Basic Structure 2011


Having a simple, repeatable structure works for me. I proved this to myself in my last marathon, and has been reaffirmed over the first part of this year. Routine is good. With routine I know what I need to do, and it is easier to set up my life to achieve that. Also routine provides a constant back drop from which I can create and monitor progression in my training. For example, the routine might be that my long run is run every 7 days, but the progression is 10 minutes longer each time.

Here I present my structure for the base period.

The general guidelines:

Make running for 3 hours comfortable
Become efficient and relatively fast at low effort levels
Develop the strength and structure to handle the next phases of training

The next 4 weeks will be 7 day cycles working off the following:

  1. Hill Repeats: Aim is for strength & power. Effort roughly VO2max or harder paces, but relatively short. A little bit of pure speed work thrown into too.
  2. Basic Run: aerobic conditioning 45-70min
  3. Long Run: 3 hours (however potentially starting a little shorter depending on how they feel). Comfortable, even pacing. No pushing the pace at this stage.
  4. Basic Run: aerobic conditioning 45-70min
  5. Basic Run: aerobic conditioning 45-70min
  6. Threshold: 2x7.5km @ threshold, 3-5min recovery. Plus some speed drills, and run throughs in warm up.
  7. Basic Run: aerobic conditioning 45-70min
Added on top of this, I would like to get in:
  • Swim x 1
  • Bike ride: aerobic conditioning (maybe a little strength work) x 2
  • Strength training x 2
However I fit those extras in will depend on how everything else fits into my world. It is a simple, straight-forward routine. For the marathon there are no magic workouts, the blue-collar work has to be done. The above is my marathon working week.

Comments

  1. Miles of the Journey15 June 2011 at 04:03

    I have found that simple structure in a training program allows for measurement of progress and allows for sensible increase in volume.
    And, the significant others in my life have a pretty good idea of what I am doing. This leads to better family planning. Structure benefits everyone involved in my life and my support team as well.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sandy Point Half Marathon

Image
Any race that uses a picture of myself as promotion makes me think I should compete in it. Wouldn't want to disappoint the masses. Last year my race slow and cold over the same course. A time of 1:30:20, was disappointing and a kick up the backside to get to what really works in training. Since then I have put in a lot of consistent kilometres and have seen some improvement. I was definitely going to race faster this year. Based on my race results over the last few months the hope was to see if I could get down to near 1:24:xx. The weather was very different this year. Far from cold, in fact I think it was our warmest night in a few months. However, there was a Damaging Winds warning issued, with predictions of 65km/hr gales to slow things downs a bit. The winds hit, according to the weather sites: NNE averaging around 50km/hr with gusts of 76km/hr. That made for some interesting race tactics. Luckily the rain held off until after the race. For some reason I felt ready with only 1...
Read more

Fitting Together

It's interesting how easy it suddenly becomes to prioritise aspects of life. I have missed plenty of training in the last week, but for the first time in my life, it really, and I mean really doesn't matter. That's not to say I am throwing training on the back burner. Far from it. Of course I am finding it hard working out how life now all fits together, but I am thoroughly enjoying the process. Training is now just part of the puzzle. What was a very easy load a couple of weeks ago, is now just manageable. This is what I anticipated. As things settle down and I work out of few things the training load should again become much easier. At the moment it looks like I will be able to get in all the key sessions, so in reality it is going fine.
Read more

The Gorge

For work I am currently stationed away from my normal branch. This is a recent roster change that I am not too happy about due to a number of reasons that I won't go into here. The good thing is that it gives me different roads to ride on when commuting. Nothing like a bit of variety to break things up. One particular bit of terrain that I now get to cover is known as the Gorge. It is exactly as the name suggests. The road that takes you into the Gorge is simple. One side is a very wide bend, that could almost be thought of as a straight road. The other side involves a couple of reasonable bends, which wouldn't normally be an issue, but can be when hitting speeds of 60km/hr on the descent. I want to make it clear that the Gorge is far from the toughest of climbs, while quite steep on both sides it is relatively short. So what is it about the Gorge. For me it has provided a good bench mark for my cycling fitness. Back when I first started on the bike it took all my ef...
Read more