Training plan

That hydration tip worked really well - last night's run was my fastest so far. However, I don't think I left it long enough after drinking as I could feel water sloshing about while I was running - quite uncomfortable.

I have been giving some thought recently to my training plan. Up to now, I have just been concentrating on running and on increasing my mileage, but more experienced runners have told me that it helps with to have a goal in mind and a plan on how to get there.

There are lots of standard training plans in books and on the web, but I find them all rather complicated and I fear this would make them hard to stick to. I decided therefore to create my own very simple plan, and here it is:

Phase 1 - run every other day, increasing mileage by 0.25 miles every three runs, until I can run 3 mi (5 km). This should be about three weeks from now.

Phase 2 - run every other day, on a pattern of Short Run/ Rest/ Medium Run/ Rest/ (repeat). The short run will stay at 3 mi, and the long run will progressively increase by 0.25 miles each run until I reach 6 mi (10 km). This should take until the middle of September.

There is a local 10K race coming up at the end of September - the Mortimer 10K. I haven't registered yet as I decided to wait until I can run 3 miles before doing so.

Phase 3 - investigating using minimalist shoes and a barefoot running style. For this I will stick with the same schedule as for Phase 2, and gradually increase the distance run in the minimal shoes until I am doing all my runs in them, or until I decide that they are not going to work for me. This should take until the end of 2011.

Phase 4 - switch to a more traditional weekly schedule: Mon - rest/ Tue - short run/ Wed - medium run/ Thu - short run/ Fri - rest/ Sat - medium run/ Sun - long run.

The long run will be twice the length of the medium run, which in turn will be twice the length of the short run. Gradually build up the long run until it is around 10-12 miles (25-30 mi per week). Should take until March.

At this point I hope to do the Reading half-marathon. Again, I haven't booked this yet, as I wanted to get to the point where I can run 10K first.

Phase 5 - gradually increase my weekly mileage as far as I can, adding a mile onto the long run each week, half a mile onto the medium runs, and a quarter mile onto the short runs. Overtraining will mean dropping back a week, and injuries will mean taking a break and dropping back a number of weeks equal to the break.

I prefer the idea of building up my base like this, rather than doing one of the standard training programmes, as I don't want races to be the main focus of my training, which is more about getting in shape than achieving fast times.

We have a local trail marathon/half-marathon in May - the Neolithic. I will try to do whichever one of these seems most appropriate, based on my weekly mileage at the time.