Designing Training Plan - 10% Rule

Today I am going to work on a training plan for Alicia. And tweak another one to fit me and what I am doing the next few months and what my running buddy Cyndie is doing. Running blind (without a set plan) hasn't been the best thing to do since the marathon. It is difficult when I am taking part in 3 different events: run bike swim. So I return to my successful training calendar roots, articles on the Salt Lake Running Company website. Here is the one on how to increase training each week. I have included the whole article here:

"When beginning a running or walking program, people often want to know how to increase mileage (or exercise duration) quickly without getting injured. For most people, the expectation should be about 10 percent per week.

For example, if you’re walking or running 10 miles this week (a good mileage to start), don’t do more than 11 miles next week, 12 miles the week after, 13 miles the next week, 14.5 the next week, 16 the next, and so on. It doesn’t take long to get to a mileage that you feel comfortable sticking with.

When you feel ready to increase the intensity or duration of your workouts, you become more at risk for injury. If you’re planning on increasing your intensity during the week, you should back down your weekly mileage by 10 percent.

For example, if you’re doing 10 miles this week, but you want to add a more intense workout to your week next week, back your weekly mileage down to 9 miles to ensure you don’t put too much strain on your body. This allows your body to react to the stress of the added intensity without the added stress of increased mileage at the same time. This helps decrease your risk of injury and allows your body to more fully absorb the benefits of your intense workouts.

The 10 percent rule is designed to allow your body to adjust to this new stress. The body is incredible. It will adjust and respond very well to your exercise, but it can’t do it all at once. If you increase your mileage a little at a time the body will respond and become stronger more quickly."

Choosing a Training Schedule

A task that has taken me a couple of weeks is selecting the training schedule to use to get ready for the marathon. Turning to all the library books I'd checked out and had been reading before I made that final mouse click that put me in the Ogden Marathon I went back to the one that sounded most like me, The Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer by Whitsett, Dolgener & Kole. It is a good book about over 200 people who signed up for marathon classes and finished a marathon. And one was actually my age. After a preliminary training program of walking and jogging, this program is 16 weeks, running 4 days a week, never over 18 miles. Their goal is my goal, FINISH! And they have a great answer to my question to myself, Why a marathon? "Running a marathon is a peak experience available to anyone that will take you to the brink of what you thought were your personal limits and beyond."

The next book, Run Your First Marathon by Grete Waitz, she also has a 16 week program after completing a walk to run beginning program. Her longest run is 20 miles. In her training schedule you run a certain number of miles each week. Also she has you run 4 days a week. I love her basic philosophy, "hurry slowly. Get there, but be patient. I want you to get there, but do it smart, do it right."

My next training option comes to me at work, my boss brings in his wife Kelli's book Runner's World Complete Book of Running. Of course I open this book too and begin reading and find something totally unexpected, Oprah finished a marathon in 1994?! Wow. And yes I was thinking like the books says, "she was the last person I would expect to run a marathon." Then my little voice, if she can you can. As long as I do my running homework. They have a beginner program in this book, 18 weeks, with 4 days running, one day cross-training. Longest run 20 miles.

Kelli also put in a copy of her training schedule in the book for the Salt Lake City Marathon. This training program comes right from the Salt Lake Running Company website, a 25 Week "To Finish" Training Program. I looked this program over carefully. Run for 3 days, cross-train for 2 days each week. This appealed to me because only 3 days running and then I could still prepare for triathlons with the cross-training days for biking and swimming. This training schedule also differs in that the 2 runs during the week are measured in time, not distance. Only the Saturday long run is for distance. The cross-training is also for time.

Last is the book, The Non Runner's Marathon Guide for Women: Get Off Your Butt And On With Your Training by Dawn Davis. First off, this book is funny. She has me laughing a lot. Her training schedule is 20 weeks. She uses the 4 days of running, one day cross-training. She says, "How does one go from being a couch potato to finishing a marathon? One consumes a lot of ibuprofen."

And the winner is, the Salt Lake Running Company program given to me by Kelli. I like the timed midweek runs, the timed cross-training and the fact I actually do have the 25 weeks before I run.
My official training starting day, November 29, 2010. Before I begin, I am working on and I quote from Dawn Davis "at least one valid reason to do something insane...the reason needs to hold up under your own scrutiny once the temporary effects of your spontaneity and/or pharmaceuticals wear off."

Click>>-------for my TRAINING SCHEDULE