Step Up, Dream Big

Think BIG! Dream BIG! We are constantly bombarded with feel-good sayings, and yet, sadly, we often fall by the wayside in striving to reach our dreams and goals.

The saddest creature is the runner who has put heart and soul into her training, yet is doomed to failure due to a lack of planning and not understanding the key role that periodisation plays.

Planning and periodisation are the glue that keep your dreams alive and enable you to work systematically towards achieving your goal.

Back in the early 1980s, I vaguely understood the need for a Master Plan and I charted it on graph paper pasted to my wall (this was long before I owned a computer). My plan was breathtakingly simple. I had a clear goal – a sub-six hour at Comrades – with weekly mileages starting at 160km per week in January and increasing to 200km per week in April for a total of 3,200km from January.

But my Master Plan was also breathtakingly naïve. It did not allow for rest if I had races,