I typically wing the majority of my race “training.” My training “plans” tend to consist of me looking at the calendar to see when the race is, then back tracking weekend by weekend to see what kind of long runs I should do to get ready. Then I just do whatever I feel like the rest of the week. Super dedicated and purposeful, no? Ha ha.
This spring is a bit different. I am doing the same 5K in February and half marathon in May that I always do, but I also added a goal 5K in March and an ultra in April. That’s kind of all over the place. So I actually wrote myself a training plan. And have actually been following it, for the first four weeks. Gasp! So I CAN follow a plan!
Of course, note that the plan only consists of a day of speedwork and the weekly long run. Ha ha, so, still, not a plan. I am still winging the other five days of the week.
Note: this plan has since been revised – the 2×2, 2×3 and 4×2 sessions are only to be done 1x, not 2x (that would be cray cray!)
But I am finding it really helpful that I did write this plan. Or maybe I should call it a guide? Either way, it’s been kind of tricky to keep track of what I should be doing to prepare for a 5K PR and an ultra simultaneously (and what about that half?). I forget, from time to time, why I have such a long run on my calendar if I am training for a 5K. Then I remember, “Oh yeah! The ultra!” then think “good thing I wrote that all out.” Ha ha.
Time is getting away from me. I feel like I have all the time in the world before these events, but I don’t. My goal half marathon is three months from today. Three months out is when I started doing really focused training for the Dallas Marathon, and that was all I was focusing on! Oops. I hope this plan/guide can get me where I need to be, since I can’t seem to keep it all straight in my head. (Now, if only it could take care of my eating for me, too… cause you definitely can’t out run a bad diet!)
Are you a plan follower or do you like winging it?
Ahh, I just love to wing it and do whatever I feel like. I really struggle with being told what to do, every day… even if it’s something I wrote out! Ha!
I am notorious for starting plans and NOT sticking to them!!! I admire the fact that you have the confidence to try to wing it instead of bombing like me, LOL! Can’t wait to see how your training goes! How long is your ultra?
When I did my first marathon in 2010 I tried to follow a plan and found out it just wasn’t for me. I had a coach for a 5K PR attempt in 2012, and really liked her and that she worked around my schedule, but again… something about following a plan makes me enjoy running less. If I am winging it, I run more, and feel happier! It’s been working well for me since then! 🙂 My ultra is 33.5 miles 🙂
I’m a big fan of following a plan, if not I almost feel lost and have no motivation. This happened after my half last fall and I felt like my running was boring.
Good luck!
I’ve heard other people say that! It’s so different to me, because I am the exact opposite – I feel constricted by them and demotivated. So odd!!!! Do you have a plan, now?
Thanks! 🙂
Currently, I’m injured so I am not following a plan. I’ve used Hal Higdon for my half last year and a 10k from a coach/co-worker.
I follow them 75-90% of the time. I need room for flexibility and I think that’s okay.
I hope you are better soon! And I think there HAS to be flexibility! Following a plan to a T can lead to really bad results if you don’t listen to your body!
I’m guilty of just storing it in my head. I think I do so many races, I’m constantly in taper or recovery mode anyway! Yours looks so neat and official. I’m very impressed.
Oh yeah, if you keep the mileage up, and don’t have a specific goal in mind, you don’t really need a plan! 🙂 I like to always be in half marathon shape, at least, so I can jump in and run one for fun!
Its nice to be able to wing it. Then you surprise yourself with longer/faster runs than usual rather than just completing whats on the plan. Super speedy 5K pace 🙂 I need to take notes
Exactly. You can go longer OR shorter, and not feel all crappy about it since you didn’t do what the plan said. And… that’s the thing. I didn’t really get in to it in the post, but I have seen people be slaves to their plans and get injured because they wouldn’t back off and adjust it for themselves. 🙁
I’ve been following a plan since I started running last year. I don’t think I would have known what to do without the plans. And I made alterations as needed (such as the current training cycle due to my foot) but it really helped since I was new to running and races. This year, I won’t be training for anything from mid-March to August and am looking forward to running without needing to meet any plan specifications 🙂
I think it totally makes sense when you start, especially if you have a goal to do a certain distance of race and don’t know how to increase your distance! For our first half, we followed a plan that was simply to increase mileage, rather than half specific. It worked out well for us, but now that I know there are lots of half marathons plans out there, I wonder what would have happened if we had followed one of those.
I love the months of just running free! Those are my summer months, too! 🙂
The only time I’ve ever tried a plan was for a 1/2 marathon. I trained for 3 & ran 2. Two of the three times I followed a plan and the third time I just did whatever and increased my long runs. I didn’t notice much of a difference. BUT for my first race of any distance, I’d probably use a plan!
So which do you prefer? Sounds like you eventually moved on to I just do what I want” which is what happened to me, too.
I stuck to a plan almost religiously when I was training for my first half, now I only use a plan to help with long runs on the weekend. I think I have a good routine down during the week, I just need help with bigger mileage.
Just how to increase and when, and when to take a stepback week? 🙂
Yes exactly.
I have to say, for someone who is so data oriented and pays such great attention to detail, it kind of surprises me that you are not much of a plan person! Not sure why, I guess I’ve just always known detail-oriented people to also be very structure-oriented.
I’m the opposite of you, not only do I need a plan but I love love love plans. I’m a huge planner in all aspects of my life. Very much a “J” type on the Myers Briggs, I like to structure the world 🙂 However, I really only use training plans for the marathon distance. For half marathons I follow your strategy – plan out the long runs, and during the week just try to get in one hard workout and fill in the rest with easy runs to hit my weekly mileage goal. For the marathon, I’m much more structured about when I need to do workouts and how many miles I need to do each day, not just weekends. I haven’t been following any plan this winter and it has me all out of sorts. I can’t WAIT to be back on a plan when I start marathon training! 🙂
I am very schedule/plan oriented – you should see my Google calendar (but, I also plan “free” time as often as possible). And I am a bit of a planner when it comes to events and travel… but stuff like this? It just makes me feel too constricted! It does seem kind of odd, for me! 😉 I think I have learned what areas of my life I like to have planned and this is not one of them.
If you feel so out of sorts off plan… why don’t you follow one for the shorter distances, too? Or does it start to make you a bit crazy after awhile?
Well, I was supposed to be following one for my half marathon this month, but it’s just harder with races you don’t really care about.
I actually tried following a plan for the 10K I was training for right after my marathon, and it just didn’t work out at all. But that might have had more to do with the fact that I jumped into it too soon. It just felt so weird training for a 6.2 mile race after I had just completed a marathon; I kept feeling like, why am I even doing this? A long run of 8 miles, really?
Now that I’ll be training for marathons for most of 2015, the half marathon training is sort of already built into that, which is nice.
It’s interesting you say that about the 10K, because in 2012 I wanted to take a break from distance and trained specifically for a 5K (I did have long runs in the double digits, but most runs were just over 5 miles) and people gave me so much crap for “only” training for a 5K. We have to remember that some people are building up and for them, that is training! But yeah, it feels odd after a marathon! There is so much to adjust (especially the eating! yikes!).
Is your plan kind of like mine in that your speedwork is focused on the half, and the long runs for the full? Or are they both for the full? And it just happens you’ll be trained to run the half?
Oh I wasn’t trying to devalue the short distances at all! A very short time ago, I was building up myself and 3.1 miles was my weekend long run. My heart just wasn’t into it. It’s kind of like going home on break from college, or how Olympians must feel after the games: everything is familiar but nothing feels the same. Plus, making such a quick transition to low mileage was hard for me, I started to feel sluggish and out of shape.
All of my long runs are focused on the marathon, and most of my speedwork is. Luckily, most of the speedwork I’ll be doing is beneficial for both distances: tempo runs, Yasso 800s, mile repeats. So I’m mostly employing the strategy of “just so happens I’m trained to run the half,” because my marathon is a bigger goal and has to take priority. But this strategy has worked for me in the past, this summer I ran a half marathon PR in the middle of marathon training. High mileage usually helps my race times!
Oh yeah, I didn’t think you were! Our convo was just making me think that while we are able to train for marathons that not every is and I was thinking more of the people giving me crap about it… like what if I would have been training for my first 5K? Sorry. I should’ve been more clear 😉 (and that gets in to the bigger issue of why do they care what I am training for and think I should do “more” than a 5K?! Anyway)
I… miss the long runs when I am not doing them. That is why I asked my coach to give me longer runs with my 5K training and often do my friend’s long runs with them, even though I am not training. You do feel all off and wrong when you’ve gotten used to something for months (especially if you come to love it!).
I bet you will have similar success again with this half! I almost PR’d the 5K this December, and all I was doing was marathon training! Our bodies like it when we’re in good shape, lol!
No worries!! That’s really lame that people gave you crap about training for a 5K. I do feel bad for people who run shorter distances that there is this prevailing idea that longer=better.
I miss the long runs now, but I will probably be singing a different tune in a few weeks. We just don’t appreciate things til they’re gone!!
I tend to wing my training plans (with the exception of marathon training). I did create a loose schedule for my upcoming half in a month, and that’s the first time I’ve done so since half marathon #1! I also simply count backwards from race day haha. I need to take inspiration from you and start adding in speedwork!
The half is only a month away?! I didn’t realize it was so soon! 🙂 What are you thinking for speedwork? Is the shin ready?
Yes! Well a little over a month…it’s on March 15th. I’m considering adding random fartleks into my runs once a week. I used to do that once upon a time and it helped me get a 5K PR, so it’s worth trying.
I don’t want to jinx it but my shins feel good. I’ve basically been giving myself a deep tissue massage after runs (soooo painful to do this, I end up with bruises) and it’s been doing wonders for my shins. Fingers crossed!
Fingers are crossed! We need that shin to quit being such a little turd! And fartleks sound fantastic!
I like to have a plan that at the minimum lays out my weekly long run and approximate total mileage. This cycle I tried following a set plan, but find it too constrictive to have every single run for every week mapped out. I like to know what range I should be in for total mileage and then make that work with my schedule and the conditions.
That’s exactly what I typically do! 🙂 This cycle is the same, except I added in the speedwork. You can see in the pic I have a weekly mileage range, too 🙂
I use plans as guidelines….I try to stick with the long run progression, but the other runs I tend to wing. I do make sure to cross train a couple times each week though. Good luck at your races!!!
When do you start your long runs for Grandma’s? 🙂
Thanks!
Official training starts Feb 16th!!!
Woo hoo! Two weeks from today!
It all just became a little more REAL. LOL, do I laugh, or cry?! YAHOOOOOOOOOO!
I definitely stick to plans. Without them, I lack the motivation to continue training! I think this is why I love fitness classes so much, too – I love to have someone else telling me what to do:)
You are PERFECT for fitness classes then! Tee hee! How many Barre classes are you up to for 2015! Throw some stats at me! 🙂
Ok, so I don’t know how you’re training for a 5k PR and training for an ultra at the same time 🙂 but I know you are making it work! I think winging it once you’ve actually followed some sort of plan becomes intuitive. Like you know the formula: speedwork+ weekend long run + some easy runs = end result. Adjust for the distance you’re training for and BOOM you’ve got a plan.
I’ve usually followed marathon plans to the T since I was working with coach- I had been winging it lately as I was in limbo between what I wanted to chase next… But now I’m back to loosely following the 5k plan so I know what kind of 5k workouts to do for speed which is helpful.
Ha ha, hopefully I am making it work. It’s kind of like my speedwork and the occasional faster paced run are my 5K training, and my long runs and midweek slower runs are for the ultra. 😉 You are forgetting a part of the typical formula: speedwork + tempo + LR + easy runs 😉 But, yeah, I usually skip the speedwork and tempo and do all LR and junk miles. I love me some junk miles.
The nice thing about a coach is that the plan is tailored to you and your capabilities (and sometimes schedule) and you shouldn’t have to modify it too much! It’s when you get these cookie cutter plans and it doesn’t quite work for you and people push through it anyway… oops. Off track 😉 Your 5K plan looked really fun. SUB 20:00!!!!!!!!!!!!
I did not follow a plan for the Chicago Marathon and it was a slight bust. I’m starting to think I trained too hard because I lacked a plan. If I had been following a plan it would have forced me to slow down on my “slow days” as I would have been assigned a prescribed slow pace. Instead I just tried to pack in the miles and sometimes I would speed up so I could fit more miles in during each run. I am going to try and semi follow a plan for my spring marathon (if I ever sign up for one)! Then maybe I will strike the right balance between speed training and slow runs.
I mean this as a compliment – you are one of the very few people I know who has that problem with NOT being on a plan. Most people need one to get them to run! You rock 😉 I hope your spring training goes well!
Thanks. That’s probably why I can’t relate to those “how do you get motivated?” posts. I love to run, I don’t need motivation. Maybe I should write a post: “how to hold yourself back and not run?” but only if I can figure out how to do it first! 🙂
Ha ha ha. I totally don’t relate to those either. And then they usually ask at the end “how do you get motivated?” And I don’t want to be an ass and say that it’s not typically a problem. But there is a super fine line between being motivated and over doing it!
I have always followed a plan for marathons. I’ve only once followed a plan for a half, and I didn’t run that half any faster than ones I winged it (wung it?) on. I feel like following a plan for a race that scares me (hello marathon distance) gives me more confidence.
Do you think that distance will always scare you?
I like the idea of plans, but then I really loathe them when you’re 75% of the way through and feeling all stressed about doing these super long runs. That being said, I have like having some structure to my running. Otherwise, it’s too easy for me to blow off everything or just do super easy three-milers all the time!
That is when I normally see people mentioning how much they hate being on a plan – 75% through! And especially if it’s one of those hella long ones (18, 24 months whuuuuuuuuuut?!).
Are you following anything now? 🙂
I have always been a “wing it” person, until last year when I started to work with a coach. And I admit that I *love* working with a coach and with her plan – for ironman training. I also don’t work with her year-round and can’t imagine following a rigid plan for 12 months out of the year. Also, I know that this sounds crazy, but I think that I’m much healthier exercise-wise when I’m following a plan. Not in the “in shape” way, but I actually ran 3 days in a row which, when I’m training on my own, I can’t do because I run too fast and too hard on my own (if that makes sense).
It does sound like you have a lot on your plate, and it’s hard to train for such different races. I think that a plan would definitely come in handy then!
That DOES make sense. Another commenter mentioned something similar – they need a plan so they don’t push themselves too hard! It was my coach in 2012 that taught me the importance of a full rest day each week and I STILL follow that, as much I can! I think it really helps! But if she hadn’t pointed that out to me, I might just go go go all the time!
Interesting post. I cannot follow any plan because of my job: I have to travel often through Europe and it’s difficult to focus on a planned routine. The only commitment is a longer or faster workout on Sunday (or a race max 10 km). Have a good running week!
I hope that at least means you get to go to lots of cool places!
I haven’t been following much of a plan lately either. I might plan what I’m doing the next week or so in my head, but as far as having 16 weeks’ worth of runs on a calendar in front of me? Not this time.
Do you plan out the week pretty specifically or kind of rough (in that week ahead)? Mine is now like “Speed is x and LR is y… I need a day in between, at least… what other days should I run?” Lol
For my first races, I followed a well written plan…hey there, Hal Higdon! But as my schedule got so erratic, I find it hard to follow a schedule. My weekends are 50% taken up by work, so I have to move around long runs and figure out how to rest before a speed work out, etc…so I usually just end up winging it although I’m not convinced it’s the best way to do it!
My training partner out here is a nurse who works all day Saturday and Sunday, and we plan to run the Wisconsin Half together (again!) this year, so we met in January to write up her schedule and try to figure out when to fit in long runs and speed work and all that… (cause she also has three kids) and it’s tough! Not having the weekends off can really make things tricky!
I like your term guide. I always loaded a plan into my Garmin calendar so I have a goal to target for each exercise session. I never worried about an exact minute/mile or day, I just tried to make sure I had a variety of runs at the end of a week. “guide” 🙂
I saw that you can do that on Garmin Connect, now! Then does it remind you of your workout each day? Or is it really just another place to store it (just works as a visual calendar)?
I am not sure if I can schedule reminders, but you can load training plans and they are in a different color so you can track your work outs that way. It’s a nice visual and you can pull a lot reports by date, activity, etc…I really love it. I even loaded my swimming manually, cause I am silly that way lol