I am now back into my training and starting to take it more seriously again. I am now doing this as a weekly plan:
Monday - Run 10k of intervals
Tuesday - Spin for 1 hour or turbo trainer for an hour
Wednesday - 20 to 25k run
Thursday - 1 hour hard spin
Friday - 2 hours turbo trainer (this is my plan anyway!)
Saturday - 16k run as fast as I can.
Sunday - nothing!
My aim is to keep this up for a few weeks and work on what I am eating too to keep myself getting in better shape!
Then I plan to add 2 swims a week into this. When the weather warms up I will swap a spin for a long bike ride with some intervals.
I am signed in for Challenge UK so that is what I am now focusing on and I really really would love to go close to 10 hours! 9:59:59 would be fine.
I'd say that the "Saturday - 16k run as fast as I can." is not a good idea. You want to be building as base now; using up race-like motivation this early in the pre-season is very likely to lead to demotivation in some form. I'd also question the intervals this early in the pre-season (though, I don't know what the intervals entail!).
ReplyDeleteJust run the distances stated in your post and run faster when you feel like it. When it's time for your specific build then begin to structure things more.
On all my regular runs I have a fixed point - 3 to 4 km from the finish that ,should I feel like it, I push the pace from there.
Sometimes I go for as fast as possible.
Other times I say I'll stay at threshold pace
other times I say fxxk it - and take it easy.
I aslo have a 10k cross country route where the second 5k is more difficult than the first. I run the first half steady and try to negative split it.
Check out your surroundings and find ways to enjoy the runs yet still challenge yourself. When it's time to get fast you'll have tonnes of motivation to use up.
Only my opinion - check with others to get a more ballanced view of course.
Good luck,
/Trev
Hi Trev, thanks for the comments. I am always grateful for advice.
ReplyDeleteThe idea behind the intervals (3k warm up, 4 * 2 mins and 4 * 1 min then 2 k warm down, run/jog between) is to up my speed. I want to build my base run fitness up so that I can run at 4:30 min per Km pace easily rather than leaning towards the 5 min pace. So far it seems to be working but, yes, it does take its tole! The 16k run I agree about and I think I may tone that down to more of a tempo fun run (run quick but only up to when it gets not fun!). Im trying to get my body weight down a little and build a really solid base so that later in the year I have something strong to build on. Cutting 25 min from my bike time I think I can do as I didn't do enough bike training last year and no speed work at all. Cutting anything from my swim is doubtful without some serious coaching. Cutting time from my run should also be achievable as I did a slow marathon last time and I hope to cut that by at least half an hour. Just got to put the hours in and try to be intelligent about it!
Thanks again.
You doing anything this coming year?
Thanks
Johan