Arghhh. Day 2 of the 12 week training is now underway, things are getting hard and day 1 was a rest day. I’ve downloaded the really useful Active Swansea week by week 3 month guide to getting fit for the Swansea Half . My general feeling about being ready to train for the race is ‘pffff” I completed the first day with flying colours (it was a rest day haha). Today is a 30 minute run which I intend to do later on after work (I’m feeling tired) and then another one tomorrow at lunchtime (30 minutes should be fine). I’m following the Active Swansea 12 week plan. Download your 12 week training plan here!
What’s with this training plan language? I don’t know the difference between tempo, recovery, easy etc… I am going to run a ‘recovery run’ and tomorrow an ‘easy run’. I’m not sure I understand. Here’s what I found when I ‘Googled it’.
- Rest day: I’m guessing this is what it says on the tin? Er, let me see. No. What rest day actually translates into is ‘Get some some cross training, like circuits, swimming, cycling, pilates or something other than running.’
- Recovery run: essentially a short and not too fast run often the day after a hard one – the philosophy being that ‘it is crucial that some of your running be easy and enjoyable and not invariably associated with pain and hard work.’ so that your brain doesn’t talk your body out of it…as if you make everything too hard your brain will scream ‘back off’.
- Tempo run: – ‘enough time at the right intensity’ running at lactic threshold – which means that you won’t be able to hold a conversation whilst you are running and you are running about as hard as you can at a pace you can sustain for medium length runs. Apparently these runs improve your performance.
- Long run: The purpose is simply time on your feet. Challenging your ability to keep running improves your endurance and is a cornerstone of distance training. While there are debates on just how long and fast your long run should be, the general recommendation is that you keep your heart rate around 70% of maximum. They are slow runs with the challenge of simply running a steady pace for the entire duration of the run. Keep the effort easy and resist the temptation to increase the pace just to get home sooner.
- Speed run: Here’s where we get to the fast stuff. These workouts are what most of us think of as “speedwork”. The goal here is to spend time at your maximum aerobic capacity (or VO2max). Because the pace is faster, you must take a recovery jog of about half the distance of the repeat (or jog for the same duration as the faster running). So if you run a 1200m repeat, you would jog for about 600m to recover. These workouts allow you to maintain your speed over a longer period of time.
- Easy run: The final true ‘endurance workout’ is the easy run. The majority of your training is likely to be comprised of easy runs and the purpose is to fully develop your aerobic fitness and then maintain it. Your heart rate is around 75% of maximum though it can reach 80 to 85% near the end of the run. Easy runs last anywhere between 15 minutes and an hour and a half. According to the running websites, one of the common mistakes we make is running our easy runs too fast. Keep them steady but don’t get into a pace where your breathing becomes noticeably faster.
I’m going to upload my runs from Nike (I have a GPS watch), to help me motivate myself and to journal the journey to fitness! I will also drive to parks in Swansea for a change of scene and take some piccies of the pretty views. I hope to blog again soon alive and in one piece Bye
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