Five things that you might not know about training plans

There are lots of benefits of having a training plan. Some are motivation or consistency. Some are improving your speed or your endurance. Or it might just be the nature of accountability of having something on your fridge that tells you today you are running hill sprints.

Ages ago I was reading a thread about intuitive pacing and the advice was that in a marathon you should run how you feel, not to a set pace. Someone jokingly replied if they ran how they felt, they’d be walking. Which is kind of true of a training plan too. For me anyway. By nature I am very lazy and a training plan makes sure I get out and do what I need to do.

1) Variety. A good training plan will have plenty of variety to keep you interested. It will find lots of different ways to achieve your goals so you aren’t doing anything too repetitive but you are still getting the outcomes you need.

2) Fun.  You can build on the things that you do like and find ways around the things that you don’t like. Because let’s face it, you are just not going to be able to do something on a regular basis if you really dislike it.

3) Expectation. Left to my own devices it would be easy to get 5km into an 8km tempo and stop because it was too hard/too hot/I was too tired. It’s very easy for excuses to creep in. But I find having a plan means if it’s written down that’s what I run and it encourages me to never change my mind mid-run.

4) It changes the way you think about exercise. You stop thinking of it as a chore or a punishment and you start think of it as training for you body to be stronger, fitter and more alive.

5) Fundamentals are the building blocks of fun. There aren’t any shortcuts but sometimes it helps to have a map.

 

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