Start your engines!
Training for a spring event
By the time you listen to this we’ll be turning the corner on 2020 and into 2021. It might have been hard to imagine a couple weeks ago but it looks like we might have events to train for this year.
Everyone is posting their 2020 mileage numbers. Good for you if you managed to get done what you wanted. 2021 is another season to try new things. Chances are you’ll be training for something. Maybe a real spring event or maybe some self-created personal challenge. Either way you’re going to want to train in such a way to support that effort.
Let’s talk about some practical considerations for how to set up a training plan and get ready.
First, what’s your starting point? Meaning how much fitness do you have right now? I like to keep a low boil of fitness during December. It’s a off season for me so I don’t do any real racing, but I still workout 5-7 times a week. Just to stay fit and stay healthy.
I’m starting at a base of about 30 easy miles a week. I’ve got a good engine and a lot of experience and can ramp up the miles quickly when I want to. That being said I’m also getting older and need to be cautious of how much volume and quality I load in.
That’s the first question? Where are you starting from? Do you have a good base? On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the best shape, race ready? I’m probably a 6 to start my spring campaign. Where are you? If you’re a 5 or less then you should start with base building before you lay on volume and quality. Base building is simply longer, slower runs in zone 2.
Next, what’s your event? It sounds obvious but you need to match your training to your event. Training campaigns have the same elements, not matter what you’re training for but the emphasis will shift depending on the event you have targeted.
Your plan is going to have volume and quality workouts whether you’re training for a 5K or a 50K. But the mix is going to shift to more volume for the longer distances, anything longer than a marathon. Quality workouts are speed work, hill work and anything else high intensity. For longer efforts you might have fewer quality workouts but you’re still going to have some, especially race-specific type workouts.
Assuming you already have the base – the task is simply how much and what type of quality to layer on and how much volume.
Next you have to decide how much time and effort you can handle. Can you run 7 days a week? OK great. Can you run 7 days a week when two of those days are hard tempo runs and one of them is a multi-hour long run? I can’t do that anymore. I’m going to have one or maybe two tempo runs in a week and maybe get out 5 days a week.
It’s ok to do fewer days of running. You compensate by loading in cross training and strength work on the off days.
How many quality workout do you want to put into your weeks? Max is typically two. One is good if you’re not particularly experienced at structured training.
What do I mean by quality? Different forms of tempo and speedwork. Fast finish long runs. Surge runs. Step ups, fartleks, hill repeats and tempos. The purpose of these is to get you comfortable with running at race level effort. You need this to be able to race well and with confidence. To be able to close the race.
What is your longest long run going to be? For a short race, like a 5K or a 10k you can probably get away with a 10 mile long run. For a marathon you’re going to want to get up over that 20 mile mark at least once in training just to get the confidence of getting past the wall. If you’re targeting an ultra-distance event you’re going to want to get up over 30 miles and do several back to back long runs to have that confidence of running on tired legs, or what the ultra-runners called “running when it sucks”.
Now you have an idea of what you need to layer in and how much you can handle. Start with your event and back schedule a two-week taper. You take two weeks of recovery going into the event. The week before you start your tempo is going to be your biggest week.
Drop your longest long run in there. Drop your highest volume week in there. Drop your biggest tempo run in there. Then work backwards in 2- or 3-week waves to where you are today.
I used to do three-week waves when I was younger. A three-week wave is easy, medium, hard. I do two-week waves now which is easy, hard. I don’t recover as fast as I used to.
You don’t want a linear plan. It can’t go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 … etc. that’s linear. It’s more like 2, 3, 4, 3, 5, 6… That’s a 3-week wave. With each wave cresting progressively higher as you work through the plan.
Remember that there are shades of grey in all this. Coaches have been trying to optimize training plans forever. The thing to remember is that any structured training plan is going to produce results that far exceed a non-structured training schedule. A good wave-based plan with quality and volume balanced for your event will produce far better results than a linear plan you stole off the internet.
What are some of the mistakes people make when creating a plan?
Trying to do too much. This is my problem as well. This is why I like having a coach. He prevents me from doing too much. None of your training matters if you don’t make it to the starting line of your event.
All of us are biased to load too much volume and quality into our plans. It’s easy to schedule a workout two months from now. We all fall victim to the ‘more is better’ assumption. Honestly, unless you’re getting paid to train, you’re going to make tradeoffs. I wish I could do yoga every day. I can’t. You have to pick your battles and make the most of the time you have by not wasting energy in frivolous workouts.
Don’t try to stick every workout type you’ve ever heard of into your plan. I see this in a lot of the online plans. Hill workouts, ladders workouts on the track, barefoot prancing in the grass… cut it out. It’s not performance art. Keep it simple. The less you have to think about it the more likely you’ll be to do it.
Another mistake is to avoid strength and conditioning. If you can only focus on one thing in your cross training make it your core. Keep it simple. Pushups, crunches, leg-lifts, planks, etc. A strong core help you maintain form and go the distance. Don’t’ forget your core.
And of course, the final mistake is to ignore your diet. You can’t outrun a bad diet. You’re making the investment in your workouts. Support that investment by giving your machine the good food it needs.
As we ease into 2021 I’m targeting something in the 50 mile distance for the spring. That means lots of long runs on tired legs. But I like that work. It lets me take Ollie out into the woods for hours and I find it quite peaceful and rewarding.
What are you going to train for in 2021?