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Elite observations: Typical training plan

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Created on Tuesday, 23 November 2010 06:51

Written by Tommy Manning

By TOMMY MANNING

Editor’s note: Manning is a math teacher and cross country coach at Fountain Valley School who finished 18th this month in the World Mountain Running Championships. He will provide periodic tips — all of which can be found here on OutThereColorado.com.

On Monday, the Oklahoma State University Cowboys won their second consecutive NCAA cross country championship.  A lot of message boards and critics did not pick OSU to win because they finished second at their regional meet the week before.  Why did OSU run so well on Monday and win the title?  They won because they had a solid season long plan, rested well, and peaked at the right time.

As I have stated before, we cannot run a PR every time we race.  To race a PR, you should have one goal race in mind every few months, one that you want to peak for.  Whether you are running a 5k or a marathon, most training plans call for about 3 months of preparation time.  Shorter races can have shorter training plans.  Most plans share a similar general outline, however, as they will have you start with primarily longer, slower running at the beginning, then transition into speed work and faster running, and then taper before your target race.  I encourage you to start slowly and take it easy at first.  Even if you normally run 40 miles per week and have taken a few weeks off, you do not want to jump right back to 40 miles per week right away.  You should loosely follow the 10% per week rule (if you ran 20 miles your first week back into training, this does not mean you can only run 22 miles during week two).

Previous entries

Tips to enjoying quick post-race recovery

Tips for long-term recovery after big event

Taking stock in the mental side to training

Variety key in training

Training plans have phases we run through.  The first phase is the endurance or base building phase.  Depending on race distance, this phase (and each phase) should last 3-5 weeks, knowing the longer the race the longer the phase.  During this time your main goal is to run a lot of miles.  Oklahoma State coach Dave Smith lets his kids run whatever they feel like over the summer, but I guarantee you they are running plenty of miles during this endurance phase.  You should have one to three longer runs per week at a slower pace, one speed day (to keep the wheels going), one rest day (easy or off), and the rest at moderate intensity (conversational pace).
The second phase is the transition or strengthening phase.  During this time you want to increase your speed work and increase your intensity.  You should still run one long run each week and now you need to add another speed day.  Speed work can be in the form of tempo runs (holding a much faster than moderate pace for a set distance or time), fartleks (alternating short segments of fast running with slow running), hill repeats, intervals (doing a set number of fast repeats:  400m or 800m repeats on the track, for example), or progression runs (starting moderate and increasing your pace every few minutes until you are running very fast).  Be careful not to add too many speed days per week or you will not allow you body enough time to rest and recover.

The third phase is the speed or sharpening phase.  This phase has less mileage overall, but with more speed.  This is when all of your base miles from phase one pay off.  You still want one long run each week and up to three speed sessions.  You also want your number of runs per week and total mileage to peak one to three weeks out from your goal race, depending on race distance.  This leads us into the taper phase and racing.  If you are running a half marathon or longer, you should taper 2-3 weeks out so you are well rested for your long race.  If you are running a 10k or less, you can taper for just one week.  During the taper you should decrease your long run and overall mileage.  The idea is to decrease mileage, take an extra day or two off, and rest your body.  You still need to have a speed day or two each week, but with less volume (same intensity) and more rest.  If you follow a season long plan with base building, a transition to speed work, more speed work, and proper rest/taper, you should be peaked, full of energy, and ready to run your PR come race day.