I used to get a little obsessed, shall I say, about my training plans and sticking to them. But in the last year and a half, I’ve become more flexible and less obsessed about it.

Sometimes I plan my weeks, sometimes I do a big training plan and train for an event, sometimes life takes over and I train when I can.

Recently I’ve been hoping to train as follows each week:

Mon: Strength
Tue: Easy Run
Wed: Rest or Swim
Thu: Effective Run
Fri: Strength
Sat: Long Run
Sun: Rest

As I mentioned, sometimes life and work takes over, but generally I get 2-3 runs in, 1-2 strength workouts and 1-2 strength days.

Today (in a meeting in work!!) I drew out my next training plan. With a few work days away, 4th and 5th December and a few work nights out, I want to plan my training and rest days.

All will be flexible, but the plan should help me keep on track. 🙂

So here goes:

Mon: 18: Strength
Tue: 19: Rest Edinburgh work
Wed: 20: Run, 35 min intervals 1:1
Thu: 21: Rest
Fri: 22: Strength
Sat: 23: Long Run
Sun: 24: Rest

Mon: 25: Easy Run
Tue: 26: Strength
Wed: 27: Effective Run
Thu: 28: Strength
Fri: 29: Rest Leave
Sat: 30: Long Run
Sun: 1: Rest

Mon: 2: Strength
Tue: 3: Easy Run
Wed: 4: Rest: Edinburgh with work
Thu: 5: Rest: London with work
Fri: 6: Strength
Sat: 7: Run
Sun: 8: Rest

Mon: 9: Strength
Tue: 10: Easy Run
Wed: 11: Swim or Rest
Thu: 12: Effective Run
Fri: 13: Strength
Sat: 14: Long Run
Sun: 15: Rest

Mon: 16: Strength
Tue: 17: Easy Run (work night out)
Wed: 18: Rest or swim (another work night out!)
Thu: 19: Effective Run
Fri: 20: Strength
Sat: 21: Long Run
Sun: 22: Rest

Mon: 23: Strength
Tue: 24: Easy Run
Wed: 25: Off work for Xmas.
Thu: 26: Effective Run
Fri: 27: Strength
Sat: 28: Long Run
Sun: 29: Rest

There we go. It’s pretty straight forward and simple, run days, strength days, rest days and the odd swim if I fancy it.

With running I’ll be aiming to doing effective running once a week, an easy run and a longer run. If I don’t fancy doing a hard / effective run, I’ll do another easy or long run.

With strength work, I’ll be doing my Super 8s, building up the weight I lift, heavy weights, limited rest.

And sometimes I’ll not train to plan, no guilt, just well earned rest or work or life getting in the way. 🙂

Oh… and some Christmas shopping if I’m lucky!