Training Programme/schedule

I’ve mentioned in another post that I’m in the process of training for 3 Half Marathons in 2 weeks. I’m writing myself a training plan for getting me up to standard by starting at the event and working backwards, but this is harder than I thought. I don’t know what rate to increase my speed/distances at, or what kind of training to do (track, long & slow etc).
My question is, how does everyone else create a personalised training plan? I can find the generic plans (10k to Half Marathon etc) but I was looking for a more tailored solution. Is there an app people use? I’m guessing there will probably be a paid service somewhere, but I can’t find it. Anyone have any suggestions? How do you all do it? Do you follow a generic plan or make your own tailored plan up?
Beginner runner with high hopes and big aims! I run a lot with my dog, Frankenstien and am starting to become 'more informed' when it comes to distances with a dog! Follow me on instagram - @kingofilchester

Comments

  • TTTT ✭✭✭
    I saw one of the trainer's at my gym (free of charge included in the membership). He put a plan together for me. I know many of my friends started with a generic plan for their first race then did a bespoke one after that. Alternatively how about the coach at a running club? Mine has atnleast two qualified coaches both of whom put plans together for people. 
  • TTTT ✭✭✭
    At least even!
  • Sorry to resurrect this thread but I can't start new ones as a newbie and this seemed like a fairly good topic match. I have some questions about training (am 36 and a few stone overweight - have lost 8 and a half stone so far but mostly before I began running). 

    I looked at the Runner's World training pace calculator and it's telling me to run slower on my training runs. I have been running for just over 10 weeks now and have just been running 5K 4 times a week as fast as I can (including a Parkrun) and doing a running group. Last week I doubled my training runs to 10K. I can't yet run 10K at my tempo or anything like, my best 5K pace is 4:59/km, my best 10K pace 5:27 /km. I can't run 5K consistently at my 5K tempo pace, I take a day off running before Parkrun and my time seems to improve. Have set a PB every week averaging over a minute faster every week (though it's actually about 30 seconds faster a week now) so I figure I'm doing OK doing what I'm doing which is just run as fast as I can every time but I might not be doing the best thing after all? I also want to train for a half marathon once I'm used to 10K and this seems like a good chance to sort a proper training program out.

    Long slow run, the Runner's World pace calculator says I should do most of my running at this pace but I don't need to go this slow for 10K. Other forum posts say one LSR a week. How many km should I add to my LSRs? Should I replace some of my 10 Ks with longer, slower runs? Doubling from 5k to 10k was tough on my legs for the first couple of runs but they're fine now. Is 1.5k a week realistic? I could just try it and see but don't want to injure myself. 

    What should I read to learn what training to do to improve my speed and distance? I could do with a list of articles that will educate me if you have some handy bookmarks so I can stop fatty boom boom'ing it and get more serious about this.

    Also I run the first km fastest, the second km second, the third and fourth much slower and the fifth in the middle for my "fast" 5k. Would I really be better trying to maintain a consistent pace as my first 2 km are a lot faster and I'd lose a good minute of time running them slower to maintain the same pace. Guess I should probably try this out for myself to answer that... 

    Thanks for your assistance!
  • Hi Rob - It might be an idea to download a half marathon training plan. These are generally over a 12 week period leading up to a race and explain what you should be doing for each session and what the intensity should be.

    The fact that you're trying to go as fast as you can every time you run may not be the best approach. A training plan would mix up your runs between doing interval type training such as tempo runs, intervals, progressions, Fartlek and Kenyan hills along with easy paced recovery runs. The recovery runs are very important and, although sounding counter intuitive, will do more for you than just blasting every session. 

    The purpose of the long slow run is to build up endurance, as such it's more about time on feet than the distance you run and should be done at a minute slower than your race pace. These generally start at about 60 mins and build up in 10 minute increments over the weeks until you're running for 2+ hours. Some of the plans I've used incorporate a period of running at reduced pace and then periods of running at your race pace. By the last session you should be getting close to the half marathon distance, which tends to give one a massive confidence boost.

    As regards the pace you use for your 5K why not experiment and see what works for you? Some people like to go out hard at the start and then just hang on at the end. Others prefer to do negative splits, so each km is quicker than the previous one. How you run it is entirely down to you, but it's good fun to try different approaches and gauge how they work. Parkrun tends to be the ideal place to do that. 
  • Thank you for the informatioon.
  • Thank you for providing the complete details.
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