masterplan

this is the nerdy part in essence it’s quite simple, if you want to be good at running long distance, you have to run a lot. sometimes slower, sometimes faster, but a lot. however, it would be boring to say it just like that, hence you find below a timeline with fancy terms and coloured boxes ‘n stuff, that makes it look much cooler. 400 days equals roughly 57 weeks, however it’s only 56 weeks in this case. At the time of the start of this project the Berlin Marathon 2009 was still supposed to be on September 27, after a month or so it turned out that it’s on September 20. Hence this project lasts from week 35 in 2008 to week 38 in 2009. this page provides an overview, for more detail see the training page.

now watch out for all this dead serious running training terminology, it’s so elaborate, just reading it, makes you feel like a winner, doesn’t it? the masterplan focuses on a speed meets distance. that’s what seems to be most difficult - it’s kind of ok to run 70-80 km a week with a bit of discipline or to do a couple of 400m in say 80 seconds, but as soon as speed is supposed to be kept over a distance, one starts panting, legs start hurting, lungs start burning and the full program. hence first it’s building up speed (10k training), then go into basic endurance training for the late fall and winter. a test marathon episode from jan to april wakes us up again and gets us focused on the task. the gradually warmer weather through end of april through june will get the cheetah muscles going. and finally it is the THE REAL THING.

phase 1 is a modified sub-35min 10k training program that can be found on the runner’s world german website. the weekly interval runs are slightly softened, since initial tests showed that 10 x 1000m in 3:35 min each is not something the spare time athlete would want to do off the mark. the plan is to gradually catch up to the full intesity that the program proposes.

phase 2 is a mix of various inputs, some from the just mentioned runner’s world 10k training program, some strength training, finnish winter conditions, christmas ham and guilty after christmas conscience. some decent long distance trainig sessions will be needed. hope to do some speed development as well, hence the 10k test race series.

phase 3 is the test run for this project, it’s based on the 12-week runner’s world sub-2:30h marathon training (again in german). see for more details from this episode onwards on the training page. weekly km go up, speed is kept on the same 35min 10k level and extended in endured distance.

phase 4 shifts gears again towards speed work. km amounts down, speed up. the first 9-10 weeks of the runner’s world sub-33min 10k training program will get the legs going. 1000m interval runs in 3:22min, ui ui ui… longer test races, between 15km and half marathon will need to be integrated.

phase 5 is the typical 12 week training period that builds up to the final event. a special training week, more about it in due course and the saltin diet towards the end should provide the polish needed to succeed in this experiment.