Training, Week Commencing Monday 11th October

I had no race this week so have decided to give a little idea of my training. While I've been involved in the sport of athletics for a few years, there has been a lot of trial and error, good points, bad points and inconsistency. It is only over the last 2 years or so I have pulled things together on a consistent enough basis to achieve real notable results. I have always done the necessary training at some point or another but not as regularly as required. Lifestyle factors, such as university and work commitments, have had a lot to do with that.

Week beginning Monday 11th October is about as close to what I would call a "typical" training week. I begin counting the mileage on a Monday purely because the training diary I use is set out that way.

Monday- a track session of some description with the club. More endurance based in the winter and shorter, faster reps in the summer. Tonight was 10 x 500m with 200m jog recoveries. Warm up was an easy 2 miles on the road and warm down a gentle mile or so on grass. Rep times ranged from 85-88 seconds.

Tuesday- easy run. I try to get down to the club for this since I prefer to have company as much as possible. Distance ranges from 6-9 miles. Tonight was 9.5-10 miles easy from the house since I wanted to watch the Scotland v Spain footie match on Sky Sports.

Wednesday- tempo run, longer in winter and shorter in summer. Last winter, I got up to as much as 10 miles for a tempo run with a short jog warm down afterwards, giving me almost 11 miles overall. Just now I've been doing 8 miles with a 2 mile warm down. I did this tonight. I'll get the tempo part up to 10 again in due course.

Thursday- last winter this was mainly hill reps with the club. In the summer, it was road reps of some sort. I feel I didn't handle the cross country conditions at Rouken Glen very well so I did a cross country hill session on a circuit near the house called the High Point, so called because it's the highest point in East Kilbride. My little circuit is 600-700m long and includes a steep climb up the High Point. I did 6 circuits with a short warm up and warm down. The whole session was only 5 miles in total but was high in effort.

Friday- rest. I usually need it by now.

Saturday- some sort of reps session or a race. After doing the McAndrew and West District relays in consecutive weeks, I opted to train this week. I did another cross country session, the Glasgow Endurance Session at Tolcross Park. These are arranged during the winter and are open to athletes from all clubs. A session is set, a coach times it, fairly simple. Today was 6-10 x 4 minute efforts on grass with 3 minute recoveries. The further I went, the better I felt so I completed all 10 reps. It was a big confidence boost.

Sunday- longer run. I mainly do these on my own but occasionally meet up with others. The start time depends on how wild or quiet Saturday night is. Today I got out fairly early by my standards, 10.15am. I've got a tried and trusted hilly out and back run to Whitelee Windfarm. I generally do something like 40-45 minutes out then high tempo back because it's mainly downhill heading home and perhaps a short jog warm down at the end. Today's was 42 minutes out, faster back and a 4 minute warm down, giving me 12.5-13 miles total. I do vary the route sometimes to keep things fresh.

All this gave me approximately 52 miles this week. I'm hoping to reach around 55 and even closer to 60 in the odd week this winter. This was one of my tougher weeks. Saturday 23rd October is the National Cross Country Relay at Cumbernauld. Things will be slightly different in the lead up with an easing off in mileage from Wednesday onwards. Hopefully it brings the desired results.