{"id":29209,"date":"2010-08-29T01:00:55","date_gmt":"2010-08-29T06:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/?p=29209"},"modified":"2010-08-27T15:17:44","modified_gmt":"2010-08-27T20:17:44","slug":"how-to-choose-a-training-plan-that-works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/08\/how-to-choose-a-training-plan-that-works\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Choose a Training Plan That Works"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Jess Milcetich is a runner striving to maintain a healthy lifestyle  while working 40+ hours per week and trying to balance a social life.  You can follow her training and fitness adventures at <a title=\"jess runs\" href=\"http:\/\/www.JessRuns.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">JessRuns.com<\/a> and  on Twitter @run_girl_run.<a title=\"jess milcetich\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/08\/how-to-choose-a-training-plan-that-works\/\" target=\"_self\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-29210\" title=\"jess Milcetich\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/jess-Milcetich.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"188\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>When I was training for my first marathon, I didn\u2019t do any research on training plans or consider my schedule demands. I picked the first plan I found&#8211;one in <a title=\"prevention magazine\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/tag\/prevention\/\" target=\"_self\">Prevention magazine<\/a>, which luckily for me was geared toward beginners.<\/p>\n<p>I survived training and did well in the race, but since then I\u2019ve gotten a lot smarter about picking my training plans. Here\u2019s how you can find a plan that you\u2019ll stick with:<\/p>\n<p>1. Get a blank calendar and write down your current time commitments and the hours they occupy each day of the week. Do you work 9-5? Do you need to get your kids to school at 8 a.m. and pick them up at 3 p.m.? Write down the times you know you absolutely cannot workout. <!--more--><\/p>\n<p>2. Look at the time left over. Do you see a few free hours? If not, could you make some free time by waking up earlier or working out over your lunch break? All you need to find is one hour a couple times during the week and a few hours over the weekend.<\/p>\n<p>3. Once you&#8217;ve blocked off work out times, make sure you still have at least 30 minutes each day for down time to relax and decompress. No training plan will stick if you&#8217;re running yourself into the ground and not getting time to take a break.<\/p>\n<p>4. Finally, research <a title=\"beginner fitness\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/tag\/beginners-guide-to-fitness\/\" target=\"_self\">beginner training plans<\/a> online to find one that works for you. I&#8217;ve had great success with plans from Runner&#8217;s World, Hal Higdon and Jeff Galloway, who specializes in run\/walk plans that are great for beginners.<\/p>\n<p>The key is flexibility. If one week you need to move a workout from a Monday to a Tuesday, that\u2019s OK. Find something that works with your life and schedule, and you will be much more likely to stick to it and get to the starting line prepared.<\/p>\n<p><strong>___________________________________________________<br \/>\nGuest Blog Series:<\/strong> Look for the following badge on your favorite health sites to see if they have been a featured guest blogger on <a title=\"diet reviews\" onclick=\"pageTracker._trackPageview('\/outbound\/article\/');\" href=\"..\/..\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>DietsInReview.com<\/em><\/a><em>. See other posts in the <\/em><a title=\"diet blog\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/category\/guest-blog\/\" target=\"_self\"><em>Guest Blog series<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><a style=\"margin: 0pt; padding: 0pt; width: 120px; height: 60px;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/category\/guest-blog\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/images\/diet-weight-loss-blogger.gif\" alt=\"Diets in Review - Weight Loss and Diet Blog\" \/><\/em><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>If you would like to apply to be featured as a guest blogger, please <\/em><a title=\"guest blog\" href=\"mailto:help@dietsinreview.com?subject=guest%20blogger%20application\" target=\"_blank\"><em>contact us<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jess Milcetich is a runner striving to maintain a healthy lifestyle while working 40+ hours per week and trying to balance a social life. You can follow her training and fitness adventures at JessRuns.com and on Twitter @run_girl_run. When I &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/08\/how-to-choose-a-training-plan-that-works\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[1086,23,3960,211],"class_list":["post-29209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fitness","tag-endurance-training","tag-guest-blog","tag-jess-milcetich","tag-running"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29209"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29212,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29209\/revisions\/29212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}