How to Plan Training?
There are several components that make up a successful running program. Here we will look at structuring weekly training, how to quantify training and go through an example of a current client’s training plan.
Structure
Generally, a training week is going to consist of one long run (~30% of weekly volume), two higher intensity workouts, and three to four easy recovery days. If you’re just starting out running or not focused on being competitive you may have one or no high intensity days. There is no right day for assigning specific workouts but as a rule of thumb, we should not have back to back intensity days and want to have a recovery day before and after our hardest day (i.e. intervals). For example, if you don’t have as much time during the week, you should save your long run for a weekend. If you have extra commitments one day in particular, make that a day off. The first and most important step to training is to make it work for you, because if it doesn’t you won’t stick to it. Also with structure we have to. look. at progression. Progressing slowly and allowing our bodies to adapt is imperative to minimize overtraining and injury risk. With that said increasing less than 20% in volume of training per week (1) and keeping 80% of training, low intensity and 20% high intensity (2) works well.
Quantifying
Quantifying training can be done in several ways and needs to be done for both duration and intensity.
There are two main ways to quantify duration- time and distance. I, like most runners, used to only quantify by miles and kilometers. However, as I’ve learned more about the benefits of using time, I’ve made the switch and urge you to as well. Using time instead of distance allows you to factor in your personal feeling for the day. For example, let’s say an average easy 5 mile run takes you 40 minutes. Now, what happens to that 5 mile run if you’re stressed, haven’t been sleeping well or are sore from a tough workout? That 5 mile run may end up taking you 50-60 minutes depending how much your pace slows from fatigue. This longer 5 mile run is actually increasing your training volume, which is likely the opposite of what you need. With all this said, distance is still appropriate at times. I generally use distance with prescribing interval training. It’s much easier to give an athlete a distance at a certain pace, as it’s most similar to racing and helps them visualize how fast they need to be to reach their goals. Ultimately, everyone will prefer something different and if my examples didn’t switch you to the time side, next time you’re not feeling your best consider testing out a timed run.
Just like duration, there are two main ways to measure running intensity- pace and rating of perceived exertion (RPE). Pace is something almost everyone is familiar with, while RPE is an emerging concept in the running world. While pace has been used historically, it may not be the best measurement. The limitation when it comes to pace is day to day feelings. The argument is similar to the one made above as not every run will feel the same and somedays you won’t be able to hit the times you’re shooting for. If we factor in our personal feeling for the day we tailor our training to us not the other way around.
So how do we use RPE? RPE is a 0-10 scale that we can use to assign a number to our training to give direction for the day and is subjective to how we are feeling. Below is the scale I use to plan my athletes and my training to ensure that they are better guided to perform their best.
A few things to note: with lower intensity training we base most of it on our breathing and how well we’re able to speak, while with high intensity we use efforts to help guide us based on our previous racing experience. If you’re new to distance running and unsure of what these efforts feel like, trial and error will be your best bet until you do.
Putting This All Together
Below is a chart from an athlete that recently started working with Threshold. The training is tailored to his schedule and current fitness level. He’s been running consistently, increasing his duration and recently started integrating high intensity workouts with his goal to break his high school 5k PR. With his schedule he prefers to take Tuesday off, Friday lighter, and do his workout Saturday with a long run Sunday. He is already lifting at the gym multiple times per week so will lift M, W, F and do mobility on Saturday.
The week before reaching out to me he ran ~275 mins and had completed 800m repeats. With a 10% increase in time, he’s looking to run 305 mins and since he recently started high intensity workouts he’s going to back off this week with a tempo run to make sure his body can hold up to the stress. As we incorporate more high intensity stuff we can look to add 2 workouts to his weekly schedule.
To further organize our data we can use a simple formula of time or mileage, multiplied by our RPE (i.e. 92mins x 4/10 = 368) to give us a weekly volume of training to ensure that no matter how duration or intensity changes we are not detraining and continuing to progress slowly.
Hopefully this article has helped show how we approach writing training programs, but also given you different ways to think about how to create programming. We encourage you to read about the purposes behind training before fully diving into developing a program. As always, please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions!
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References:
Damsted C, Parner ET, Sørensen H, Malisoux L, Hulme A, Nielsen RØ. The Association Between Changes in Weekly Running Distance and Running-Related Injury: Preparing for a Half Marathon. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. 2019 Apr;49(4):230-238. doi: 10.2519/jospt.2019.8541. Epub 2018 Dec 7. PMID: 30526231.
Seiler, Stephen. (2010). What is Best Practice for Training Intensity and Duration Distribution in Endurance Athletes?. International journal of sports physiology and performance. 5. 276-91. 10.1123/ijspp.5.3.276.