I just wrapped up a five-week endurance training phase. My training phases are usually four weeks long, but after coming off an injury and needing to get ready for the Sage Burner 50k in October I decided to add another week on. I am happy with how my endurance training went. I held myself accountable and planned out my runs a the beginning of each week. There were a few days I did not do my scheduled workout, but that is ok. I was listening to my body and giving it the extra rest when it needed it.

To help break things up and not have nine weeks of endurance training, I added two weeks of tempo run training. Each week will consist of a two-hour endurance run, three tempo runs, one recovery run and two rest days. Since it is such a short phase I think it will be ok to have three days of tempo runs. If it does become too much I will adjust and may drop it down to two days a week.

My tempo run workout plan:

• 15-minute warm-up at endurance pace
• 4 x 8-minute tempo effort
• 4-minute recovery in between each tempo
• 15-minute cool-down at endurance pace

What are you training for?