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<h1>My Winter 2023 Training Plan</h1>
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<em>Written on <timedatetime="2023-11-06">November 6<sup>th</sup>, 2023</time>, by Andrew Lalis.</em>
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<h2>My Previous Approach</h2>
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Previously, I'd had access to a gym that I could bike to in around 8 minutes, which meant that I used to go to the gym pretty much 7 days a week, for at least an hour each day. I'd be able to run pretty complex programs, including a 7-day full-body split which I actually really liked. Despite what intuition might say, I didn't get fatigued, but instead learned precisely my tolerance and recovery rates, and in general it felt like the way to go.
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With that training schedule, and with living in the Netherlands (which has the cold, dreary rainy weather much like the UK), I gave up running for the most part, or only pursued it in short bouts of a few months before giving up again. My focus was almost entirely on building strength and muscle. But now that I've moved (back) to Florida, the decent weather and inadequate urban planning are forcing me to change my approach to fitness.
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<h2>The New Approach to Endurance Training</h2>
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With regards to my running career, I've gone and done what most beginners do: signed up for a number of runs that are probably beyond my capabilities, in the hopes that I'll force myself to train adequately for them.
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Starting with a 10K race on the 11<sup>th</sup> of November, and a half-marathon (21K) on the 20<sup>th</sup> of January next year, I'll be pushing my limits for distance runs at a somewhat competitive pace. As of writing, my 10K pace in training stands at roughly 5:50min/Km, which compared to my old times is quite abysmal, but I weigh around 30 kilos more than I used to; at least, that's part of my excuse. As for the half-marathon, well, I've technically ran that distance only a handful of times in the past, and never in Florida's heat. I've been trying to work my way towards it, but I always end up walking the final few kilometers.
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My plan to improve my endurance will consist of a mixture of long-distance and short-distance runs, each with varying intensity. The weekly training will look something like this:
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<li>~ 2 long runs at a slow pace.</li>
<li>1 to 2 short runs at a slow pace (not as slow as the long runs).</li>
<li>1 day of speed work.</li>
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I'll keep a rough estimate of my weekly volume, so that I can slowly increment the distance of my long runs to meet the requirements of upcoming races. Hopefully this approach is a lot more sustainable compared to my previous sporadic pattern of running.
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I'm also slowly losing weight, starting from roughly 100kg, and hopefully going down to somewhere around 70kg in a matter of months.
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<h2>The New Powerlifting Approach</h2>
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Because of my focus on endurance running, my gym/lifting is taking second-priority. But that doesn't mean I'm quitting altogether. Instead, I'm going to focus on going into the gym once in a while for an extremely intense workout, with an emphasis on strength training.
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I'm planning on doing a workout around once a week, with that workout including all of the basics for each muscle group. Most of the time, I'll start with heavy deadlifts, followed by bench press, and then squats.
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I'll be tracking my workouts, but I don't expect to make any gains at all while I'm working on my endurance, and in fact I expect to see some pretty extreme losses in strength, but I'm okay with that.
