How do you plan your year?

KingMambo26

After nearly 3 years of running this is the first year where I have goals and objectives in mind and with that comes a bit of planning. I completed my first goal which was to run the Barcelona marathon in less than 4:30. Now I have DCM in sights next but I have realised that I'm in a period where I don't really know what to do apart from heading out 3 times a week and mix my runs a bit between speed, distance and fun. I tried to take month off but I was like a caged animal just wanting to go out. How do you people organise your year? Do you take a break from running and do something else? Do you concentrate on certain races and relax the rest of the time?

RayCun

KingMambo26 wrote: »

Do you take a break from running and do something else?

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

add another run into your week
add more miles into your week

Pick a 10k goal race and train for that before you start your marathon training

NetwerkErrer

KingMambo26 wrote: »

After nearly 3 years of running this is the first year where I have goals and objectives in mind and with that comes a bit of planning. I completed my first goal which was to run the Barcelona marathon in less than 4:30. Now I have DCM in sights next but I have realised that I'm in a period where I don't really know what to do apart from heading out 3 times a week and mix my runs a bit between speed, distance and fun. I tried to take month off but I was like a caged animal just wanting to go out. How do you people organise your year? Do you take a break from running and do something else? Do you concentrate on certain races and relax the rest of the time?

I never relax on training unless I have an issue which forces me to. Relaxing is a time where you lose fitness when you could be out there improving.

Depending on my goal. Say like you, if I have a late fall marathon scheduled but none early in the year. I will take the start of the year as a time to focus on the 10k and improve my speed. Around late April-May, I start to focus on adding some endurance and building the miles with a half marathon or two as goal races. By the start of July, my focus has completely switched to marathon training.

There is all year round goal races where the focus will always be on improving and keeping me motivated. The marathon is not the be all and end all of my running life but I will have an eye on it from the start of the year. The focus will always be nearly completely on my next goal race whether that be 5k, 10k, half or full.

Ososlo

KingMambo26 wrote: »

. I tried to take month off but I was like a caged animal just wanting to go out. How do you people organise your year? Do you take a break from running and do something else? Do you concentrate on certain races and relax the rest of the time?

Why would you take a month off? Seems like a very long break!
I'd take 2 weeks off max in the year. I don't think I could survive a whole month!

KingMambo26

Ososlo wrote: »

Why would you take a month off? Seems like a very long break!
I'd take 2 weeks off max in the year. I don't think I could survive a whole month!

As I said, it's the first time that I'm putting some structure around my running and I thought I could spend a month doing non-running related weights and cardio work. I lasted 2 weeks!

I'm just curious to see what other people do and incorporate some of the ideas into my own training.

NetwerkErrer

KingMambo26 wrote: »

As I said, it's the first time that I'm putting some structure around my running and I thought I could spend a month doing non-running related weights and cardio work. I lasted 2 weeks!

Weights and cardio won't do squat for your running if you're not running. Like Os said, I only take 2 weeks off a year and I will do absolutely nothing for my fitness or strength in that time. It's 2 weeks to recover from the year of training and a mental break too.

After that, it's back to business and building the miles for the next race. You have to have intermediate goals between races to keep motivated and keep improving. A good 5/10k training cycle early in the year will do wonders for your marathon potential later on. You have to keep mixing things up to shock the body into improving. Otherwise, it just gets used to the training and improvements become minimal.

Find some intermediate goals for races between now and the marathon and train towards them.

demfad

KingMambo26 wrote: »

After nearly 3 years of running this is the first year where I have goals and objectives in mind and with that comes a bit of planning. I completed my first goal which was to run the Barcelona marathon in less than 4:30. Now I have DCM in sights next but I have realised that I'm in a period where I don't really know what to do apart from heading out 3 times a week and mix my runs a bit between speed, distance and fun. I tried to take month off but I was like a caged animal just wanting to go out. How do you people organise your year? Do you take a break from running and do something else? Do you concentrate on certain races and relax the rest of the time?

DCM is only 6 months away.

Id plan something like this:

1)Train properly for a 5k to improve speed at your lactate Threshold including a long run every 10-14 days so you are also slowly building that up.
2)Then train for a marathon (club or other schedule) but use a periodic speed maintenance session to keep the 5k gains and connect the two phases.
3)Continue the marathon training and make the speed maintenance session less frequent as the goal approaches.

Speed maintenance example: 2-3 x (6 x 35s) run fast but relaxed once every 2 weeks (3-4 weeks as the goal nears). Use normal strides as well throughout.

Get used to doing relaxed strides. The more big easy mileage you do: the more you need them.

Other tips:

-Run all training sessions relaxed (1 gear slower than you want to).
-If youre not sure that you're recovered from a session you're probably not recovered. Take another easy day.

NetwerkErrer

KingMambo26 wrote: »

After nearly 3 years of running this is the first year where I have goals and objectives in mind and with that comes a bit of planning. I completed my first goal which was to run the Barcelona marathon in less than 4:30. Now I have DCM in sights next but I have realised that I'm in a period where I don't really know what to do apart from heading out 3 times a week and mix my runs a bit between speed, distance and fun. I tried to take month off but I was like a caged animal just wanting to go out. How do you people organise your year? Do you take a break from running and do something else? Do you concentrate on certain races and relax the rest of the time?

Apologies! I think I misunderstood your question. You wanted to know how to structure a marathon cycle.

It's 28ish or more weeks to Dublin I think, there or thereabouts anyway. If I was attacking a marathon from now. I would keep training for another few weeks like it is. Then I would go into a basebuilding phase with about 24-26 weeks to go.

Base Phase- 6-10 weeks

Building mileage and endurance with short speed development days and easy tempos. No long speedwork or Vo2 max training.

A lot of easy and steady pace running most days to increase the mileage. Workout days like tempo's and speedwork should not kill you. Tempo runs closer to current Marathon pace than Half marathon pace. Any speedwork should be easy enough to complete. e.g 8x400 @10k pace-HM pace with full recovery. The recovery during workouts should be really long. These are only for building speed and neuromuscular coordination.

Transition phase- 4-6 weeks

Start adding some harder training like 15k pace tempo efforts for 3-4 miles and building speed day repeats distance and pace. Running longer repeats at more intensity while keeping a decent recovery.

Marathon Specific phase-12 weeks

Does what it says on the tin.


That would be my approach this far out if my ultimate focus was on the marathon. I can't really give you all the details, too much. But that would be my structure. There is so many other ways to do it.

rom

1. Set a goal
2. Formulate a plan to achieve goal.
3. Achieve/Miss goal
4. See step 1

Plan to take a week or two very easy post marathon but I enjoy running. Changing the focus is good. Like always doing marathon training ain't great.