I know a lot of runners use training plans that lay out runs on a weekly basis and break them down into sessions each day. I have never worked that way. Maybe if I had I would have been in a better and faster runner when I was younger. Who knows, it is all far too late to find out now. For the Brathay 10in10 I take a much simpler approach and look at the following general areas:
- Weekly and monthly total mileages.
- One long run each week, minimum half marathon distance, maximum about marathon distance (often a race).
- Run marathons back to back to replicate the event and/or do a block of 10 days of running high mileage, again to replicate the event.
This year, I have again adopted these 3 areas as the basis of my training. To start with, through the autumn I like to keep my hand in by regularly running marathons and keeping my mileage fairly high. I tend to ease off a little through December and over Christmas before starting to get focused at the beginning of January, to prepare for the 10in10 in the middle of May. This means training hard through, January, February and March. The beginning of April is also a high mileage period but by the latter part of April I like to start to taper for the event. It is always better to enter the event rested rather than trying to squeeze in some missed training.
My rough plan for 2023 was as follows:-
- Weekly mileage of 50 miles and to hit about 200 miles per month for January to April. In total to reach around 800 miles before the event.
- To run at least 8 marathons before the event, with at least 1 double (2 marathons in 2 days).
I always expect some problems while doing a long block of high mileage training. This could be an illness or injury. Basically, I factor this into my training, for if or when it happens. This then means I don’t get too stressed about it. This happened this year, I pulled my back in the gym, lost a week running and 3 more weeks before I could go back into the gym. Apart from this set back, I haven’t had any others. I do have an ongoing issue with my right knee, it is wearing and does cause me a continuing problem but more about that later. My monthly mileage has gone mainly to plan with the following totals:-
January 213 miles
February 151 miles (lost a week through back injury)
March 220 miles
April 177 miles
Total as of 6th May – 793 miles
I have completed 10 marathons in this period. This includes the Gin Pit Double (2 marathons in 2 days).
Also, at the request of Katie who heads the physio team at Brathay, I have been going to the gym most weeks and doing a couple of core work outs per week.
To sum up, I have completed most of what I intended to do in terms of my training so hopefully this will put me in good stead for the 10in10 starting on Friday. Now is time to rest and get my kit together ready for a trip up to the Lakes on Thursday.
