I’ve used the Nike Run Club training plan to prepare for a few marathons now and I reckon it’s a good way of training. The plan is in PDF format and suggests runs for each week. There’s also an HM plan (which I’m following at the moment) and there are probably others. One thing I like about it is the flexibility; because it’s a text file you can chose which runs to do and when (they simply suggest leaving at least a day between long and speed runs).
I suppose a big downside for me is that the paces are all in miles. However, I’ve produced a spreadsheet that gives everything in Km so I thought I’d share it here because I’m sure that some of you will find it useful.
Seems that I can’t upload the spreadsheet so a screenshot will have to do.
In what way? 🙂. You don’t have to use any plans or apps to run long, short, or somewhere in between😃. Running is ours to do how we please, which is what’s great about it 🥰
I’m disorganised though so a plan helps me get out the door 🙂🏃♀️
I meant that it’s probably less applicable to someone like Cmoi who’s running is more like that of a mountain goat than to that of lowland types like me!
I find the chart useful when I’m following an NRC plan and it’s handy as a guide to likely race times and paces. However, when I’m not training for a race, I tend to just go at my own pace (or that of the group if I’m not running solo).
SkiMonday and I have had some great chats previously on-forum about pacing. 😀 No, that's not code for arguments!
What I meant was that Mike's chart is super-useful for anyone who works in kms, as I do, and who runs by target pace numbers, which I don't, I run by effort. A straightforward road circuit from my home is about 3.7k and comes in around 90m elevation gain, first downhill then back uphill.
I don't want to say any more on a public forum about my reaction , but rest assured it's my problem, not Mike's fault or yours or anyone else's. 🤗
I’m with you on kms and running by effort. Being hopeless at numbers, particularly on the run, I prefer to run by feel. I can’t see my watch without me specs and can’t be arsed taking them on and off.
I am hoping my training runs will allow me to speed up on race day though. I hopefully won’t be hanging about on my winter marathon 😀🏃♀️
I find it handy to use pace as a guide although I judge by effort as well. I find effort especially useful for short intervals where the pace shown on my watch is really erratic, same goes for races, especially at the start! Pace seems to be more useful as a guide over longer periods.
Going up hills, I rely totally on perceived effort.
So far, the numbers on my watch are big enough for me to read without glasses which I’m sure makes it far more practical.
I think my basic Garmin comes in two sizes. My husband got me the smaller model based on my being a small person ☺️ It was second hand so not a disaster in the scheme of things. It’s one to bear in mind when I need a new one. It might see me out though 😀
I’m doing their marathon plan There’s coached guidance for each run on the plan using their phone app. I printed off the plan’s pages and there’s loads of space to write in your run results. You can run to the paper plan, or just with the app if you wish. Happy days
Thanks MW. I reckon their marathon plan was a major factor in shaving 40 minutes off my finishing time! I use the app for the speed runs because I find it really useful for telling me when to change pace. I also use it for some of the long runs (although not all the long runs on the marathon plan are covered by the app). As for the recovery runs, I tend to use club runs for that so I run those without the app.
I was slower on my last marathon but I blamed the wind for that
I used the app the other day for a speed intervals run but it must have been from the old days where you had to do the timings yourself 😤. I wasn’t prepared for that so I just ran 😀.
All the runs on the plan (apart from the above which was an 8km speed intervals run) have a coached run. I love them I was listening to Shalane Flanagan on yesterday’s run 😤🏃♀️
Thank you, that's really helpful. I'm planning to start the NRC marathon plan when the weather cools down, so this will be a useful reference and will hopefully help me to shift out of my current 'one speed fits all' approach.
This is brilliant. Thank you. As I’m still building my mileage (up to 6.5km now, a bit longer hopefully coming this weekend) I’m always hopelessly lost when Coach Bennett tells me to switch over to my half-marathon pace as I have no idea what that should be.
My other issue is that I run everything at my 5km pace so I’m always cream crackered by the end of longer runs. Hopefully this will give me a target pace to slow down to.
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Continuing the NRC programme
Updated NRC 10k Plan with Links
