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Begin with the End in Mind

Adam Hodges | November 28, 2022

Guide to Creating Your Training Plan Begin with the End in Mind

Your goals ultimately drive the training program you will create for yourself. So what are your goals? What do you want to achieve this year, next year, and beyond?

You’re here right now because there’s a race or adventure on the horizon that you’ve decided to target. And to set yourself up for success, you know you need to put in some training between now and then. You need a training plan to help you prepare.

The first step to creating your training plan is to define those goals on the horizon. Your goals might include a race, an organized event, a personal adventure, or even a non-competitive performance objective.

Take a moment to look ahead and prioritize the pursuits you want to target. These are the races, events, or adventures that you will build your training program around. What is your top priority? What are other important, but not necessarily top, priorities?

Create a list of your priorities and label them A-priority, B-priority, and C-priority using these guidelines:

A-priority: These are the most important races of your season (usually 1-3 events). You will design your training program around the top-priority event(s) to help you arrive in peak form. If you have more than one A-priority event, these will ideally either occur together within a time period of two to three weeks or be separated by a few months or more.

B-priority: These are races of lesser importance. You still want to do well at them and you will work a few extra days of rest into your training plan so you can be competitive, but you won’t go into them in peak form as you would with your A-priority events.

C-priority: These are events that you will “train through,” working them into your regular training schedule. They will be done as field tests or hard workouts, maybe to gain experience, to have fun, or to enjoy the camaraderie of an organized group event. Deciding whether or not to do one of these races may be left up to the week (or day) of the event, taking into account a variety of factors relevant to your training at that point.

Once you’ve completed this prioritization exercise, you will have a high-level view of where you want to go. With those end destinations in mind, the next step is to work backwards to create your training plan.

Ready to design your plan?

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Knowledge Check: Prioritize Your Pursuits
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About Adam Hodges

Adam Hodges, PhD, is a trail runner, mountain endurance athlete, and coach with credentials from the United Endurance Sports Coaching Academy (UESCA), USA Triathlon (USAT), and the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). In addition to coaching multisport athletes, he has coached high school cross country and track runners in California and masters swimmers in Colorado and California. As a USAT All-American triathlete, he has competed in the ITU World Triathlon Championships, the ITU World Duathlon Championships, and the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii. As a masters runner, he has won a series title in the XTERRA SoCal Trail Series. His current pursuits include trail running, climbing, mountaineering, skimo, and cross-country skiing. Check out his training plans and courses to help you prepare for you next adventure.

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