you'd normally get sprinting on flat ground.

Because the hill naturally shortens stride length and increases forward lean, it also tends to clean up sprint mechanics quite nicely.

And physiologically, these sessions challenge both the aerobic and anaerobic systems hard. Your heart rate climbs quickly, oxygen demand skyrockets, and your body gets better at tolerating and clearing fatigue.

In simple terms: they make you fitter, stronger, and more efficient.

Coffee afterwards with Jasmine and Shaz. Both are training for the Melbourne Half and I'm enjoying watching them break through their own fears and barriers more than my own running. That's the cool part about coaching — watching confidence grow.

This Saturday's session is what we call "under and overs":

This is high quality work for me and my favourite bit. The beauty of these sessions is they force your body to repeatedly move between harder threshold work and more controlled aerobic pacing without fully recovering.

When you surge above threshold pace ("under"), lactate and fatigue begin building quickly. Dropping slightly below threshold ("over") teaches the body to continue working while clearing fatigue more efficiently — rather than completely backing off.

That's hugely beneficial for half marathon performance, Hyrox-style events, team sports, and anyone wanting to improve repeat effort capacity.

And mentally? They're hard. You have to stay composed while uncomfortable. That's why I enjoy them. The sessions you have to dig for are usually the ones that leave the biggest reward afterwards.

For anyone joining us at Brimbank — I should roll in around 10:10am for coffee afterwards. Would love to see more of you there.

I've dropped my strength training down to 3 sessions per week while the running volume climbs towards the 50km/week mark. Wednesday became the obvious recovery day.

I definitely miss the extra back work, but I know the running intensity is only going to increase from here, so recovery needs to stay a priority. That balance becomes really important when concurrent training (strength + endurance) starts climbing.

Last Friday's push pull session absolutely lit the shoulders up. The session included:

This pairing is incredibly effective for building shoulder strength, stability, upper trap development, overhead tolerance, and scapular control.

The lateral raises pre-fatigue the deltoids — particularly the middle delt — before transitioning straight into the pike handstand hold where the shoulders and traps have to stabilise your entire bodyweight.

That combination creates huge muscular demand through the delts, upper traps, serratus anterior, triceps, and rotator cuff stabilisers. And importantly, it challenges the shoulder in an overhead position — something many people are weak or poorly controlled in.

Strong shoulders aren't just about aesthetics. Good overhead strength and control improves shoulder resilience, scapular stability, rotator cuff function, postural endurance, and capacity for pressing, pulling, and carrying tasks.

A lot of the shoulder pain problems we see clinically involve poor load tolerance and poor control overhead. Exercises like these help build both.

And yes — the burn is brutal. But that's the point. When we programme these sessions, we're trying to create enough muscular stress to force adaptation.

For newer members, you might not hit that wall yet — intentionally so. We'll often hold people back early while tissues adapt and technique improves. For those who've been with us a while: this is why we push harder. Because strength is built by gradually exposing the body to higher levels of stress it can successfully recover from.

We're excited to announce our next IAC workshop featuring Dr Samina Kausar — Gynaecologist.

Over the years, I've had countless conversations with women navigating menopause symptoms and it's become very clear how under-supported many people feel during this phase of life.

Dr Samina has been training with us at IAC over the past 6 weeks and has become a huge advocate for the role exercise and strength training can play during menopause.

We'll lock in the final date shortly, aiming for Saturday at 11am. Really looking forward to bringing this one to the IAC community.

Our small group strength sessions run across Ravenhall, Tarneit, and Williamstown. Whether you're returning from injury or building strength for the long term, we programme with purpose.

This article is for general information and educational purposes only. Training loads, session data, and programming principles described are based on individual experience and should be adapted under the guidance of a qualified health or fitness professional.

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