Most successful endeavors begin with a vision. An architect knows what kind of building she wants to design. An entrepreneur has an idea for a unique business. A runner wants to complete her first 10K race. How successful will they be without a good plan? Would you expect the architect to complete her project without a plan? Would you invest in a new business without seeing the business plan? Would the new runner go out and run a 10K without a training plan? Well, in the latter case, the answer is sometimes “yes.” Too often, this results in injury and disappointment.
You don’t have to be a professional or elite athlete to need a training plan. As a personal trainer, I never see a client without first knowing her needs (vision) and then setting up a structured program (plan). When I am teaching a group aquatic exercise class, I have a plan prepared before each class. I went from being a non-runner to completing a half marathon by setting up and following a 14-week training plan.
If you have a vision of becoming a runner or completing a race for the first time, a good plan will go a long way to getting you to your goal.
What is a good plan?
You may have heard about the acronym for setting goals called S.M.A.R.T. I think this acronym works perfectly for plans as well as goals. Here is how I apply S.M.A.R.T to planning:
Specific. A running plan needs to have specific distances or times. You don’t want to just plan to run on certain days. How many miles should you run? Should you run at a slow pace or a fast pace? Every run should have an intention.
Measureable. If you are running, you need to have a way to measure time, distance and pace. You could use a stopwatch and a running track, or a piece of tech-wear like a Garmin or FitBit watch.
Achieveable. Be sure the plan is right for you. Don’t follow a plan that has you running 6 days a week if you don’t have time for that or if you are not conditioned for that. Don’t plan to start out running 3 miles if you’ve never run before. If you can’t realistically achieve a plan, make a new plan.
Relevant. This may seem obvious, but why would you train for a marathon and never run a distance more than 6 miles? That’s not relevant to your goal. Scheduling time for cross training or strength training, however, is relevant. Rest days are also relevant. Don’t forget to include time for these.
Time bound. The best plans begin with a completion date, such as your race day, and works backwards to allow sufficient time to train. Don’t attempt to cram in your training in too short a period and risk injuring yourself.
How do you make a good plan?
One good way is to find a running coach. She can help you with a plan as well as your running form. A personal trainer can also do this for you, especially if she is a runner or works with runners regularly. The current trend is to find plans online or use apps. While this can be an easy way to make a plan, you still need to be sure it is safe and appropriate for you. When I created my half marathon training plan, I looked online and sought advice from a friend who is an elite runner. I decided that since I was not a runner, and I was 58 years old, I would only run 3 days a week. That was almost 3 years ago, and I still only run 3 days a week. I also didn’t run the whole time. At first, I walked a minute, ran 1 minute, walked a minute, etc. I remember how excited I was when I ran for 3 miles without walking! By the end of the training period, a 3 mile run was an “easy” day. It was a matter of starting out with something I could do, and gradually increasing it.
Most running plans start out in a similar way, starting with short runs and inserting long runs (usually Saturday or Sunday) that gradually approach the race distance. “Short” and “long” are relative, of course, depending on your conditioning and your race distance. In most plans, you never run the full race distance. For a half marathon training plan, your longest run may be 11 or 12 miles. There are mixed opinions on this, and some runners do run the full distance, even longer, in training. My own experience has been that running 11 miles gave me the confidence to do 13.1 without overtraining my body. But my body is not that of an elite runner! You will have to make your own call on that one.
How do you stick to a plan?
Creating a training calendar is an excellent way to stick to your plan. This can be a paper calendar on your refrigerator door, an online calendar, a spreadsheet or an app. Be sure to include the specific details for each day, such as “run 4 miles at slow pace” or “run 30 minutes at race pace” and don’t forget to include cross training, strength training and rest days. Allow yourself the flexibility to move days around if you have to. If you are feeling ill, take a rest day and run on another day. If you usually do a long run on Saturday, but you have to attend a wedding, do your long run on Sunday.
If you are not very self-motivated, you may want to try training with someone. This could be a friend (two-legged or four-legged), a running coach or trainer, or a running group. You can find groups on sites like Facebook or Meetup. You could even start your own group.
I started out training solo, but I now mix in my solo runs with group runs (one is sponsored by a running shoe store and one is a social running group that starts and ends in a pub). I also found a running coach who does group training for specific events. All of these have made my running more fun and I now feel part of my local running community. And believe me, when you tell someone in your group that you are planning to do an event, you automatically get motivated to stick to that plan!
So, you know your vision. It’s time to create a smart plan and stick to it! You’ll be glad you did.