Running training program for the Ottawa Marathon, January

How's training after the holidays?

New for our 2016 plans! To make it even easier to program workouts, we will be testing for the rest of this program a new way of indicating the speed to be maintained during the workout. The fact remains that this program is designed for an intermediate to advanced person who seeks to optimize his performance over 10km, 21k or marathon. If your goal is to complete a 10km for the first time, this program is probably not for you. If this is your case, we suggest you look at the side of the Corporate Challenge or our ebook "My first 5 km". 

We offer you a new way of naming the different speeds, especially during interval sessions. We are abandoning the different zones V1, V2, V3, V4,… From now on you will rather see V1 ′, V2 ′, V5 ′,…

What does "V1 ′" mean? This means that you have to run at the speed that you would be able to handle for a minute.

What does "V60 ′" mean? This means that you have to run at the speed that you would be able to handle for 60 minutes.

Why this change? Because depending on the training, when working with% VAM, as before, it was difficult to give a precise speed, because the VAM was fair enough to assess relatively short efforts, but for longer training it became imprecise , because endurance came into play.

We could therefore have used the competition speeds. For example, suggest you run 3 x 2 km at a speed of 10 km. Except that for some people 10 km takes 35 minutes while for others 10 km takes 75 minutes. If we give this same training to 2 people, one will have run a total of 6 km at a speed that it can hold 35 minutes, while the other will have run 6 km at a speed that it can hold 75 minutes . Relative to his potential, this second person will be much less in demand.

This is why we are offering and testing this new system:

ex_zones

The goal is that no matter what your caliber, you can use a speed that is more individualized to you. The first workouts will be an adjustment and that's normal. Don't worry, you have plenty of time before your competition.

If you are wondering what speed you should be running, try imagining the workout. For example, in the first workout on Tuesday, you should run for 30 seconds at a speed that you would be able to sustain for 3 minutes. First, try to imagine the speed you should be able to maintain if you exerted a maximum of 3 minutes. Then, try to complete the workout at the speed you intended.

 

Program_January_2016

NB: The days off are adjustable according to your schedule and the long Sunday outing can also be changed to Saturday if you prefer. The key workouts you should not miss are those on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday (as shown on the map).

We take this opportunity to invite runners from Quebec who would like to share training in a motivating context with a group inside. See runningafoot.ca/club for more information.!!!rsz_logo_5

We want to hear from you!

  • How do you find this new plan?
  • What topic would you like to read us about next week?
author avatar
Mathieu boucher
Involved from near and far since the start of Groupe Défis, Mathieu has a keen interest in health. Holder of a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Laval University, he is particularly interested in injury prevention, health and trail running.

4 thoughts on “Ottawa Marathon Running Training Plan, January”

  1. Hello thank you for the program. Two comments. 1 It would be nice to indicate the total duration of Thursday and Tuesday without having to calculate it ourselves. 2. I understand the principle of new times but it comes back to the same thing because we run at a certain speed ...

    Reply
  2. Item suggestion. Let's say that a runner like me uses the program and that he has no time constraint or injury. How can he adjust the program to make it more personalized? eg in which case it would be better to increase the intervals? In which case, long rides should be longer (or shorter). Which element is more crucial to adjust in order to personalize it? Etc.

    Reply

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