Winter Training Schedule

As promised I thought I would write a bit about my winter training schedule, how I have put it together and what the rationale is behind it.  

Firstly a bit about training schedules in general.  A quick search on the internet for "Marathon Training Schedules" yields hundreds of results.  Big city marathons have their own recommended plans, Runners World have numerous posts, Bupa and other fitness/health companies are abundant and there are hundreds upon hundreds of bloggers like me.  All of these training plans have one thing in common...they are all different!

There are high mileage plans with all the focus on the "long run", low mileage plans that focus on quality sessions, plans which have you running every day, plans which have multiple rest days.  There are plans for sub 3 hours, sub 4 hours, sub 5 hours and plans to just get you round.  Plans for beginners, intermediate runners or experienced runners.  12 week plans, 16 week plans and 20 week plans (I even saw one 30 day plan, but I think that is a tad optimistic). There are plans for older runners, plans for bigger runners, plans for mums, even plans for fancy dress runners.  

In addition to the types of plan there is also the content of the plan.  They talk about steady runs, tempo, base and paced runs, interval sessions, hill, fartlek and pyramid sessions, strides, recovery runs, long runs, speeds sessions...the list goes on. 

In short there is a bewildering array of information out there!!  So how, with all this conflicting advice do you find the plan for you?  
  
For me, as a relatively novice runner, I believe that you can't beat old trial-and-error.  Putting a plan down on paper, trying it out for a few weeks, tweaking it, trying new things, adjusting further and tinkering until I find what works for me.  and that is the most important thing...what ever you decide to do, it must work for YOU. And that process may take a few marathon training cycles to get right...don't expect to nail it first time! 

Along the way you will always have people telling you what to do and what not to do (I'm as bad as the rest when it comes to this, to be honest), you will also have people telling you that what you are doing is wrong (two of the more common ones are "you are running too much" or "you aren't running enough"), but if it works for you stick with it.  

Two of the basic questions I ask myself when starting to plan are:

1) What do I want to achieve?
2) How much time can I set aside to train? 

Now for marathon training question 1 has changed over time.  For my first marathon the answer was "I just want to get round" but now, after 8 marathons I am a bit more specific and tend to set time based goals.

Question 2 is also important.  There is no point setting up a plan that is doomed from the start because you can't commit the time to the training.  I try and consider what holidays I have coming up, what weekends I have my little girl, what plans my wife has, what I have on at work and general things like that.  For winter training I also take into consideration Christmas and New Year as well as Christmas party weekends (you don't want to schedule a 20 miler for the morning after the staff party!).

Once I have answered those two questions I then start thinking about how to structure the plan.  

For me I like to start the plan with a month of base building.  This is where I do a lot of short runs (typically 6 a week at a steady pace) to get my body back into training mode and the legs turning over regularly.  (as opposed to moving the sofas around and covering them with duvets to make a base)

I then start introducing slightly longer runs, which slowly increase in length over time.  Initially these may be the Tuesday night club runs of 6-10 miles, but eventually will become the weekend long run.  

Each week I try and do at least one quality session.  This will normally be a lunchtime interval session (typically on the cliff top in Bournemouth) or a hill session (using one of the chines or zig-zags).

Eventually I build up to my peak training phase in which the main focus is to achieve the long run, normally on a Sunday.  This means that the runs in the tend to be standard 4-5 mile runs at a steady pace, the quality session stays (normally on a Wednesday) and the Tuesday night run is flexible, depending on how I have recovered after the long run.   

In addition to this if planing for an ultra I will try and schedule in back-to-back long runs at some point in the proceedings, normally a couple of them between 4 and 6 weeks out. This is to try and build endurance over longer distances and is a good way of training for the longer stuff without having to run massive mileage in training.  At least, that is the theory!

So back to what my schedule looks like for the winter...I have three target races to train for and they all fall in a 3 month period in early 2016.  They are also all different distances, which makes it a tough ask.  The races are:

Sat 7th Feb - The Thames Trot 50 mile race (http://gobeyondultra.co.uk/events/thames_trot_ultra_2015info)

Sun 20th Mar - Brentwood Half Marathon
(http://www.brentwoodhalf.org)

Sun 24th Apr - London Marathon
(https://www.virginmoneylondonmarathon.com/en-gb/)

So my aim for the winter is to train for the Thames Trot.  I will then have a weeks rest before easing back into training for Brentwood before lastly training for London.  Hopefully with a large number of miles in my legs from the Thames Trot training I won't have to go mad for Brentwood and I will arrive at London in peak fitness.

Here is the first section of my training plan up to Christmas:

W/B	MON	TUE	WED	THU	FRI	SAT	SUN
28-Sep	4.5	6	4.5	REST	4.5	3.1	6
05-Oct	4.5	7	4.5	4.5	REST	17	REST
12-Oct	4.5	8	4.5	REST	4.5	3.1	10
19-Oct	4.5	9	4.5	6	4.5	3.1	10
26-Oct	4.5	10	4.5	6	4.5	3.1	13
02-Nov	4.5	10	4.5	6	4.5	3.1	15
09-Nov	4.5	10	4.5	6	4.5	3.1	17
16-Nov	4.5	10	4.5	6	4.5	3.1	10
23-Nov	4.5	10	4.5	6	4.5	3.1	15
30-Nov	4.5	10	4.5	6	4.5	3.1	17
07-Dec	4.5	10	4.5	6	4.5	3.1	19
14-Dec	4.5	10	4.5	6	4.5	3.1	4.5
21-Dec	4.5	10	4.5	6	REST	6.2	REST

There are a few anomalies in the plan.  Saturday 10th October I am hoping to run 27km of the 9Bar9 course.  This was going to be my 50 miler but I am not in the right shape (hence the February race).  Sunday the 20th is my Wedding anniversary so I won't be doing a long run that day.  And Boxing Day is the Round the Lakes 10km in Poole Park so I will rest before and after that!

I like to maintain the flexibility and so if I get to Friday and I am feeling heavy legged I will take a rest day.  Likewise if on a Tuesday my legs still feel a little knackered from the long Sunday run I will maybe only do 6. I am not going to run myself into the ground if I don't feel up to it.   

Going forward I will post a bit about each training week as part of my blog (as well as other running related guff).

Until next time!

James

Why I Run

I know I said my next blog would be about my training plan for the winter but I wanted to talk a bit about why I run.

After having a break from running, albeit short and not welcome, getting back out there and running felt amazing.  Whilst I was trotting round River Park in Winchester I had time to think about why it is that I run (starting a blog has made me think a lot more than usual...not sure that is something I should be doing!).

There are a few reasons I first started running.  I was podgy, I had a small daughter who made me feel like I was having a heart attack every time I had to run after her and I was dared to and didn't want to lose face in front of some young bucks.

At first I can't say that I enjoyed running.  It was painful.  I would run half a mile and have to stop and walk.  My chest was tight, I was breathing heavily and afterwards my legs hurt like hell!  I didn't really want to continue and there were many times that I wanted to quit, but I stuck it out and slowly, ever so slowly, it became easier and I started to look forward to the sessions.

I started to find that after a lunchtime run I came back and felt awake and invigorated (I even stopped taking naps at my desk).  I found I was sleeping better.  I started to lose weight and started to gain confidence.  In short...I felt great.  Better than I had done in years.

In addition, through Westbourne Running Club, I had started meeting some new people and making some new friends.  Running became a social activity as well as a means to improving myself.  Running with Westbourne RC and from the LV office meant that there was always someone to run with at lunch and as time went on I started to have regular groups of people that I ran with.  Running had become fun, I started to look forward to it.

As I started to increase the distances that I was running I had more time pounding the streets and therefore more time to think.  I found that if I was stressed or had something that was bothering me, a good long run would allow me to think through my problems and clear my mind.  I would use my long Sunday runs to plan my week ahead; thinking about how I would structure my work, what I would need to focus on, who was likely to piss me off and how I would deal with them, what I was going to have for dinner...

I have also found that the reverse is also true.  Not running has made me grouchy, stressed and my sleep has been awful!!  Sarah has been looking forward to me getting back out there! 

Running has changed me as a person (for the better I hope) and I am so glad I took it up.  Whilst I may guff on about it regularly and at length I hope you understand a bit more about why I feel the way I do about running.

Next time...my winter training plan!

Me, my running and my goals.

Hi and welcome to my blog.  For those of you who don't know me my name is James and I am a runner.  Yes, I like to run.  I love running. I am obsessed about running.  I am a running addict.  

Why the blog?

I decided to set this blog up because at the moment I can't run.  Nothing major, just a calf strain that will be gone in a few weeks (hopefully).  But this spell of non-running has meant that I will miss two big races.  Races I have been preparing for most of the year.  And that hurts. It really hurts.

A friend and colleague, Scott Harris (a talented runner himself), suggested that I start a blog to chart my progress as I get back into running and through to my 2016 target race, the Virgin Money London Marathon.  I will use this blog to track my training, talk about what has gone well and what hasn't gone so well, write about races that I participate in, parkruns I have visited and all manner of other nonsense.  

My running history

In 2011 I was 33, I had a one year old baby who was just starting to walk and my middle-aged spread had started early.  I wasn't exercising and, to be honest, I was fat and unfit.  

It was then that my company, LV=, decided to sponsor the Brentwood Half Marathon and offer free entry to staff.  A couple of the younger guys from my office were doing it and they basically dared me to sign-up.  So I did.

I intended to start training straight away but laziness got the better of me and Christmas came and went and I hadn't started.  So in early 2012, 12 weeks out from the race I started to panic.  It was then that I asked the running club at my office, Westbourne RC, if anyone could help me train.  Step forward Yvonne Loader.  My own Mr Miyagi.  She offered to train me, so from then on, 3 times a week, we ran.  

At first I couldn't run more than half a mile without having to stop, sounding like an asthmatic Darth Vader. But slowly, week-by-week, I built up the distance until I could run 10 miles.  The race was at the end of March and I loved it.  I ran well and finished in just under 2 hours.  From then on I was hooked.  I did 3 more half marathons in 2012 (Swanage, New Forest and Blenheim Palace).  

In late 2012 I decided I wanted to try and step up to the marathon so I signed up for Edinburgh at the end of May 2013.  I trained hard through the winter and felt good going into the race. Edinburgh was a massive step forward but the occasion and the distance got the better of me.  I went out too fast, on a hot day, and suffered later on.  I finished in 4:48 but was disappointed as I knew I could've done better.   

Later that year I ran the inaugural Bournemouth marathon, and again improved my time to 4:21.  In 2014 I ran the Stratford-upon-Avon and Cheltenham marathons 

I then went nuts and decided that signing up and running my first 50km race would be a good idea.  The run was from Runnymede to Henley along the Thames Path.  I loved it and in a little over 2 and a half years I had gone from non-runner to ultra-runner.  That year I also ran the Clarendon marathon, a trail marathon from Salisbury to Winchester.  another fantastic event (one I highly recommend).

In 2015 I decided I needed more focus if I was ever going to achieve my goal of a sub-4 marathon at Manchester in April.  I worked my socks off for 4 months; I lost weight, changed my diet and changed my training.  My training previously has been 4-5 lunchtime runs a week at a steady pace and one long run at a weekend.  I created a training plan and included more focussed sessions, speed work and I put more emphasis on my long runs. 

In the build up to Manchester I ran the Brentwood half again and smashed my PB running the 13.1miles in 1:41:01 (16+ minutes faster than 3 years previously).  I also broke my 5km PB as well.  I was in the form of my life.  

Manchester went to plan and I managed to sneak a time of 3:57.  It was my proudest sporting achievement.  

I also went on to run the Ox trail marathon in May, however my other focus races, the Bath Marathon and the 9bar9x9 50miler have both been disrupted by a pesky calf injury sustained in August. Hence the reason for this blog...I need to get motivated again...I need a goal and I need to drive myself to achieving it. 

Throughout this time I have also regularly been running parkrun on a Saturday morning.  I am a bit of a parkrun tourist having run 61 parkruns at 31 different locations (at the time of writing).  

I used to use parkrun as a bit of fun on a Saturday morning, which it still is, but it is now also part of my training schedule with the 5kms being used as a hard-effort speed session.  

My aims and aspirations

Am I still relatively new to running and so still have lots of goals.  

In terms of times I would like to try and go under 3:45 for the Marathon, under 1:40 for the Half, under 45mins for 10km and under 20mins for the 5km.  

I want to run in as many new and varied places as I can.  In terms of Marathons my dream has always been to run London and next year I will get that opportunity.  I would like to run a Marathon abroad and I would like to try and do some more trail marathons.

Ultra wise I have booked to do a 50 mile race in Feb 2016 (as a replacement for the 9bar9x9 challenge).  I would also like to run a 100km race and maybe, just once, a 100 mile race.  I would love to run comrades in South Africa one day.  

I have time on my side so as long as I train hard and am sensible I see no reason why I can't achieve my goals.

Lastly...the blog name.

Why is this blog called "Operation Beat Mike Pennock"?  Mike is a chap who works in my office in Bournemouth.  He is a great runner and a genuinely nice bloke.  We are of a similar standard when it comes to running however all of his PB's are just slightly quicker than mine.  Only slightly better but enough to make me want to push myself that little bit harder.  

This year I broke my half marathon PB in March.  In April Mike bettered it by 18 seconds (he later beat it by a further 5 minutes)   I broke my 5km PB twice...both times, within weeks, Mike beat it.  One day I broke my 5km PB in the morning and he went and beat it in the evening.  

I'm not a competitive man (I am really...aren't we all?) however Mike's time make me want to improve.  I know I can run faster and I know that I can improve.  He, in a totally non-gay way, is my inspiration, and I will beat him (even if he then beats me right back) 

Next Blog

In my next blog I will outline my winter training plan and how I hope to prepare for the 50 mile Thames Trot in February, Brentwood in March and London in April.

James