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
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