With the arrival of the New Year, preparing the annual running training plan is essential to achieve your goals, especially if you want to participate in one or more competitions. Setting your goals, marking your work and rest periods, and determining the type of training you need at all times is the first step to a successful year of running . Here we go!
The key to a good career training plan, valid for the whole year, is knowing how to combine the times, alternating weeks or months of maximum concentration and effort, with periods of active recovery in which you can rest without losing physical shape.
The annual planning of a runner should allow him to train all the aspects that affect when running: resistance, speed, aerobic capacity … focusing on those most important according to his own objectives. If you plan to participate in a specific test: a 10 K , a half marathon or marathon , a triathlon test, or a speed test like 100 meters, it is essential that you check its date on the calendar, because your workouts will be focused on those future competitions. If this is not your case and you simply want to improve and level up as a runner, an annual running plan It will also become an excellent tool so that, each time you put on your shoes, you progress and obtain the best results.
The bases of an annual training schedule for runners
Any training plan is always individual, but, taking into account the following general guidelines, you can develop yours, the one that best suits your needs and is most effective for you.
1. Set yourself 1 to 3 specific goals
You can choose to set yourself a single goal, for example, train all year to complete your first marathon, or divide the year into several periods based on your different goals: lose weight, improve your speed, and increase the number of kilometers. Of travel or try new modalities such as mountain running. So you already have a first scheme to develop a training plan to run according to your goals. You can get them!
2. Part of a good foundation
You cannot launch into full power training without being well prepared. At the beginning of the year (probably after a Christmas with little exercise) dedicate a few weeks to get in shape, with light workouts that include not too long routes and a walk -jog pace. A set-up with a specific gym training for runners, especially strengthening core and lower extremities, does not hurt either.
3. Spend enough time on each training cycle
Plan your annual running trainings keeping in mind that, for the results to be appreciable, you need relatively long periods, between 8 – 10 weeks. That is, if you want to improve your speed, you will have to include in your plan at least two months in which your workouts will focus on short runs, sessions with high intensity intervals (HIIT training) or medium distances fartlek mode. Remember that you are developing an annual running plan so you must do extensive cycles for each specific objective.
4. Preparing a test
If you are going to compete in a certain race, you should keep it in mind when preparing your weekly and annual training plan , knowing that its preparation will require specific sessions of at least two – three months. As the date of the test approaches, your concentration must be maximum and your effort as well, so you should include in your annual running training schedule a few weeks of intense sessions that guarantee you a good mark.
5. Rest periods
They are just as important as the exercise itself and should be specified in your plan. After a period of hard sessions, giving the maximum in each race, for example, if you have spent three months training for a 5K, your body needs a rest. 2 – 4 weeks, in which you slow down and train less time and in a more gentle way, even substituting running for other activities such as swimming , hiking or cycling will be great for recovering physically and mentally, from so that you can face, with renewed energy, a new cycle of your annual training plan for runners.
