Off season running plans
pondee629
Posts: 2,469 Member
Just finished my first Half marathon (2:17:10) and am now looking for an off season training plan. Something to keep the momentum going without stressing as in a getting ready to race plan. Ultimately looking to improve on that 2:17 time, but I was beginning to feel a little burnt out near the race.
I plan on running, outside for as long as the weather allows (then treadmill), together with lifting and core work.
Looking to continue to build endurance, strength and (maybe) speed.
PB's to date:
5K 28:18
4 Miles 37:51
HM 2:17:10
HM training plan I was doing 26-32 miles per week
Anyone with ideas?
Thanks
I plan on running, outside for as long as the weather allows (then treadmill), together with lifting and core work.
Looking to continue to build endurance, strength and (maybe) speed.
PB's to date:
5K 28:18
4 Miles 37:51
HM 2:17:10
HM training plan I was doing 26-32 miles per week
Anyone with ideas?
Thanks
0
Replies
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What's an off season?
If I'm not in a training block for a race, I typically just run ~35-40 MPW of whatever I feel like. What that's going to look like for you is going to be highly dependent on your goals. Do you have other things like strength increases you are targeting? What race distances/types are you planning in the future?1 -
The summer heat just broke so my race season is about to start. I spent the summer on the TM.0
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I'm also just transitioning into off season. I plan to maintain a 30-35 mile/week running base while putting more of a focus on strength training and yoga.0
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The_Enginerd wrote: »What's an off season?
I'm not sure either. Is it the same as cross country season?
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So, you guys claiming not to know what an off season is run as if in training for a race year round all the time?1
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So, you guys claiming not to know what an off season is run as if in training for a race year round all the time?
2015 race dates: January 1, January 10, February 14, March 14, March 28, April 26, May 17, May 24, June 5, June 6, June 21, June 28, July 18, August 22, September 5, September 20, October 17, October 24, November 1, November 26, December 19.
2016 race dates: January 1, January 9, [skipped February because nothing fit with Boston training], March 12, March 26, April 18, April 24, [missed May and June due to injury], July 16, August 13, September 4, September 18. May miss October due to injury; if I get healthy fast enough, I will have races October 15, October 22, potentially November 6, November 24, December 12, maybe December 17.
What's an off season?1 -
2015 race dates: January 1, January 10, February 14, March 14, March 28, April 26, May 17, May 24, June 5, June 6, June 21, June 28, July 18, August 22, September 5, September 20, October 17, October 24, November 1, November 26, December 19.
2016 race dates: January 1, January 9, [skipped February because nothing fit with Boston training], March 12, March 26, April 18, April 24, [ missed May and June due to injury], July 16, August 13, September 4, September 18. May miss October due to injury; if I get healthy fast enough, I will have races October 15, October 22, potentially November 6, November 24, December 12, maybe December 17.
What's an off season?
Could there be a connection?
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2015 race dates: January 1, January 10, February 14, March 14, March 28, April 26, May 17, May 24, June 5, June 6, June 21, June 28, July 18, August 22, September 5, September 20, October 17, October 24, November 1, November 26, December 19.
2016 race dates: January 1, January 9, [skipped February because nothing fit with Boston training], March 12, March 26, April 18, April 24, [ missed May and June due to injury], July 16, August 13, September 4, September 18. May miss October due to injury; if I get healthy fast enough, I will have races October 15, October 22, potentially November 6, November 24, December 12, maybe December 17.
What's an off season?
Could there be a connection?
Oh, yes. The first injury was because I was major league stupid, running a half marathon 6 days after Boston. The second injury was because I wasn't enough smarter, and beat myself up running the Rochester Marathon. I may have to give up marathons . . . after Boston 2017. And I should probably run fewer races in general.
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I will have about 6-8 weeks between my fall marathon and when I start training for a spring marathon. During that time I will run 3 short races but won't be 'training' for them. I'll limit my runs to a few miles 3 days a week and will focus on lifting. Then when I start training for my spring race I will not be going nearly as hard as I am for the fall race. I plan to put a lot of extra weeks in the schedule to account for bad weather. Plus, my body needs a break.0
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Sorry, we are being facetious. The 'traditional' way to do it, at least in my part of the U.K., if you are an endurance runner, would be to have a couple of big targets (this year I am doing two marathons, Spring and Autumn, but normally I do a spring marathon and an Autumn half). You'd build up to those through shorter warm-up races (I tend to do a 5-miler, 10-miler and half in the spring and a couple of shorter races and a 10k leading up to the Autumn half, though this year I also did a half to build up to the full). You might race other stuff along the way but not 'target' it. But I never drop below 45 miles per week except immediately after a marathon when recovering, and I don't stop doing quality sessions, but they'll be focused differently, partly to help with the cross country. Cross country over the winter is a target for some people, but many use it to build up fitness as part of a long base-build to get them fit for spring races.1
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I guess if you ask a group for an opinion, you get ALL options;
From MobyCarp running 15- 21 races a year (could you supply the distances of those races please) which, to me, seems like a recipe for burnout; to
litsy3 focusing on a couple of big target races through the year using shorter warm up races during what I have mistakenly (insultingly?) called an off season; (litsy3: What are your training distances like? I'd like to compare so I can scale mine. Thanks) to
dewd2 declaring a 6-8 week off season between major races limiting his runs to 3 times a week and focusing on lifting during that time.
Real glad that was cleared up.codename_steve wrote: »I'm also just transitioning into off season. I plan to maintain a 30-35 mile/week running base while putting more of a focus on strength training and yoga.
codename: What was your schedule like while training? Looking for a comparison to scale my schedule. Thanks0 -
I guess if you ask a group for an opinion, you get ALL options;
litsy3 focusing on a couple of big target races through the year using shorter warm up races during what I have mistakenly (insultingly?) called an off season; (litsy3: What are your training distances like? I'd like to compare so I can scale mine. Thanks)
I don't think it's insulting or mistaken, but it's less of a familiar concept to me (and possibly some others on here) as I think maybe a true 'off-season' is more likely to apply to middle-distance (i.e. track) runners, especially at high school and college, racing 800s and 1500s in a quite clearly defined early summer season, and possibly racing short xc races in a winter season. Some will also do an indoor track season. In between, they might take a couple of months totally off before getting into a pre-season phase to rebuild fitness. Because their races are short, they can do lots of them and the season is quite intensive. A girl who recently came along to my training group (we're an endurance group for adults but we are also joined by students in term time) having taken the whole summer off running; she is young and races 800s.
If you're a long-distance runner (in the sense of 5k to marathon), you're more likely to be running higher mileage anyway, and you're very unlikely to take whole months off as (a) the season for races is less clearly defined, and (b) you will be maintaining some base fitness throughout the year anyway, which you'll need to build back up to the longer distances. That's why you don't really hear 'off-season' as much or if you do, it doesn't really mean the same. I suppose what you're really asking for is base-building: gradually build easy miles, don't do as many hard sessions, but still include strides and fartleks to change your pace from time to time.
As for me, my training volume varies depending on my race targets, but I'm likely to be running 45-50 miles per week all year round, and building to 55-60 miles leading up to a target half, and 70+ miles for a target marathon. I run 6 or 7 days a week, usually 1 long run (12-22 miles, depending on race targets), 1 medium-long run (8-15 miles), 2 'quality' sessions, maybe a fartlek and everything else is background/recovery. The only real exception is just after a marathon when I'd do a reverse taper and build back up very gradually.1 -
Thanks litsy3: I just finished (Sept 25) my first Half Marathon (2:17:10, kinda proud of that, have been told it is a challenging course). Have been training for said race since July 4. For the 9 weeks up to that race weekly mileage was 24 -32 miles with longs runs of 10-13 miles.
Been running races since May of this year. (started running after taking about 40 years off about two years ago) May 15, 5K, May 30, 5K, July 15, 5K, August 20, 4 miles and that Sept 25 Half. No current plans for racing, which could change. My 5K times are 27-28 minutes.
Winter in Northern NJ is coming, I was feeling a little burnt out from the Half training and was looking for some idea of what to do next. Not really interested in MobyCarp's race every other week schedule, but still want to improve my condition and was looking to see what others were doing. It seems that others do EVERYTHING depending on who is answering. I guess that's right and I'll just have to find my own way.
Again, thanks for your more complete answer.0 -
Congratulations on your first half! I think, from what you have said, that it would make sense for you to take 2 weeks completely off, if you feel like it (I never feel like I don't want to run, but you've said you feel burnt out), or just go for a couple of short jogs. After that, build back up gradually over a few weeks till you're doing a regular 20-25 miles a week. Now that you're more used to the longer distances, it should be easier to make your regular base mileage a bit higher than it was before you trained for the half. That will help you improve even if you decide to stick to shorter races for a while; as you've no race targets just yet, if you're back to your 20-25 miles per week in about 6 weeks' time, you could just keep ticking over doing a long run of, say, 8 miles, two very short easy runs, and maybe another run with some strides or faster bursts in it. Then when you feel inspired to enter your next race you'll have had plenty of time to recover and rebuild your base fitness.0
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Last year, when I completed my last race in the spring (a 10-miler), I was surviving the last two races (a full marathon and the 10-miler) after a hip flexor injury just two weeks before the last of three spring marathons.
After a full 4-weeks of rest (no running). I walked some and did other core training exercise that didn't damage my hip flexor. When I went back to running in June, it was basically an "off-season" for me all the way to until January 2016.
Basically it was 2-3 runs a week on weekdays and slightly one longer run on the weekend. None of the weekday runs was longer than an hour (generally 45 minutes) and usually one of those weekday runs was more intense than the others (e.g., a few hill repeats or 400 m repeats). All the others were easy running. On that schedule I was running 14-25 miles per week (I varied the weekend pattern). Towards the beginning of my training in January, I was back up to 30-35 miles per week.
After my injury and once I returned to running in 2015, I ran only three races: a 5K on July 4th (running comfortably to see how the hip felt without pressing myself. Missed a PR by 10 seconds 'running easy"), a HM in October to see how the hip felt in longer race conditions without pressing too hard (off my PR by 3 minutes), and a 4K race in late October where I actually did press a bit harder to see if the was any indication of issues with the hip.
This year (2016) there were two training cycles for two marathons, both which I planned or plan to run "easy" using a new training plan. The training cycle is 18 weeks long and the recovery cycle is 5-8 weeks long. I ran the first one in April, again at an easy pace on a tough, hilly course just 3:20 off my PR and I'll be running my next marathon on October 23rd. Shorter races are interspersed here and there, but I have cut back on my racing schedule.
Marathon training plans get me to 50-55 mpw. Recovery starts at 13 mpw and builds back to 25-30 mpw over a 5-8 week stretch. "Off season" of 25-35 mpw feels pretty comfortable to me now. It almost always has me ready to do a half-marathon just because I can. And I feel that I'm just about there for the marathon distance as well if I'm not trying to run maxed out in each race.0 -
My schedule during train this year was kinda shot to hell by getting sick twice, losing a week of training each time. So I averaged 25 miles per week; ranging from 0 to 38.0
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My rough plan is to find a good HM training plan, find a set of 4 weeks from it and just kind of repeat that through my off season, while supplementing that with weights and core exercise.0
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Thanks all. Lots of ideas with which to work.
litsy3: Perhaps not so burnt out. After the race Sunday I took Monday off, did a light 3 mile jog on Tuesday, an aerobic 4 miles on Wednesday, Thursday went to the gym an easy 15 minutes on the elliptical (just to keep moving and warm up) and hit the weights for 30 minutes. Today off and Saturday a "long" run, thinking 6-8 miles. So, it's all good. Could very well be I'm now doing the runs I want to do other than the ones the program says I have to do.
So there is a difference between "maintenance" running and training for a race. Got to admit, a few of things have changed since I last was running 40, or so, years ago.
STrooper and LittleFinn: Thanks for your input. Will probably use someof your ideas also.0 -
So, you guys claiming not to know what an off season is run as if in training for a race year round all the time?
Last year I took about four weeks off running after my last half of the season in October, then started a marathon cycle in December. I got injured in January and had to downgrade the March marathon to a half. I've then had fulls and HMs at 4-6 week intervals, with my final race being in December. Have a full tomorrow, contemplating adding another in a month's time.
Next year I have the same race in March, so I'll need to start ramping back up fairly quickly from mid January as most race weekend are multiple events. At least Full and Half on consecutive days.
In my "off time" I'll use my turbo trainer or rowing machine to keep endurance CV work going.0 -
I run more or less the whole year around as my race season starts in February and ends at the end of November. But...I do not target all of these races. I ran two marathons this year, but only the second one was full effort. I also did 5 halfs, but only two of them were full effort and a couple of 10Ks. I believe your body will tell you a lot. If you feel tired than cross train or have a break. I love running and it is my main sport, but there are other sports that I enjoy as well. So in "off season" I might run 5 days a week while in "on season" I tend to run 9 out of 10 days.0
