THERE’S NO SETTING LIKE GOAL SETTING

Let me let you in on something that disturbed me for a short time last year. It appears some genius online doesn’t think that I can possibly run a sub 4 hour marathon based on when the next marathon is, when my training regime was scheduled to start and my past performances. Don’t get overly concerned though folks, I assume the automated program run by the folks from the My Asics website are fantastic at making assumptions.

Inputting information about training runs to keep a log seems to be reasonably readily available should you choose to search hard enough. I’m certain anyone can enter related search terms into Google and discover the vast array of good, bad, ugly and combination (of good bad and ugly) sites designed to simplify the scary process. Despite the fears I occasionally still use the My Asics site (which I discovered in an information pack following the City2Sea last year), but following their guide to me is a waste of time. Trust me I’ve tried to slow my pace down to slower than 6 minute per kilometre pace but unless I am at the point of excessive fatigue (or I am doing a cool down jog of sorts like I admittedly had done yesterday, 4/2/2014) the pace seems to be consistently at 5:30 per kilometre or quicker.

All of this has got me thinking about not so much training logs, but more about training plans. No this has nothing to do with the routes that I take which I try to mix every day. Instead the plans I have over the next 5 weeks relate to the time spent on the roads as opposed to distances which the majority of online plans cater for. But don’t think for one second that this is a unique approach, I’m sure many run to a time schedule in training to at least challenge their thinking and approaches to their final goal. Heck for many years at footy training many pre-seasons incorporated a 20 minute run, where the aim was to complete as many circuits of a 400 metre oval within 20 minutes, with markers indicating each 100 metre sector.

Let me share with you an outline of the training plan that I have for this upcoming major event. Rather than a day-by-day outline which can seem intimidating to novices or the runner who wants to take the next step from recreation running to competing in fun runs, I’m going to give some sort of weekly outline that I intend to follow. For the record, I am NOT a running coach, nor do I aspire to be one, and the approach that I am sharing with you may not be suitable for everyone. This approach is also subject to change should physical conditioning deteriorate and/or climactic conditions worsen to prevent outdoors training.

I’m using a MINIMUM target time as opposed to a total target time to give myself flexibility to run for longer if I feel well enough to do so, or if I feel as though I still need more work. I want to be careful as well not to overtrain, so there may be more or less training pending work circumstances and football commitments, one of which may still be added during the early part of March. If you like you can call that my form of cross-training, as long as I don’t get badly hurt. I also have included little reminders to myself to do the other things away from the training track that ensure I’m organised for events.

Certainly I don’t want to be buying shoes the week before a marathon, or for that matter any run. I recall waiting in line after the Run For A Reason in Perth last year, and looking to my right to see a young Asian lady require medical attention for major blistering on her feet. Plus I want to feel comfortable in my new pair of shoes, and these don’t have to be the top of the line runners, I often run in shoes worth $60-$70 and they remain in my training shoes cycle 12-24 months after purchase. Hence I am anticipating a 2 week cycle of wearing in the new footwear before a test drive of sorts in Brisbane’s Twilight Run in late March, which I will be entering shortly.

I suppose I had better finish this entry now, after all my second anticipated run for the week is about an hour away!