In this article I’m going to take you through a running plan that I setup for a client. Her goal was to run the local City to Surf (14 km) in 70 minutes. She had a total of 8 months to get ready for the run.
In training terms the whole 8 months is referred to as the Macrocycle. A macrocycle is made up of 4 different Mesocycles. They are: General preparation, Specific preparation, Pre-competition and Competition.

The General preparation phase is when you are simply building a solid foundation of fitness that can then progress onto specific training for the goal. It was held for 2 months.
Specific preparation is when you start adding specific things into the exercise program that are related to the end goal. In this example we added some hill running.
During the Pre-competition phase the aim is to be to actually running the goal length or even doing more.
During the competition phase you are simply maintaining all your fitness up until the day when you are going for your goal.

(click on the image above to view full size)

As you can see on the image above there are many components on the left hand side column. Now that you understand about the different types of mesocycles I am going to explain to you each of the components during each mesocycle.

General Preparation:

During this phase you should start out running a relatively small distance. The running goal was 4km and 6km (over two months).
The first month had no competition but the second month had a 5km time trial. A time trial is good to do early so that you can see your progress later on.
Aerobic exercise has a high importance whereas anaerobic exercise does not. Anaerobic exercise is when you get your body to exercise with a lack of oxygen in the muscles. It’s not very important with a long distance runner as it cannot be maintained for a lengthy period of time.
Technique is at a high importance during the early stages whilst speed is overlooked by the need to increase distance.
Some weight training and core stability training is essential to help build proper strength and a lot of time is spent stretching to help reduce injury risks.

Specific Preparation:

During the specific preparation phase the running distances start to become quite long and another time trial is held to see the progress made by the runner.
Aerobic exercise has a huge importance as hills are introduced to the running along with the larger volume of distance.
Anaerobic exercise has slightly more of an importance as it may be needed when running up the hills. Another thing that is also incredibly important is the technique for the hills.
Speed can start to be increased as it will be needed to eventually complete the 14km in 70 minutes.
Strength, core stability & flexibility should all be improved over this phase as they will help to reduce the risks of injury.
The specific preparation phase is generally the hardest because of the increased intensity and volume of running being done.

Pre-Competition:

During this phase the running distances are very high and the runner actually runs a distance longer than her goal. After this we drop down the distance a bit and just let the runner maintain their fitness knowing that they can achieve their goal.
Aerobic fitness is kept at a high priority during the whole of this phase while anaerobic fitness is simply maintained.
The runner should have perfected their technique by now and therefore no focus is required on it. Speed is focused on only slightly towards the end of this phase to ensure that the runner can complete the distance within the required time.
Strength and core stability need to have some focus in order to make sure the runner suffers no injuries into the lead up towards the competition. It is a fine line between doing the right amount of strength training and doing too much and tiring out the runners body. By overdoing strength training you can actually increase the risks of injury, so be careful.
Flexibility is maintained for the majority of this phase with a slight bit of a focus on improving it towards the end, just before the competition.

Competition:

Obviously during this phase everything is maintained as the runner gets ready to run the big race. It might be a good idea to do some work on the runners mentality. They’ve been building up towards this phase for a long time and it’s important to make sure they still have just as much motivation as ever.
It may be a good idea to have some massage therapy done to help loosen and relax all the tight and sore muscles.

So there you have it. A full Macrocycle. It is important to plan ahead. Often things will occur that are not within the plan, such as injuries. You need to make sure that you do not rush back from an injury. More often than not you won’t be able to resist the temptation and you’ll come back to early and the injury will re-occur.
Even more important than not coming back too early after an injury is to make sure you treat it properly. If your told to ice it every day until it heals then do it! I can’t stress this enough. Proper and thorough treatment can turn a 2 month injury into a 1 and 1/2 month injury.

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The above picture is an example of the first week of training. It includes not just the running schedule but also the weight training schedule.

So there you have it. In the end the client achieved her goal and completed the City to Surf run of 14 km in 70 minutes. The same sort of schedule can be used to help you to achieve your goal.
By writing out a plan and developing a weekly schedule it will help you to stick to your goals and achieve them.