I started running again after 2 weeks. I was down with flu, which took more than a week to recover. And I gave myself a few extra days to recover fully. Just in case.
During this down time, I went about reading up on a training plan. I never had one, I thought all I have to do was to run, and run, and as long as I am running further, running faster and running more, then everything will just work out.
However I have been noticing I am not improving. My run times have stagnant, and I could not increase my mileage. Perhaps I need a structured training plan.
I did read up previously on a training plan, but as with all other information from the Internet, everyone has their own training plan, their own thinking of what a training plan should be like. It was really confusing so I gave up.
During this down time, I went reading all the training plans on the Internet and in books again, picking up the similarities. I concluded a training plan should consist of the following:
1) At least 1 tempo run per week
2) 1 hill/track/interval run per week
3) 1 long run per week
4) Fill up the rest of the week (depending on how many days I am running per week) with base/easy runs
So a typical week should look something like this (assuming 6 days of running):
Monday – Tempo Run
Tuesday – Base/Easy Run
Wednesday –Hill/Track/Interval Run
Thursday – Base/Easy Run
Friday – Rest
Saturday – Long Run
Sunday – Cross Training/Trail Run
For the rest day, it is either I rest completely, or I should do something call ‘Active Rest’, where I basically should be doing core strengthening exercises. On the subject of core strengthening exercises, I should be doing this least 2 to 3 days a week. For Sunday, I should be doing some kind of cross training, like cycling, swimming, yoga or running trails, any exercise that does not involve the same group of muscles as road running.
As for total mileage per week, there are quite a lot of conflicting information on this one, but it seems almost everyone agrees it is beneficial to run more, though for people like me with time constraint, I should be training wisely, and try to gain as much as possible from each run. Also, a rough guide is the total mileage should be at least twice of the distance that I plan to race, so since I will be doing 21km this year, I should have a weekly total mileage of at least 42km. A running week will therefore look something like this:
Monday – Tempo Run 7km
Tuesday – Base/Easy Run 7km
Wednesday – Hill/Track/Interval Run 8km
Thursday – Base/Easy Run 7km
Friday – Rest
Saturday – Long Run 15km
Sunday – Cross Training/Trail Run
To prevent injuries, the total weekly mileage should increase gradually, with the fourth week total mileage reduced to the same as the first week, to prevent injuries by giving the body some rest. I am still trying to find out what the mileage should be for the fifth week though. So the total weekly mileage should look something like this :
Week 1 : 30km
Week 2 : 35km
Week 3 : 40km
Week 4 : 30km
Week 5 : 37km
Week 6 : 42km
Week 7 : 30km
I am still trying to verify if my assumption on the total weekly mileage for week 5 onwards is correct.
I shall not go into detail what are the various types of runs listed here. Googling the various types of runs will bring lots information on them. There are also a lot of other types of runs which I have not put into this plan, for e.g. Fartlek run, as I want to keep my initial training plan simple. I want to see the results of this training plan I am putting together before I decide on whether to tweak it further.
That is the beauty of running, I tweak a bit here and there, and I can feel the results eventually. Always cause and effect.