Revealed: My Training Plan! (Am I Crazy??)

Happy hump day, runner friends! Today I am sharing with you what is perhaps my greatest obsession: My training plan. Why? A few reasons:

1. To get your all’s feedback and hopefully good suggestions from seasoned runners

2. To share what I’ve learned through my experiences

3. To help hold me accountable for my miles!

This plan is, at least to me, not just random numbers on a chart. In January, I completed the level one RRCA coaching certification course. I took it because I want to start a coaching business (stay tuned!) but also for my own education. And wow, I learned a LOT. Who knew training plans involved so much math?? Anyway, you’ll see that my ultimate goal in this plan is to run my first 100K–the Bear Chase in Colorado at the end of September–and to come out of it injury-free. In order to achieve that, I’ve planned out three cycles. The first cycle (not pictured) was a few months of base training to just build my mileage back up after taking time off at the end of last year. The second cycle occurs now through mid-June, during which I’ll be working on my strength and speed in the form of tempo runs, hill repeats and strides. That cycle will hopefully end with the OSS-CIA 50-mile night run. The third cycle is 15 weeks long and will continue to focus on building strength and speed while also building greater endurance through mile repeats, hills, fartleks and back-to-back long runs.

One of the most important elements of my plan is the stress and recovery cycle. I’m planning on building my weekly mileage to 85 by September (the highest I’ll have ever reached). So in order to do that, I’ll be increasing mid-week runs, but I’ll mostly be growing my back-to-back long runs. But every 3-4 weeks or so, I’ll reduce my weekly mileage in order to allow my body time to recover before adding more stress–this will be essential to avoiding injury! Speaking of avoiding injury, I’ll also be incorporating strength workouts and cross training (swimming). I’ll also need to force myself to stretch and roll (two things that are incredibly boring but absolutely necessary). Okay, enough babbling. Take a look below and leave me some lovin’ 🙂 I’d love to hear your all’s feedback, thoughts, questions, etc., and feel free to share your plans too!

(Click to enlarge image)

Cycle 1: