Joggling Goals Without Plans are Just Dreams

If you’re the goal setting type, you probably sat down and thought up all the things you want to accomplish this year. It should have been a fun exercise and now you have a piece of paper or digital display of all the great things you do in the coming months. So now what?

Planning your goals

The last few marathons I haven’t really followed a formal plan. I kept track of my joggling distances, times, etc. but my plan was a vague mileage target with some random speed and distance workouts thrown in. Well, for the London marathon I’ll try a different strategy. I’ll follow a plan. And that plan will be an adaptation of the one found in Jack Daniels’ Running Formula book.

Steps to creating a running plan

Ideally, you could just follow the plan in the book. Unfortunately, I never seem to have the number of weeks before training. Both of Daniels’ marathon training programs require 24 weeks. For the London Marathon, I’ve got 14 weeks.

Step 1 – Figure out how much time you have until the race.
Step 2 – Figure out your time goal and target paces.
Step 3 – Modify the program according to the time you’ve got left.
Step 4 – Write it down.
Step 5 – Eat better, follow the tips on getting faster, and follow your plan.

Alright, so as I said I’ve got 13 weeks until the marathon. That means each phase gets 3 weeks. (Read this for a description of the running phases.) Since I have one week left over, I’ll add one to the hardest phase…phase 3.

So, my joggling schedule will look roughly like this. Training will officially start Monday, January 7, 2008.

Phase I – Building the foundation

Week 1 – 30 miles
Week 2 – 33 miles
Week 3 – 38 miles

Phase II – Early quality – work on form, mechanics, and some speed

Week 4 – 45 miles
Week 5 – 52 miles
Week 6 – 42 miles

Phase III – Transition quality -build speed and generally kick your ass

Week 7 – 58 miles
Week 8 – 54 miles
Week 9 – 54 miles
Week 10 -42 miles

Phase IV – Final quality and tapering

Week 11 – 60 miles
Week 12 – 36 miles
Week 13 – 30 miles
Week 14 – 52 (with marathon miles)

I’ve even put together a spreadsheet to track my workouts for the day (along with the 77 other goals I’ve got.) This will be a busy year.

Joggle on.