Take your running to the next level and snag a new PR.

You just spent the past 10 weeks building your running base. Lots of easy miles, strides, light speedwork, and you’ve upped your mileage safely. Now you’re ready to start training for your goal race. But don’t just pick a random training plan on the internet. You want your next training cycle to use the base fitness you just built and help you get to the next level. Let’s look at what you need to do to structure a training cycle to help you reach your running goals.

Assess Your Current Fitness

Before you plan your next training cycle, assess where your current running fitness is. What are your recent race times? What has been your weekly consistent mileage? How many days a week are you running? These will all give you a starting baseline for your training cycle. Use your current mileage and days training as the starting point for your training cycle, and base your paces for runs (from easy run to interval work) off of recent race times. You always want to start a training cycle at your current fitness level, not a fitness level you used to be, or hope to be.

What’s Holding You Back?

Finding out what holds you back in races can help you decide what to include in your training cycle. Did your last race end with you hitting the wall and falling apart near the end? That could be a lack of endurance. Or, were you able to stay steady throughout the race, but just couldn’t pick up speed and kick to the finish? That could be an issue with your top end speed. It’s good to know what your weak areas are, to make sure you focus on them in your next training cycle, while still improving your overall fitness. Lacking endurance? Long runs and long run workouts will help improve that. Need more top end speed? Fast reps and interval work can help you improve.

Consider Your Lifestyle

When designing your next training cycle, take into account your current lifestyle and schedule. This includes the time you have available to train as well as any other life stressors that need to be accounted for. The best training cycle in the world won’t help if you can’t find the time to follow it or your body doesn’t have enough recovery time. While a training cycle should challenge you, it also needs to fit into your lifestyle. Look at your daily schedule and decide how much time you have to devote to training. Don’t forget to include any essential strength training or cross training that you want to include in your training cycle.

What Distance Is Your Goal Race?

All training cycles are not the same. Different races will take a different focus (5k vs marathon for example). While you can still improve fitness with general training, tailoring a training cycle to your goal race distance will help you nail your next PR. Shorter races (like 5k – 10K) see benefits from more speed work and running economy work, while longer races (half marathon to marathon) see benefits from longer mileage, endurance, and tempo work. Here are some key workout types to include in different distances:

5K – 10K

• Running Economy (Strides, Repetition-paced workouts and fartleks for tempos)
• Race Pace Practice (interval workouts at race pace)
• Sharpening (Adding top speed into workouts)

Half Marathon

• Tempos at race pace, gradually building in distance/volume
• Ability to sustain race pace longer (long runs with pace work)
• Interval work to raise your top speed

Marathon

• Endurance building (long runs of 16+ miles)
• Race Pace on Fatigued legs (long runs with Marathon pace)
• Running Economy (strides and strength work)

There is no one-size-fits-all plan, and finding a training plan that works for your fitness, lifestyle and goals, will help you succeed and run faster and better at your next race. Take some time to assess what you need to have in your next training cycle. At Fast Pack Running, we make sure our athletes are training with custom training plans designed just for them. Learn more about a custom training plan designed for YOU: