Evolution of My Training

 While making these blogs, I reflected on the training I was doing at that time. It was interesting how different my training was and if you remember back in my first parkrun post, to me, it didn't make sense. This got me thinking about how my training plan progressed and what were the key events that changed it.  

So, let’s take a look at the evolution of my training. 

Now, at beginning, just before my first parkrun I had no idea how to make a training plan. I knew that some days should focus on speed, and some should focus on distance, but that was about it. I didn’t know what a recovery run, intervals or tempo run was. So, for the first month my training was all over the place. There was very little consistency between weeks, and for the most part it looked like I did whatever I felt like. Notable things I would do during this period included not running over 5k, running on a Sunday, and a strange obsession with the 1 mile, since I liked to try to beat my PB at that distance every week. 

(Image description: Me running at the Armagh parkrun)


A major turning point in my training was when I signed up for the Portadown 10K. To prepare for that race I watched YouTube videos. There I learned about recovery runs; tempo runs and intervals. The training plan developed into doing a 30-minute recovery run on Monday, 10*400m intervals on Tuesday, a long run of at least 60 minutes on Wednesday, 2*10-minute tempo runs on a Thursday, a 30-minute recovery run on a Friday, Parkrun on Saturday and rest on Sunday. I also started doing strength and conditioning exercises to help with a sore hip at the time. An exercise that really helped was side planks. I also started doing technique training as well. This was a solid training plan as I got a lot of PBs  

(Image description: Me running at the Portadown 10K)


Last month I asked the coach from the Ulster University athletics club for a training plan to focus on the 5k. A number of changes were made. The biggest change was that the training would have alternating weeks mainly for the intervals and tempo run. Different interval and Tempo run reps. I would also do parkruns at a slower pace, and if I do a fast parkrun, I must take a rest on Friday. Monday is also a 60-minute run. Another good thing about this training plan is that there is a plan on how to progress. For example, every time I get back to a specific interval training, I will add an extra rep. So far this training schedule has been going well, but I haven’t attempted any fast runs yet. However, when I do the parkrun, I feel very good, so I think it is working.  



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