Training Plans for 2015

In my review a few days ago I was writing how I haven’t had any injuries for a couple of years. I think I may have spoken too soon! Last night I set off to do our club Fartlek session. It was 5mins (2mins recovery), 3mins (90secs), 2mins (1min) times 3.

I felt comfortable for the first 5mins and then the 3mins but during the 2mins I felt a pain on the inside of my right thigh that I’ve not had before. I eased off a bit but when we set off for the second 5mins it didn’t go away so I decided to ease off completely and let the rest of the group disappear into the night.

Once I was running slower it didn’t feel as bad so I continued to run but at a steady pace. It was interesting in that I caught up with the group as they did the recovery and was overtaken once they running the faster pace.

I can feel it a bit today so I’m going to see how it feels tomorrow when I should be running next. I cycled to and from work and it was fine so I’m hoping it’s nothing serious. I think I assumed I was would be okay to go at it though in hindsight it would have been better to ease back into the Fartlek sessions after the races I’ve done over the holiday period.

Jantastic started this week. I have set up a small team Kilbarchan AAC so I’m hoping we are able to get as close to 100% as we can. Neal and Caroline have set up a Giffnock North team so as long as we beat them I’ll be happy!!

I’ve been working on my training plan for the next 7 months as I build up to the Lakeland 100 in July. In my mind it’s in three phases ….

Phase 1 January to March

The priority for the first couple of months is going to be road running with the Inverness Half Marathon as the key race. I want to delay my ultra training until March as my main target is the Lakeland 100 which isn’t until the end of July.

Initially I wasn’t going to do any off road training and see how I would get on at the Hardmoors 55 with no trail running but I think I know the answer so have decided to put in some specific training.

I’m going to do the National Cross Country on Sunday 22nd February which fits in well with both my preparation for the Inverness Half Marathon and the Hardmoors 55

Phase 2 March to May

The priority for this phase will be my ultra training with the Cateran 55 the main race. The 2 key recce runs I would like to do are …

Saturday 4th April Lakeland 100 recce: Coniston to Braithwaite – 33.32 miles
Saturday 18th April Cateran 55 recce: route undecided as yet

I will also do a Ben Lomond run once a week to prepare my quads!

Phase 3 May to July

The priority for this phase with the Lakeland 100 the key race. I’m planning to do a 2 day recce run on the Lakeland course. Ideally I would like to do ….

Saturday 13th June Braithwaite to Howtown – 33.53 miles
Sunday 14th June Howtown to Coniston – 38.42 miles

It will depend on logistics but this would be my preference as it means I would run the final 72 miles over two days.

I’ve left 3 weeks free at the moment as we plan to be in Indonesia visiting Emma and Yonas and our first grandchild!! I will be running but not sure what I’ll be able to do.

No doubt things will change a bit but I like to have a plan to work with. If anyone has any comments/suggestions I’d be interested to hear from you.