Plan Your Work

Over the past month Coach Erin and I have been getting contacted with greater frequency by athletes who are planning to compete in some type of endurance event this year. We’ve been seeing everything from running, rowing, adventures races and triathlons on tap for folks. Of course we couldn’t be more excited because we love to see athletes out competing and showing what they can do.

Within most of these emails, we get requests for us to help construct a training program. So in this article I’d like to cover from a high level some things to consider when laying out a training plan for an endurance event.

Establish a Goal – Like most undertakings, establishing a goal is a crucial first step. For beginning endurance athletes, your main objectives should include completing the race and having fun. As you gain experience through competing and understanding what your body can handle, then it may be time to get more ambitious and push yourself further and faster. Also when goal setting, consider how important this race is to you. Maybe you want to go all out and set a PR, or maybe family, career or other fitness goals are more important right now. There is no right answer but it’s important to establish a race’s priority before setting a goal and training.

Find Your Baseline – At the same time that you’re figuring out your goal, you should figure out where you are at right now. You should complete some type of baseline exercise so you can gauge what a solid goal would be. As an example, I’m competing in the 13.1 Chicago on June 4^th so prior to getting my training started I ran a 10 miler just to see where I stand. I then plugged my time into the McMillan Run Calculator (http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/mcmillanrunningcalculator.htm) . This showed me that based on my 10 mile time, what my half marathon would be right now. So between that baseline time and my previous race history I can put together a realistic time based goal. For someone who has never run a half marathon, her baseline may be seeing if she can run six miles right now. Then she will know if her training needs to be focused on just completing the race or if she seems to already have a good base and training can also focus on getting faster along with working up to 13.1.

Training – Now comes the tricky part of laying out your training program. There is no “one size fits all” program that works for everyone. You need to find out what combination of endurance sport specific workouts (interval, tempo and distance), CF workouts, other activities and rest days works best for you. Of course we’re here to assist you in the process by sharing our knowledge and asking key questions but in the end you need to be comfortable with your game plan. Yes, it’ll require some planning but it’ll be worth it.

Benchmarks – During my training program I routinely throw in “benchmark” workouts to check and see if my training is working. Right now I do this same workout monthly and my plan is to gradually reduce my times each benchmark workout leading up to the race. Not only does this give me something to work toward in the short-term but I can also see if the last month’s training worked or if I need to reevaluate my plan.

There are numerous other topics to get into when it comes to training for an endurance event. But as a start, the items above should be considered. If you have specific questions about endurance training or are interested in training with CrossFit Chicago Endurance please get in touch with Coach Erin or myself.

Mike Harris