My 2012 Training Plan is Ready!

Mine will be a year-long training. Here is the plan. I started yesterday with 27K. I can adjust it depending on my circumstances. I have divided it into four phases as below. All I have to do now is follow it, sacrifice, endure the pain and suffering and see what happens in the end. Remember what Scott Overall said.


TRAINING_______MONTHS_____DAYS

BASE PHASE________NOV-FEB_____STT_____________approx 43-50Kms per week
INTENSITY_________MAR-JUL____SMTWTF_________Ramp up Mileage to 100-110Kms per week
PEAKING PHASE_____AUG-SEP_____SMTWTF_________More Speedwork reduce mileage by 20%
TAPER+RACING_____SEP-OCT_____SMTWTF________Same as above plus races

BASE PHASE (approx 43-50Kms per week)

SUNDAY LONG DISTANCE RUN - 27KMS
Objectives - 1. Teach body to store glycogen in muscles thereby utilize fat more efficiently. fats 9 cals per gram vs 4 cals per gram for glycogen, this will allow you to use more fat in your fuel mixture so the glycogen that feeds your muscles will last longer to stave off exhaustion.
2. Glycogen depletion stimulates the muscles to store more glycogen-to help prevent future depletion. Because the faster you run the more glycogen you burn, running your long runs at a reasonable pace is a more effective way to deplete your glycogen stores (and hence stimulate the muscles to store more) than jogging.
3. Increase aerobic enzyme activity. Enzymes in the mitochondria speed up aerobic energy production. Long runs increase the activity of these enzymes, which improves the efficiency of the mitochondria. So you not only have more and bigger energy factories, but they are also more efficient.
4. Long runs increase the number of capillaries per muscle fiber, which improves the efficiency of delivery and removal. They are the transportation system for the cell, bringing oxygen and fuels in, and waste products such as carbon dioxide out Shuttle oxygen with more myoglobin. Myoglobin in your muscle cells serves a similar function to hemoglobin in your blood-it carries oxygen from the cell membrane to the mitochondria.
5. Long runs increase the myoglobin content of your muscle fibers, so more oxygen can reach the mitochondria to produce energy.

Style - moderate speed, not slow. Have bursts of 10-20seconds of speed speed in alternative weekends (fartleks) and alternate with even-paced runs imitating tempo runs. Endeavor to finish strong always.
The basic idea is that I will get faster over time as the body adjusts to the repeated stress of the workload.

TUESDAY - TEMPO RUN - 8-10K - hard. Objective: Benchmarking, speed + endurance
Objective -  Increase my LT and my pace.

THURSDAY - INTERVALS

Description - 6 laps warm up, thorough stretching, start with 5 x 150m at 98% effort (with 1K goal pace 3:30), 1 min. Walking rest between. Double distance every 2 weeks until 1200m. Equivalent of 5K. i.e. 12 X 400 meters at 5K pace with 2 mins recovery between each, 6 X 600 meters or 5 X 1000 meters. Measure Progress over every 4 weeks. Stress your system, recover completely between sets, then stress it again. Start with fast and relaxed for some weeks first. I repeat, recover completely between sets.

Objective - Fortify the "quick energy" systems (creatine phosphate) and enable to buffer (and reuse) lactate better during races of all distances - adapting your body to higher demands and your leg muscles to faster turnover. Goal is to increase  maximal aerobic capacity (VO2 max).


RECOVERY WEEKS - Every 5 weeks. No hard sessions during these weeks. Reduce mileage to 70% of previous week.

Here is my TRAINING LOG:

Wish me luck and no injuries and we watch this magic happen.

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