How to write your weekly training schedule properly

Hi guys, I already explained some basic workouts, right?

But I have never told you how to write your weekly training schedule unless you have bought my product.

So, today I want to tell you how to design your weekly or monthly training schedule properly a bit for free.

First of all, the most important thing about designing your weekly or monthly training schedule is setting the optimal total training load. This is the most important thing.

There are many good workouts, but if the total training load is too high or too low, it doesn’t get you as fast as possible. In Japanese, there is a word ‘A drawn cake’, it looks tasty but you cannot eat it. Meaning, it looks good but it is useless.

There are many workouts so-called ‘Scientific proven workouts’. But again, if your total training load is too high or too low (especially too high), it doesn’t get you as fast as possible.

Before we dive into details, we should understand the difference between internal training load and external training load.

External training load is training load on paper.

For example, 16km at 3:20/km is 16km at 3:20/km pace no matter who does it. Or I would say 10 miles at 5:20/mile pace. 10 miles at 5:20/mile pace is 10 miles at 5:20/mile pace no matter who does it.

Meaning, the external load is the same no matter who does it.

However, how it impacts on someone’s body is different.

16km at 3:20/km run is definitely moderate run for a sub 2 hours marathoner while it is a hard run for me. After this workout, a sub 2 hours marathoner is still fine, he is not tired. Also, physiologically speaking, he breaths normally, his blood lactate concentration level is as high as at his rest state, in other words, at 2.0 mmol or less than that.

While I would be tired after the workout, I breath significantly harder than when I am jogging, you would hear the sound of my breathing and my blood lactate concentration level reaches at approximately 4.0 mmol.

The day after this workout, I would be still somehow tired and my legs do not move normally while the sub 2 marathoner is fine, he is ready to go for a hard workout.

This means, even if the external training load is the same, the internal training load is different.

And when we think about training, internal training load is much more important and this is the reason why we cannot get faster by copying someone’s training program 100%.

In fact, I’ve never asked someone to follow what I’m doing now. Never. I’ve coached more than 1000 amateur runners in the last 5 years and never asked even one runner to follow my training program or the training program which I did before.

Then how is the internal training load of a workout determined?

There are two factors.

The first factor is your capability as an athlete. In other words, how well you can perform on a race day now.

The second factor is your recovery ability as a person. In other words, how well and quickly you can recover from all loads which you get in this world.

And these two factors converge into the following two factors.

What is moderate volume (normal volume) for you and moderate intensity (normal intensity) for you.

What moderate volume is pretty easy.

If you divide your normal total running volume by days, you get your moderate volume.

Let’s say you usually run 300km a month. Then if we divide 300 into 30, we get 10. So, 10km a day is normal volume for you. The condition is if your body already adapts to that training volume.

Don’t say ‘My moderate volume is 10km a day because I ran 300km in the last month’. If it’s the first month of running 300km a month in your whole life, it could be high volume for your body.

But for example, if you run regularly 300km a month in the last 6 months, and now you feel that that volume is normal for you, you don’t get more and more tired, you don’t have any physical problems especially injuries, then it would be your moderate volume now.

By the way, when I say ‘300km a month training is a sweet spot for an amateur runner who wants to run a full marathon under 3 hours’, many beginners are shocked because it sounds as twice hard as they do now if they run only 150km a month.

But if you take proper steps, it’s not like that. If you take proper steps, you just as hard as you feel now because now 150km a month is moderate volume for you and 300km a month is mega volume for you now. But by the time you run 300km a month consistently over 6 months, it is moderate volume for you.

It’s just as hard as 150km a month running for your current body.

Then what if 900km a month training is moderate volume for you? Is it just as hard as 150km a month training for you now?

My answer is yes. Now, I feel just as hard as when I ran 300km a month regularly.

But the more we run, the more other factors affect our body like how old we are, what kind of job we do, how good mood your wife is in, how well my current business goes, whether I owe Yakuza money or something like that.

But now, you know the basic idea of moderate volume, right?

Then what is moderate intensity?

Moderate intensity is the fastest pace which you can run without feeling hard subjectively and that pace is very close to or same as the fastest pace without using anaerobic metabolism.

In other words, the fastest pace which you do not hear the sound of your breathing. Once you hear the sound of your breath, you already use anaerobic metabolism. Or once you subjectively feel hard or uncomfortable to the intensity, it is not moderate pace anymore.

Many people say ‘If I run 20km, I feel hard even if the pace is not so fast. There is no 20km moderate run’. But in this case, you don’t understand the difference between moderate volume and moderate intensity. Even if you run with moderate intensity, if the volume is high for you, you feel hard. But it’s not because the intensity is high, but the volume is high.

So, first of all, we need to know what moderate volume and what moderate intensity for us. This is the first thing we need to know. And once we know these things, the rest is not complicated.

All we need to do is a simple math. Even me who is bad at mathematics (Did you think all Japanese are good at mathematics? Hell no. If I am good at mathematics, I would earn ten times more than I do now, haha), this calculation is very simple.

We set moderate volume and moderate intensity as the zero point and high volume and high intensity are plus 1 and low volume and low intensity are minus 1 and we combine it.

For example, if your moderate intensity is 5:00/km and moderate volume is 10km a day, 10km at 5:00/km run is completely 0 training for you.

10km at 4:30/km run is moderate volume and high intensity, so plus 1.

20km at 5:00/km run is high volume and moderate intensity, so plus 1.

10km at 6:00/km run is low intensity and moderate volume, so minus 1.

6km at 6:00/km run is low intensity and low volume, so minus 2.

If you start with 6:00/km pace and increase the pace to 4:50/km and make the average pace 5:20/km in 10km run, it would be moderate volume and easy to moderate intensity, so it is minus 0.5.

If you start with 5:00/km and increase the pace up to 4:30/km and make the average 4:45/km in 10km, that is moderate volume and moderate to high intensity, so it is plus 0.5.

What about no training at all?

No running is low intensity and low volume, so minus 2.

Also, if we think about training in this way, we will know why the total volume of running is very important.

What about 15x1km with 1 minute recovery at half marathon race pace?

For me it is low volume and high intensity because my normal training is now 30km a day. Does that mean this training is 0?

Well, it is not that simple, but at least it is not high volume for me, so if I control the intensity properly, that training is plus 1 for my body.

While for most runners, it is high volume and high intensity, so plus 2.

What about 5x1000m with 200m jogging recovery at your 5000m race pace?

If you do 3km warm up and 3km cooling down, the total distance is approximately 12km.

If you run only 150km a month, it is also high intensity and high volume and it is already plus 2.

Also, I know that this calculation is not perfect. The reason is pretty simple.

If the moderate volume is 10km a day and my moderate volume is 20km a day, 30km moderate run is moderate intensity and high volume for both of us.

However, it is only 10km more than my moderate volume while 20km more than your moderate volume, in this case the internal training load of this workout for you is higher than the internal training load of this workout for me.

So, I know that this calculation is not perfect.

However, we need to know that there are two types of mistakes in terms of setting the optimal training load.

The first mistake is theoretical mistake. Meaning, training plan itself is already wrong. Since the training plan itself is wrong, it would not work well no matter who does this. The only chance is, if you are stupid enough not to understand what the training program means, you could make an optimal training load by chance.

Other than that, it would not work well for the next million years.

And the second mistake is practical mistake. Meaning, your plan is good. There is no problem at all.

However, you would train slightly too hard in some workouts, then total training load is too high and as a result, you cannot get as fast as your effort. This is the second type of mistake which I’ve done over and over again.

You need experiences to get a proper training load finally. Without experience, you cannot be a good long distance runner. You need to pay attention to your physical sensation every day. You should remember your physical sensation.

If you understand the feeling of anemia, next time you’ll notice that you have anemia now and take action to solve the problem as soon as possible. It’s just like that.

My simple calculation cannot prevent the second type of mistake. But this simple calculation can solve the first mistake completely.

And always, the total internal training load should be 0 or minus. The idea is slightly minus, like minus 1-3 monthly.

The basic idea is pretty simple. You train, recover and adapt to the stimulus. For achieving this, at least the total number should be 0 and ideally slightly minus because our bodies need extra biological energy for our positive transformation, so-called adaptation in a physiological term.

I think now you already understood what I meant.

But just in case, I’ll give you an example. Let’s hypothesize that your moderate volume is 10km a day and your moderate intensity is 5:00/km.

Monday 10km moderate run 0

Tuesday 3km warm up/10x400m with 200m jogging recovery at your 3000m race pace/cooling down 3km +1

Wednesday 6km easy run -2

Thursday 10km moderate run 0

Friday 10km moderate run 0

Saturday 20km moderate run +1

Sunday 6km easy run -2

The total training load -2

Again, in this real world, other factors like how hard we work affect our bodies and the internal training load is not determined as simple as my theory.

However, the most important thing is, we can know what the optimal training load looks like and we are not very far from the optimal training load. To understand this more, I’ll give you my training in a week in the past as an example.

Let’s hypothesize that your moderate volume is 10km a day and moderate intensity is 5:00/km

Monday 20km at 3:30/km +2

Tuesday 20x400m with 200m jogging recovery at 68 average +2

Wednesday 20km easy run at 4:40/km +1

Thursday 10x1000m with 400m jogging recovery 3:00-2:55/km +2

Friday 15km easy at 4:40/km +1

Saturday 35km at 3:40/km +2

Sunday 10km easy at 4:40/km +1

The total training load +11

You see?

On a logical level, this training program is very bad for you. Very very bad and there’s nowway to recover well and adapt to the training stimulus. You’ll never get faster in a million years if you copy my training schedule.

Also, if you understand the above thing, you’ll understand how important it is to increase the moderate volume and moderate intensity step by step in a long term vision at the same time.

Remember, Rome cannot be created in one week.

Lastly, if you want to learn more about how to run faster, please click here to download my ebook ‘Three things you should know to get faster dramatically without any injuries and overtraining.

Thank you for watching!