Creating the Perfect Training Plan

written by Matt Casos

Training plans and programs are fundamental to all athletes who are striving for success.  The idea of a training plan or program is to structure your training around ‘everyday life’ to enable you to strive towards a particular goal or set of goals. The following basic guidelines will help all individuals create the perfect training plan:

• Set your goals
-Goal setting is fundamental to all training plans and programs.
-Goals range from finishing a particular fun run, beating personal bests or simply running to improve your general fitness and wellbeing.
-Runners set a number of short term and long term goals to focus on over a period of time.
-Goals need to be written down and be quite specific in what you’re aiming to achieve.
-Goals to be realistic and achievable so don’t be afraid to discuss them with family, friends, work mates and fellow training partners.

• Consistency is the key
-The key to becoming a fitter, faster and injury free runner is to be consistent in your training over a long period of time.
-Adopting a regular program that incorporates a min of 3 running sessions per week.
-Experienced runners and those aiming for half marathon distances and beyond should aim to run up to 6 days per week.
-Example-  1 x long run, 1 x hills session, 1 x speed session and 3 x recovery runs.
-Sessions should be spaced out during the week so that a hard run (e.g. hills session, speed session, race) is followed up by an easy recovery run or rest day.
-The key to improving is to become a consistent runner i.e. replicating this pattern of training week in week out

• Rest and Recovery is good
-Rest days are as important as training days especially for runners who are just starting out or coming back from a long layoff including injuries.
- Recovery in between training sessions is vital to an athlete improving and staying injury free.
-Rest periods also advised for runners who are feeling fatigued, tired and run down
-Rest is also important in the lead up to a race. This sharpening up effect will ensure that you can be at your optimum on race day.

• Adopt a long term approach
The saying ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ certainly applies to distance running and it’s advisable to adopt a long term approach if your hoping to improve your fitness and performances over time.  Distance running requires a long period of sustained running over many years with the distances, amount of sessions and other factors increasing gradually over time as the body develops.  By adopting a long term approach, this will allow athletes time to build up and achieve goals that they would have never thought possible in the past.

Example – Weekly Training Plan

* The above example is fictitious and should not be replicated without consulting your doctor first.

Hey Guys,

Hope you all had a great break over easter and maybe even managed to fit in some running and
Sorry i havn’t had a chance to email out the sessions the last couple of days.

This Thursdays session we’ll be doing some hill reps at Queens park….

3k warm up jog over there…
X Number of Hill reps with easy jog recovery down
3-4k warm down.

See you all there 5.30 tomorrow night.

Cheers, Tony

P.S. Great Session last night for all those who braved the rain.

Hi Guys,

Tonights session is below…

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3-4km w/u

5×200m on 1min- 1.30 (5km race pace)

2×2000m descending each 400m 2-3sec per lap
(starting approx 1.30 front group/ 1.50 second group) 2-3min recovery

5×200m on 1min- 1.30 (5km race pace)

2-4km w/u
——————————————————————

Happy Thursday Everybody,

Tonight should be an awesome session and i think Mr Casos may even be joining us all the way from Tismania…

Meeting at the track at 5.30 like normal, and then doing the 12k loop to east ippy, riverheart, brassall hills, back to town, Denmak Hills and Home.

Cheers, Tony.

P.S. Great work to Kym and Hewitt who both raced in Sydney on the weekend!!!

Hey Guys,

Hope you’ve all had an awesome weekend and managed to fit in some good training as well, and congrats to anyone who raced or did the ipswich 100 mile ride as well.

Tonights session should be great…

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Warm Up – 4km easy

3 x 2000m descending times each lap (eg tony 1.35, 1.30, 1.25, 1.20, 1.15) (paul fyfe 1.55,1.50, 1.45, 1.40, 1.35) or something close to this, about 5sec per lap decrease. At a level you can complete 3×2000m at.
2-3min active recovery between reps

Warm Down – 2km
——————————————————————-
Total = 12k

See you all there at 5.30pm.

Hey Guys,

We’re going to do the course down to east ippy and then to brassall and home over denmark hill, just adjust to accommodate you level of fitness etc the full lap is 12km there are lots of places to cut the lap short at the 5km point (Marsden pde and straight to track total 7km), (turn left at timothy maloney and rejoin the course at the 9km mark) etc…

Will do it easy for the first 6k to river heart then pick up the pace over the hills on the way home.

Looking forward to another awesome session like tuesday night.

Cheers, Tony.

Hey Guys,

Tonights session will be super exciting and you won’t want to miss it for the world…

See it here or below…

3kish warm up, fairly flat, thinking around the uni or somewhere maybe…
5 x 1k reps at 10k race pace (Either around the track if it’s free or we can use another loop)
3kish warm down.

For those who want afew more k’s just extend out the warm up/down.

See you all at the park at 5.30.

Cheers, Tony.

P.S. stay tuned for all the results from Mooloolaba Triathlon which i’ll put up here shortly.
P.P.S. Don’t forget entries for the Park2Park are already open so why not get in early and commit yourself… http://www.park2park.com.au/

Hey Guys,

Here’s tonights session…

5km warm up flat course.

Few run throughs on the track, then…

2 x ( 5-6 x 400m) on set times (eg tony 2min, fyfe 2.15)

Run them at about 5km race pace (tony approx 1.20-25=3.20-3.30)(1.40=4.10km)

3min rest between sets

2-3km warm down.

Same as a couple of weeks ago, we’ll use the first section as a warm up then it gets quite hilly from the 6km mark to the end but you can cut it shorter at numerous points according to fitness levels.

Several drink stops, under Bradfield bridge 5.5km, Park at 8km, top of denmark hill.

Click here for larger image...

Same warm up as last Tuesday

Click here to view large image.

Main Session
3 x 2000m
Laps (1, 2)(4, 5) 800m ON 2.50 = 3.32 km (close to 5km pb pace) times for front group.
Lap 3 400m OFF 1.50-2min approx 30sec difference in 400m pace between on and off laps

e.g.
400m – 1.25
400m – 1.25
400m – 1.50
400m – 1.25
400m – 1.25

Adjust times (5km pace for ON laps) according to your own level of fitness and adjust the number/quantity of reps eg 2 x 2000m etc

2-3min walk/jog recovery between sets

Warm Down
2k Easy

Total Session = 13k ish