October (2016) Running Challenge

7lenny7 wrote: »

Don't get bogged down in trying to find the perfect "plan" for training. Once you know a few basics concepts you can create your own, even for your first HM. I had a friend create my HM plan but I soon surpassed the mileage and came up with my own plan for the last 75% of the training. When it came to my full marathon, I created my own plan from the beginning. Now that I have an ultra coming up, I'm creating that plan.

I say I'm creating my own plan, but I am using concepts I learned from others, so I can't say I did it all by myself.

The concepts I incorporate:

• Build up your total weekly mileage by 10 to 15 % week maximum
• Build up your long run by no more than a half mile at a time until you get to 5 miles, no more than one miles until you get to 10 miles, then no more than 2 miles after that.
• Your long run should be no more than 30% of your total weekly volume (I often violate this one)
• Every 3rd or 4th week, cut back your weekly miles by 25% to 33%, and cut back your long run the same amount. If you have the time you can do this ever other week. If you're feeling especially drained, go ahead and cut back that week.
• Rest is every bit as important as running.
• Start with 3 days a week running if you're new. Work your way up to 4 and then 5 days per week. When you add a day of running, make sure your weekly total isn't increasing too much. That may mean, for example, that when adding a 2 mile run on Tuesday, make Wednesday and Friday's run a half mile shorter each.
• Add a week or or two to the plan where you do not increase or decrease. These are the weeks I'll drop from the plan if I get injured and need to recover, if work gets super crazy, or if i get sick.
• I start creating my first week based on what I'm currently running. Then I plan my peak week and create the ramp up between those two points. If I can't create the ramp up and stay within the guidelines above, then I don't have enough time for a proper training plan. Let's say the race is an HM, 2 weekends before that will be my longest training run and it will end my peak training week. I create the taper going forward, then create the buildup from my peak week backward to the current week.
• My schedule can vary quite a bit week to week but I try to build a "template". For instance, for my ultra plan I have
  
  Mondays - Rest/strength train/crosstrain
  Tuesdays - Speedwork (including easy warm up and cool down miles)
  Wednesdays - Easy run
  Thursdays - Hills (including easy warm up and cool down miles)
  Friday - Rest/strength train/crosstrain
  Saturday - Easy Run
  Sunday - Long Run (eventually building up to race pace finishes for a large portion of the miles)
  
  
• I'll swap Saturday & Sunday depending on my schedule. The rest of the days may swap around from time to time as well. If I have to drop a session, oh well. The key is to never have hard runs back to back. I'd never do hillwork the day after speedwork.
• If you're new to running (year or less) I'd skip the speedwork and hillwork and just work on building a base with easy, conversational runs. For my first HM and full, that was 95% of what I did. Without a solid base, I feel there is too much risk of injury with speedwork.

There are an infinite number of ways to get to where you want to go. Understanding the key concepts allows you to create the approach that works best for you, your schedule, and your goals. It might be intimidating doing it for the first time but I'm sure many of us here who have gone through it would be happy to help.