My Training Schedule - Part One

I’ve devised a training schedule. I’ve not come up with it on my own, I wouldn’t even know where to begin. So I’ve started with a couple of books about running. One of them is a beginners guide to running, and the other is a guide to running a marathon for the first time runner. Between the two of them I’ve come up with a training program to get me from sofa to start line.

The first part of the training schedule is designed to get me up and about and running for 30 minutes straight. Make no mistake, my version of running and an athlete’s version of running is going to totally differ. So when I talk about running I’m using my very own definition.

Running – propelling the blob forward at a pace slightly faster than an average walk. 

Yeah, so less running and more stumbling forwards – but still... it’ll do!

My training program doesn’t just involve running. One of the books pointed out that cross training is a really good way of working on the body so I’m giving it a go.  The result is as follows.

On Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays I’ll be following a running program. This begins very simply with walking briskly for 20 minutes. It then builds up with jogging for 30 seconds in every 5 minutes, right up to jogging for 5 minutes and walking for one minute. After week 4, Thursday also becomes a ‘running’ day and that carries on for most of this first part of the training schedule although there are a few weeks, later on, when it’s missed out. At the beginning of every week I’ll update you as to what my walking/jogging combo for that we is.

For the first 4 weeks I’ll be cycling on Tuesdays and Thursdays. After week 4 I’ll be carrying on with the cycling. I have an exercise bike (another casualty of my ‘can’t last more than 2 weeks’ ideas) and I’ll be using that for cycling. In the beginning I’m cycling for 15 minutes a session and I’m planning to try and keep my speed over 22km per hour during that time.

On Sundays there’s no running or cycling, but some simple stretches, maybe some yoga and also an old dance warm up I used to do. I’ve got no set time limit for that – sometimes it might be 15-20 minutes, sometimes longer. And if I’m really tired at the end of the week I can simply miss it out altogether. 

That leaves Friday. On Friday I shall do nothing, Zip, zilch, nada, not a sausage! Friday will be the day of rest. I’ve picked Friday for a few reasons. One, I go out on Friday nights with a group of friends (hello friends!!) and the last thing I’ll want to do is either go running/cycling before I head out, or do it after (when sometimes I’m not home until 3 or 4am!). Another reason is because once I’m getting up to running for longer periods of time and actually following a marathon training planner, the long runs will always be on a Saturday. The advice of both the books and all the sites on the interwebymawotsit is that the day before and the day after a long run should be days of rest. So by organizing my schedule like that at the minute, it’ll make it easier to stick to once I’m running the long distances. 

the blob - to the finish line, and beyond...