Advice on training plan

pointer28

Hi all,

I'm just at the end of my C25K training plan and really enjoying it. I'm now working on what I'm going to do after Christmas.

At the moment I'm just up to 90 mins per week divided equally between three sessions. I'm going to stick at this 90 mins over the xmas period and not do any increases until the New Year. Over a 4 month period I hope to bring this up to 190 mins per week. My plan was to increase by 10% every week and then every 4th week go back to 90 mins for recovery as below.

Week 1 - 90 mins
Week 2 - 100 mins
Week 3 - 110 mins
Week 4 - 90 mins
Week 5 - 110 mins
Week 6 - 120 mins
Week 7 - 130 mins
Week 8 - 90 mins
Week 9 - 130 mins
Week 10 - 145 mins
Week 11 - 160 mins
Week 12 - 90 mins
Week 13 - 160 mins
Week 14 - 175 mins
Week 15 - 190 mins
Week 16 - 90 mins

I think I'm following the basic rules by increasing 10% per week and recovery every 4th week? My question is this. Should I just continue as I am with 3 equal runs every week OR should I mix it up with maybe 2 x shorter runs and 2 x longer runs? I know nothing about tempo sessions or fartlek or anything else. Bear in mind that I need to cycle at least 3 days a week as well, and the work thing also takes up time.

My goals are just to build up a fitness and endurance base and maybe take part in a 10k sometime, but only for the experience, I have no interest in being competitive. My ultimate goal is to do the 160k Sean Kelly Cycle Tour in August so the running is basically cross training and general fitness. If all goes well and I continue to enjoy it as much as I am, I might think about a marathon in 2013.

bart simpson

pointer28 wrote: »

Hi all,

I'm just at the end of my C25K training plan and really enjoying it. I'm now working on what I'm going to do after Christmas.

At the moment I'm just up to 90 mins per week divided equally between three sessions. I'm going to stick at this 90 mins over the xmas period and not do any increases until the New Year. Over a 4 month period I hope to bring this up to 190 mins per week. My plan was to increase by 10% every week and then every 4th week go back to 90 mins for recovery as below.

Week 1 - 90 mins
Week 2 - 100 mins
Week 3 - 110 mins
Week 4 - 90 mins
Week 5 - 110 mins
Week 6 - 120 mins
Week 7 - 130 mins
Week 8 - 90 mins
Week 9 - 130 mins
Week 10 - 145 mins
Week 11 - 160 mins
Week 12 - 90 mins
Week 13 - 160 mins
Week 14 - 175 mins
Week 15 - 190 mins
Week 16 - 90 mins

I think I'm following the basic rules by increasing 10% per week and recovery every 4th week? My question is this. Should I just continue as I am with 3 equal runs every week OR should I mix it up with maybe 2 x shorter runs and 2 x longer runs? I know nothing about tempo sessions or fartlek or anything else. Bear in mind that I need to cycle at least 3 days a week as well, and the work thing also takes up time.

My goals are just to build up a fitness and endurance base and maybe take part in a 10k sometime, but only for the experience, I have no interest in being competitive. My ultimate goal is to do the 160k Sean Kelly Cycle Tour in August so the running is basically cross training and general fitness. If all goes well and I continue to enjoy it as much as I am, I might think about a marathon in 2013.

it depends on what you want, why not spend more time on the bike if the 160k cycle is your main goal, cycle 4 days and if you want do two 40 minute runs each week as cross training that would be good enough.
how long are you cycling? in my opinion if your new to cycling its going to be hard enough to find the time/energy to do all the cycling nevermind find an extra 190 minutes to crosstrain in another sport that you dont even want to be competitive in( competitive with yourself).
now if your planning duathlons or tri thats different

pointer28

Hi Bart Simpson,

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

My ultimate goal for this year is the Sean Kelly Tour but I'm also thinking of the future and that includes Triathlon and Marathon, just not anytime soon.

I want to build a real good fitness base and be able to do a solid hours running. Maybe when the 16 weeks are over, I'll up the cycling and keep the running at a maintenance level for the summer. My training plan also includes cycling and I hope to increase this to 200 km per week over the same time period.

The cycling I have divided into 2 short spins during the week and one long spin at the weekend rather than 3 equal spins as it's more time consuming. I only bought a road bike last year but it's something that I find easier than running as I've rode bikes all my life whereas I never ran a step in 34 years up until this autumn.

My question is, will the 3 equal run sessions a week do a good job in terms of building my base fitness and endurance or would I be better splitting them into 2 short and 2 longer sessions per week?

I really don't mind running 4 days a week as I'll do the short runs on the same days that I do the short cycles, and then the long run and long cycles will have their own days. This way I'll do 7 sessions a week over 5 days, ie 2 rest days per week.

bart simpson

pointer28 wrote: »

Hi Bart Simpson,

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

My ultimate goal for this year is the Sean Kelly Tour but I'm also thinking of the future and that includes Triathlon and Marathon, just not anytime soon.

I want to build a real good fitness base and be able to do a solid hours running. Maybe when the 16 weeks are over, I'll up the cycling and keep the running at a maintenance level for the summer. My training plan also includes cycling and I hope to increase this to 200 km per week over the same time period.

The cycling I have divided into 2 short spins during the week and one long spin at the weekend rather than 3 equal spins as it's more time consuming. I only bought a road bike last year but it's something that I find easier than running as I've rode bikes all my life whereas I never ran a step in 34 years up until this autumn.

My question is, will the 3 equal run sessions a week do a good job in terms of building my base fitness and endurance or would I be better splitting them into 2 short and 2 longer sessions per week?

I really don't mind running 4 days a week as I'll do the short runs on the same days that I do the short cycles, and then the long run and long cycles will have their own days. This way I'll do 7 sessions a week over 5 days, ie 2 rest days per week.

to be honest i would not be able to answer this because i dont train at multisport, some of the tri guys will inform you better, like i would not know if a long run and a long cycle one day after the other is good or not! but if you want to get good at long distance running you have to run long runs, thats all i know. good luck with the training

pointer28

Hi Bart,

Thanks again. I think I'll just tip along the way I'm going as it seems to be working OK at the moment. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" as they say.

I think some guys will find it funny that I'm referring to 60 mins / 10k as a long run when some around here are running 50+ miles in a week.

Anyway, thanks for your help and if anybody else has anything to add, I'd love to hear it.