Planning your year / season

Hello all, first post here.

I'm just intruiged to see how many of you go about planning your year in training etc. I started running in summer 2018 and since then really I've ended up training and racing most weeks, particularly this summer. I do keep a bit of a training schedule but its more on a weekly level so that I'm getting key sessions in an not overdoing it each week, which has worked fine for me so far.

Would just be interested to see if any of you structure your yearly training to peak at certain times of year etc.

Thanks,

Ricky

Generally I list which are my key target races and then plan other training races around these. I tend not to train up to the very long distances required for some of the long champs races, so if I want to do a champs long, I generally plan a few other longs in the build-up to that.

I probably should periodise my training more than this, but generally the challenge for me is just getting enough miles into my legs, so I focus on getting out more and enjoying my running.

I certainly run less in the winter (darkness, colds etc). So this means I normally get back to race fitness by April/May.

thanks, yeah i think having goal races helps slightly. Although i haven't really targeted racs much this year, i had an absolute nightmare at holme moss which is a long counter in our clubs fel champs. I'm aiming for a top 10 in our champs so I've spent the rest of the season since working on my distance running all geared around our final long counter which grin and bear it at the end of october. seems to be paying off though as I've hit a good run of form recently, lets just hope i haven't peaked too early haha.

Loosely, i was thinking of structuring the next year starting with short fell/trail & cross country races through the winter to keep the legs ticking over through winter and keep my speed up before building my endurance in the spring, with the aim to do a short ultra like the Haworth hobble or something in spring. summer will probably be about beasting myself on the hills so that i can go out and enjoy the classic big fell races and perhaps finish of the year off with another short ultra in October before winding down for winter again.

Any thoughts on this periodisation or am i trying to overcomplicate things?