The Plan: 2010-11

Quite a bit of head-scratching over the last few weeks: where to take my running, what races to aim for, what do I really want out of my running life, etc. I think it's inevitable after what's been a disappointing year. Far from breaking historic PBs from the 80s, I finished 2 seconds behind my marathon PB at London, way off pace at the Elmbridge 10k, with some awful race results between.

There have been high points: my Wokingham Half Marathon result was dead on the goal pace of 7m30s per mile; The Cabbage Patch Ten went better than expected, at 7m45s pace (yep, 15s per mile slower than half marathon at the start of the year!), and the Richmond 10k was speedy enough at just outside 7m pace.

The low point has been my weight, and with this sitting at 195-200 lbs for the year I can't expect any real improvement. If I can get closer to 180 lbs, I'm in much better shape for faster racing.

So: no point in aiming for lifetime PBs in June, if I'm too fat in October. Exact target paces can wait till closer to the race date(s), but recent PBs may have to suffice. Meanwhile the belt-tightening will start in earnest.

Target 'A' Races for next year will be:

1. Beat 1h38m28s (7m30s pace) at Richmond Half Marathon on 8 May 2011,
2. Beat 43m46s (7m02s pace) at Richmond 10k on 19 June 2011,
3. Beat 1h17m58s (7m47s pace) at The Cabbage Patch Ten on ~15 October 2011 (date tbc) (MoAAR*)

The following will be 'B' Races for the purposes of planning my training:

• Leith Hill Half Marathon
• Sutton Runners 10k
• Dorking Ten
• Elmbridge 10k
• Wimbledon 5k
• Harry Hawkes 8
• Barns Green Half Marathon (although it's officially after the season)

'C' Races will be as follows:

• Surrey League XC Series
• East Surrey League Series
• DMVAC Handicap Series
• Elmore 7

No plans to do any other races, but these things can sometimes 'just happen'!

I've found Hal Higdon's training plans useful, but for next year I'm going to have a go at following Joe Friel's periodisation strategy a little more closely.  That means having clearly-defined prep/base/build/peak/race periods, with a different balance of sessions in each period.

I am working on a 300 hour season, so training will be from 5-9½ hours per week. My written plan suggests that this will be on about 28-30 miles per week.  This is likely to work out ~200 miles less than the last two years.

Weight training will continue on the same Anatomical Adaptation basis for the next 12 months.

Truth be told, if I can shift this weight (stop me if I'm banging on about it too much), it probably doesn't matter what I do over the next few months in running terms! Still, it does no harm to have a plan...

Barns Green on Sunday. I'm settling for 7m40s Garmin pace for that one.

(*MoAAR = Mother of All A-Races)

Weighing Up Options

Coo er gosh. Is this thing on? Been a while, hasn't it...

Brief discussion on Twitter earlier today about the weight training I've been doing. Basically I've been loosely following Joe Friel's weight training guidelines, and in particular the Anatomical Adaptation phase. JF recommends following this for a season if you're a newcomer to the sport (triathlon), and that's close enough to my history with weight training! Fewer reps and heavier weights can erm, wait.

So I'm doing 20-30 reps of various exercises, and 2 sets of each (plus warm up). If I had more time, I'd do 3 sets. Again due to time constraints, I'm doing 2 sessions per week, and splitting the body into chest/shoulders/back and legs/arms. Core work is done at the end of each session, following a Men's Health auto-trainer thing from a few years ago.

The sessions are as follows:

• Session 1

1. Bench Press
2. Bent-Over Rows
3. Behind Shoulder Press
4. Upright Rows

• Session 2

1. Squats
2. Good Mornings
3. Heel Raises
4. Biceps Curls
5. Close-Grip Bench Press

• Core (after each session)

1. Flutter Kicks (2 sets x20, increasing by one per week)
2. Crunches (3 sets x20, increasing by one per week)
3. Side Crunches (3 sets x20, increasing by one per week)

I started with ridiculously low weights (not much more than the bar, in some cases), and started with 2 sets of 20x on the first week. The next week I aimed for 22x, then 25x, 27x, and finally 30x.

Now I'm aiming for 30x per set, and have a simple up/down rule for each exercise: if I make the 30 reps, next week I'll add 5%. If I fail before 20 reps, next week I'll take off 5%.

Weight training isn't something I particularly enjoy, and CBA hits hard when the alarm goes off. So far so good though, and I hope my running will improve as a result.