Training for long term goals

[MikeH]

Looking for a bit of wisdom from some of the more training focussed runners on the forum.

Basically I came to fell running from a climbing background with the aim of completing the Saunders. Well I ticked that box this year and will definitely be doing a couple more MM's next year.

So what to do next? Well the next goals are the BG and MDS (2011) both of these are understandably quite long term goals.

The question is how do you stay focused on such long term goals? The obvious thing is to obviously have some short/medium term goals to focus on in order to build up to the bigger prize.

Thinking in terms of the MDS, thats roughly 900 days away. Doesn't sound much when you put it like that!

My initial thinking was to break this down in to 12 week cycles. However I'm wondering if 12 weeks is too long for an individual cycle and also how I should be structuring these cycles when placed in succession.

At the moment I'm generally only running 3 times a week:

M - Hills/Intervals
T - Rest/Cycle commute to work (25 miles)
W - Tempo
T - Rest/Cycle commute to work (25 miles)
F - Rest
S - Long Run
S - Climb

I guess really I'm getting in to sports science stuff which I'm blissfully unaware of.

[Stagger]

Just try and do one AL or BL per month to keep you ticking over.
Enjoy your running and focus on the big events closer to the time.
What works for others may not work for you. Its something you have to work out on your own.

[Al Fowler]

And also, if you think about it...this year seems to have flown past....so theres no reason why 2011 may come quicker than you think....so theres that to keep you motivated.

[CL]

Looking for a bit of wisdom from some of the more training focussed runners on the forum.

Basically I came to fell running from a climbing background with the aim of completing the Saunders. Well I ticked that box this year and will definitely be doing a couple more MM's next year.

So what to do next? Well the next goals are the BG and MDS (2011) both of these are understandably quite long term goals.

The question is how do you stay focused on such long term goals? The obvious thing is to obviously have some short/medium term goals to focus on in order to build up to the bigger prize.

Thinking in terms of the MDS, thats roughly 900 days away. Doesn't sound much when you put it like that!

My initial thinking was to break this down in to 12 week cycles. However I'm wondering if 12 weeks is too long for an individual cycle and also how I should be structuring these cycles when placed in succession.

At the moment I'm generally only running 3 times a week:

M - Hills/Intervals
T - Rest/Cycle commute to work (25 miles)
W - Tempo
T - Rest/Cycle commute to work (25 miles)
F - Rest
S - Long Run
S - Climb

I guess really I'm getting in to sports science stuff which I'm blissfully unaware of.

Mike H it doesn't take 3 years to train for BG and MDS. A friend of mine got round the BG off about 30miles per week. He's mentally very strong though.

If you can complete the Saunders you can also complete the others. You just have to go slow enough.

Not my cup of tea though.