My Running Schedules

 Don't follow a running plan, listen to your body. That summarises my basic approach however unless you are highly motivated and have fully integrated a health lifestyle into your everyday life it isn't always as simple as that. As the successful coach Percy Cerutty states in his book: 

"Rigid schedules… and laid down day by day training routines, find no place in my ideas as to the fitness of things athletically. "

Base Miles:

I run around 50-70 miles a week but don't follow a strict plan. I have quite a lot of essential running as I 

• Run my daughter to and from school.
• I take the dog for runs at lunch time
• I have agreed to go out with my wife 3-4 times a week
• I run a session for my running club
• I run parkrun almost every week 

Now if I am feeling good I can run to and from parkrun, and most weeks I do, I can extend the school runs, the dog runs, the club runs and run on the treadmill in some meetings, though I don't do that often. I can also add a long run on a Sunday. So whilst I need motivation this is the approach I advocate for. If I create a schedule for someone that says 3 miles on a Monday but you feel naff then skip it, if you feel great run 5 miles, though take into account the plan for the rest of the week. 

It should be noted that the majority of that running stays at around 10 minutes per mile and I am running sub 17:30 5k, so well under 6 minute per mile in my races. I will tackle drills in another post but there is something to be said for deliberate practice, so I will try and include some basic drills or a few shorter runs in barefoot shoes. 

Speed Work / Harder Sessions

I like to do 8 second hill reps once a week, again if I am feeling good I might do these morning and evening and about 5-8 reps depending on how I am feeling. I will almost always at least push to some extent at parkrun as a tempo session. Then once or twice a month I will do a solo long run, this will probably be between 8-13 miles, again depends on how I am feeling. Most runners will benefit from having long runs of those distances, if you are training for a marathon then you would likely push those runs to 13-22 miles depending on the stage of training. 

The above is just running, everything else:

I advocate integrating strength training and mental training into your daily routine. In fact I strongly encourage a group of daily activities that you will do everyday that should include some strength work, some mental work and some base activity work. So for example I have: 

- At least 10 minutes of affirmation everyday

- At least 10 pull ups a day

- At least 60 minutes activity a day 

- 10 minutes of breathing exercises a day

For those I have coached they can be things as simple as 10 of movement x to work on core strength, 10 minutes listening to music you love or things like that which will help improve your physical and mental health. 

Of course there is also healthy eating, you can't outrun a bad diet. You should also make sure, as I have heard, to prioritise family time and happiness but integrating it into you life.