Starting A New Training Cycle

It’s been fantastic to look back and reflect on the running year so far…the goals achieved, hurdles overcome and the challenges that haven’t quite been conquered, its all part of the journey.  Reflecting for me is an important way to digest what has been going on over the past training cycle as when i’m in it, i’m fully focused and committed to the job in hand and its very difficult to take a helicopter view of the situation unless you are physically forced to stop.

That’s what i’ve been doing for the past week whilst running easy.  Coming off the back of two half marathons (one of which being a PR) is a very rewarding but tiring and it’s always important to get re-energised as the next challenge is right around the corner.  Easy weeks are a great time to allow your body to just absorb mileage without the major stresses interval and threshold training throw at it and allow you to embrace the improvements you’ve made over the recent training cycle.

However I am now more than ready to get started with the next challenge, I am determined to finish this year on a high and want to push my body more than its been pushed so far in order to better myself. Running for me is a way I can go out and push hard, its something I can fully commit to and give my best in every sense whilst learning the art of patience, practicing structure and working on being more self disciplined.

This week (17/09/2018) see’s me starting my new 10k plan and I am delighted to be working with Doug Stewart from TMR Coaching.  If you have followed my journey on Youtube you will know I am much better at racing shorter distances but much prefer to train for longer distances.  This is partially because I prefer the workouts of a half marathon / marathon plan but also due to where I live, I can’t help but want to go out and run as far as possible every weekend just to appreciate my surroundings.  So this brings me to why I am extremely excited about starting this next block of training….

I have never really training properly for a 10k race before but I feel that due to racing so well at the shorter distance events, its worth diving in head first to a proper plan.  To clarify….. I am targeting The Newent 9 on November 17 2018, which is a 9.5k race (so just shy of 10k) but not only this, 9 days before (Wednesday 7th November 2018) is the Severn Bridge 5 Mile night race.  These two races are some of my favourites on the racing calendar, I have done them both for the last 2 years and always had great success there, however I have never gone to either of them with any specific training under my belt, so that’s where this year could be much more interesting.

I am a firm believer that long distance training is of huge benefit to the shorter distance events, and the shorter distance training sets you up well when jumping into longer distance training.  This has been a recipe of success for me most of the time but I have never committed to more than 6 weeks of shorter distance training at a time, which is why I am super excited to see what I can do at these upcoming races and also see how it will benefit me come January when marathon training starts.

I will be working with Doug up until these races and hopefully beyond if all goes well.  I would like to continue the shorter distance work right up until Christmas, schedule in a nice break over the festive period then jump straight into marathon training come January.

I am excited, very very excited.  Call me weird, odd, strange, whatever else you can think but I really cannot wait to dive into this plan head first, finish the year strong and come out the other side of these races in the best shape i’ve ever been.  Time will tell…..