My next main goal race is coming up towards the end of May. That’s about 16 weeks out from now, and a perfect block of time to prepare for success! While that last statement is true, it depends on me figuring out a 16 week training plan and sticking to it. For the past couple of months I have been running a lot, but haven’t been following any real plan. I have settled into a routine in terms of days and times when I can get out, but that’s about it. The time to plan is now, so plan I will. Here are my thoughts in developing said plan.

Ready for some running dates

One change I want to make this year is to focus my training more on the type of running (or other activity) and the duration rather than just focusing on distance. A challenge I am still dealing with is pacing on my long runs, and even more so in my races. I want to work on being better at running an even, conservative pace and am hoping this approach will help. I plan to schedule runs in terms of effort, terrain, and time duration. I also plan to build some cycling in once the weather gets a little more conducive.

I am going to incorporate some structured strength training in along with my running. This is something I have avoided in the past, but realize it’s a necessary evil! I have started doing one core strengthening session, and one leg strengthening session every week and will continue with that. I also plan to continue doing hill/speed repeats on a weekly basis. It’s nothing too hardcore, but hopefully this will improve my overall strength and fitness, and help my body hold up as the hours go by on my long runs. I’m lucky that I have a super creative personal trainer for a wife, so she’s happy to research the right exercises for me to do, and loves to make sure my muscles are good and sore the next day!

In general, my plan is to have 5 runs and 2 strength workouts per week. Sometimes life and the training calendar don’t cooperate, but that’s OK. I am going to sit down with my calendar and finalize my plan this week – I’m happy to share it with anyone willing to read the blog and then keep posting updates with my progress. Hopefully others can continue to learn from my successes and unsuccesses!

Thanks again for following along.