Do you plan your running?

[Runningversity]

Do you PLAN your running?

Those of you on the Running For Beginners course have a plan set out for your running. When you finish, it gives you guidance on how to continue making plans for the future. Everyone else, I hope you have your own running plan. This is important for a number of reasons:

• To keep it fun! If you do the same thing every time, you’ll get bored. Maybe choose a different route or try a faster session or slower, longer session.
• To keep it consistent. If you have a plan to follow, you are more likely to get out running regularly.
• To see what’s coming and give you the patience to stick to the plan.
• To see what’s been and see how far you’ve come! If you have a plan, it also becomes your journal and allows you to track your progression.

It’s a living thing

The plan isn’t something you follow blindly – it’s a guide. It should change constantly depending on how you are feeling. Whether you got enough recovery last week. Whether the rest of your life is really stressful for some reason. Speed days can become easy days and still be really valuable sessions. Easy days can become rest days. Or if something hurts, a whole week can be skipped, or replaced with cycling or walking.

Become your own coach

If you are planning your own runs or following a plan you found on the Internet, you need to become your own coach and assess yourself. Give yourself honest feedback. Even if your goal is not progression, but just keeping running fun, you need to check in with yourself every now and ask “Am I still enjoying this? What can I do to keep it that way?”

Ask for help

If you could do with more guidance on how to plan your runs, a running coach will help you understand your goals and plan with you how to achieve them. This is a two way feedback loop. You regularly tell your coach how the runs are going and the coach adjusts the plan for you accordingly. Ask Charles for more details about coaching here.

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