Time Investment in Training

Investment of Time
The biggest thing I hadn't comprehended is the investment in time required to maintain a training plan.
I am trying to fit in 3 sessions per week, a Road Run of up to 1 hour, a Treadmill session of up to 40 min's followed by a 20 minute Swim and thirdly a 5km Run (sometimes parkrun). All of these individually take longer than the activity alone suggests.
It is also amazing how many weeks for some reason 3 activities is difficult to maintain. Illness and injury can be an issue but holidays, weekends away, extra work and social demands have a surprisingly large impact.

50 Minute Road Run
Work up to it, have a drink, put on running gear.
2 x 5 mins warm up and cool down stride walk added on to 50 mins actual activity.
On return home, drink, stretch, shower and dress.
Total, approx  1hr 30min.

Gym and Swim
Work up to it, have a drink, find everything and pack bag.
10 mins each way drive.
Sign in, change into run gear, up to 50mins on treadmill including 5min warm up and cool down.
Change from running gear to swimming, 20 mins in pool, stretch, shower and change.
Total, approx 1hr 40min.

5km Run
Work up to it, have a drink, put on running gear.
Approx 30 min running plus 5 mins warm up and cool down stride walks
On return home, drink, stretch, shower and dress.
Total, approx 1hr 10min.   (* If parkrun, add 20 mins return journey to this.)

Additional Injury Time
Due to my still recovering achilles, I frequently feel it necessary to apply a cold pack after the run adding a further 20 minutes to above figures.

Training Plan Overheads
It has to be said that I am a bit anal in this area. It shows that I like mucking about with data and it costs much more time than in needs to.

MS Excel
I plan my training and record all my activities including interval speed, duration and distance. From this I can see my overall pace, distance and run-walk ratio. I enter actual performance after each activity from Runkeeper GPS record. All this data allows me to forward plan and monitor progress.
If I plan to run 3 x 15 min and walk 2 x 2 mins I can input this with my known paces and see exactly how far I will go in distance allowing me to plan a pleasant route on Google Maps rather than randomly extending or cutting short my route whilst out.

Runkeeper
Before each run I will input my interval plan, e.g. run 3 x 15 min with 2 min recovery walks. Runkeeper then gives me audio prompts and records my actual performance.
After each GPS recorded activity, I update Runkeeper comments on the web. In the case of the Gym activities I manually input my performance on the treadmill and in the pool.

Bupa Great Run
Totally unnecessary but I also manually add all activities completed to the Bupa Great Run training plan.

  
Running for St. Ann's Hospice in memory of Margaret Donovan (Mum) and Sheila Waddington.

I Have A Plan

I am now running 5km easily at a low pace and with planned walk intervals.
With 2.5 months remaining to prepare for my 10km in under 60 minutes, this is the plan for the next few weeks .....

The Plan
3 Training Sessions per week: Road; Treadmill plus Swim; 5km/parkrun.

Road
Gradually increase time out toward 1 hour whilst decreasing walk/run ratio. Keep speed at jog pace and concentrate on keeping HR controlled.

Gym
Keeping to approx 40 min treadmill sessions, decrease walk/run ratio and start to up run speed slowly. Follow by 20 lengths swim (0.4km).

5km / parkrun
 Using 5km as base distance and some weeks taking part in a parkrun; decrease walk/run ratio dropping from 2 walk intervals to one and then continuous. Once comfortable, begin increasing speed to a good 60min 10km pace and maintain.

  
Running for St. Ann's Hospice in memory of Margaret Donovan (Mum) and Sheila Waddington.

Incapacitated

Feeling The Burn
After my first parkrun a little over a week ago, I initially felt fine but by evening my throat and the top of chest were burning and I was coughing viciously. I couldn't understand how I could react so badly and I continued to worsen through Sunday.
All was explained on Monday when it was quite clear that I'd picked up a virus with jelly legs and feeling drained and ill in addition to the now violent coughing fits. By Monday, my wife was clearly following with the cough and, sure enough, was off work the next day and the rest of the week.
We had gone into Manchester for a meal and theatre on Friday night so guess we picked up something either there or on the public transport.

A Week I'll Never Get Back
A full week of illness followed for both of us with virtually no sleep and agonising coughing fits. Everything stopped other than consumption of  Lemsip, Honey, Lemon, Ginger, Paracetamol, Benelyn & Ribena, no work and certainly no training.

Another Monday
The aches had finally gone and apart from the now less vicious cough and a running nose I did actually no longer feel ill.
I nipped out for a 4km jog Monday afternoon which went OK though left me very tired.  Tuesday, I tried again and, again, it went OK but I was clearly not recovered yet. 9 full hours sleep Tuesday night!

So, yet again I have lost a week in my training plan and having had to step back a little from where I'd already reached. Hoping for a Treadmill & Swim session tomorrow, If only I could see the back of this cough. I think it's going to be a while before I'm completely right again.


  
Running for St. Ann's Hospice in memory of Margaret Donovan (Mum) and Sheila Waddington.