049 😵‍💫 Training plans suck…

..for me!

Welcome to my email newsletter 'Never not [thinking about] running' - a more or less weekly newsletter about running and mental health. If you haven't subscribed yet and you're not sure whether you really want to receive an e-mail from me, have a look at the archive. Today's newsletter is about training plans. They are usually the way to success in running. Everyone does one! So it must be the key!

Last year was a more than average year for me in terms of running. My big goal was a UTMB race in May. A race completely out of my comfort zone. 32 kilometers, 1200 vertical meters, in a different country, at a time of year when I'm far from my best form. That was the plan. A challenge. Pushing boundaries and all that. You know the concept. So I sat down at the beginning of the year and developed a plan on how I could do it. Taking enough time, planning breaks, expecting the unexpected, space for skipping a session, taking the time to achieve the big goal. This plan - commonly referred to as a training plan - failed miserably. And not for the first time, because training plans don't work for me.

Training plans are the key to success!

You're probably wondering why the training plan didn't work. Everyone uses a training plan like this. “The 12-week plan to master distance XY.” Google that. I think you'll rarely find examples of failure in this area. Sure, everyone has had to miss a week due to illness, or modify something here and there, but on the whole the plan works for most people. But why not for me?

When I do a bit of research into why such a training plan might not work, there are the classic and perfectly legitimate reasons.

1. Rigidity vs. Flexibility – Training plans often don’t account for life’s unpredictability, which can lead to guilt or frustration when you miss a session.

2. The Mental Load of Structure – Sticking to a strict plan can feel mentally exhausting rather than motivating, making running feel like a chore rather than an outlet.

3. Ignoring Your Body’s Signals – Training plans may push you to follow a schedule instead of listening to what your body actually needs, leading to burnout or injury.

4. Performance Anxiety – The pressure to hit specific paces or distances can take the joy out of running, turning it into another source of stress.

5. Comparing Yourself to the "Ideal" Runner – Following a plan designed for a generic athlete can make you feel like you’re failing when you don’t progress as expected.

6. The Joy of Running Freely – Exploring the mental health benefits of intuitive running—running when, how, and for as long as you feel like, instead of adhering to a schedule.

And yes - some of these points also apply to me. For example, when I look at last year and the UTMB plan (you can do this here), I see that everything went according to plan for four weeks, but then the first illness crept in and threw everything into disarray (point 1). The plan should have been constantly adjusted backwards, but instead I just started at the point where I should have been. Stupid as I am, I could perhaps have factored in 1.5 weeks of downtime. I did a bit, but not enough, so I was soon sick again (point 3).

Furthermore, a fixed plan always stresses me out, because what's in the plan has to be done, otherwise it won't work (point 2). I'm actually the type of person who doesn't go home from the office until the desk is ideally empty and the to-do list has been ticked off, and it's the same with training plans. If there's an interval session on Thursday, I'll do it. The long run on Saturday. Okay, exceptionally also on Sunday, but on Monday it continues according to plan.

Why do I fail?

And this stress usually results in failure for me. This has probably happened 3-4 times before major races. Incidentally, always competitions in the half marathon to marathon range. Outside my comfort zone and always bearing in mind that I'm not just going to tear it off, but have to be prepared accordingly. With a training plan.

And how do I succeed?

That all sounds pretty stressful. But there's also the other part of my running life and that's the “I don't need a training plan” type, just “guard rails” to keep me on track. I always write here that competitions over 10 kilometers are outside my comfort zone, but if I'm honest, I should admit to myself that even 5-kilometer races and their preparation are anything but always feel-good days. If you want to do well in this area, you have to let it rip in training and a race like this is anything but a pleasure run.

But I like it and I also like preparing for a 5K season, which, funnily enough, as I said before, is only shaped by these guard rails. I manage well with a maximum of 40-70 training kilometers, I usually run 1-2 intensive units per week, a longer run and a recovery run and that's it. The order doesn't really matter, nor do the days. If I feel like it, I sometimes run 25 kilometers instead of 15. If I feel bad the next day, I do a recovery run and otherwise I skip the session. I look at myself and feel into my body and that works for me. The results, especially from the season before last, speak for themselves and the best thing is that I had an incredible amount of fun. Fun that I often didn't have during training plans.

So, no training plan this year. More fun. Better results. What about you? Do you need a plan? Can you let a plan be a plan?

Mental health update

I try to keep at the moment a bit out of the newsletter, because the first two months were pretty rough and I want to keep these newsletters a bit more positive. Maybe more of it in a few weeks.

Running update

Did my second of 12 5k-runs under competitive conditions. I’ll put them here. Last two weeks were pretty good. Getting back to consistent running.

The end:

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