My first post-marathon run was a good one. Slow and relaxed, while enjoying the smell of fallen leaves. Very few kinks in the muscles, and those were smoothed out as the run progressed.
Ran 4.6 miles @ 8:31/mile pace.
Paved roads.
Mostly flat.
Mid 50s, overcast.
Shorts, short sleeved shirt, cap.
I went ahead and registered for the Hyannis Marathon on February 22nd. The past few marathons I've run were done riding on the coattails of ultramarathon training, meaning lots of long runs, but very little or no speedwork, and always a little banged up. I'm really looking forward to the chance to do a marathon with marathon-specific training to see what I can do. Last time I did this was two years ago at Hyannis, and I blew it by trying to be a hero and going out way too fast and DNF'd just before mile 18. That lesson hopefully won't be forgotten this time around. If all goes well, I hope to BQ and that's the primary goal.
I've spent a lot of time the past week formulating my race plan. I'm going to try and be more disciplined in following a training schedule, and I've been pouring through the book Advanced Marathoning by Pete Pftizinger and Scott Douglas for ideas.
I'm going to follow the 18-week plan on 70 miles a week or less. It features six weeks of an endurance cycle, five weeks of a lactate threshold plus endurance cycle, four weeks of a race preparation cycle (emphasis on speed work), and a three week taper.
The only conflict is week one began this past week, and I'm still in recovery. However, I feel my aerobic base is pretty solid, so I'll just gradually incorporate the plan over the next two to three weeks while I'm recovering and go from there. I like this better than just going ahead and doing the 12-week plan, since it allows for more speed work.
I don't plan on following this plan exactly (unrealistic, especially if winter this year is similar to last year), but I do want it to be a solid guideline. The speed workouts and long runs, however, will have little to no room for negotiation.
I'm very much looking forward to this next journey. It's kind of nice to take a break of sorts form the ultramarathoning mindset and get back into the marathoning mindset, just for the change of pace (pun intended... short drum roll followed by a cymbal crash). This should also serve as a nice springboard into training for the Western States 100 in late June. Always nice when race schedules fall perfectly into place like that.
Comments and suggestions on my plan are welcome.
4 comments:
I have the same book Jamie and am currently looking for ideas myself. I'll have a look at the plan and get back to you.
I think my last training programme had too much speedwork spread over the entire schedule. I think i'll revert to the more traditional initial endurance build followed by race specific speedwork for my next marathon.
Glad to hear the legs are in good working order.
ps. my freind Adrian, who ran Amsterdam with me, lived in Hyannis for a while and at one stage metioned the Hyannis Marathon as a possible target - although I think Boston should be my first stateside marathon.
That is the same book I used to build all my marathon planning after my first and what I modified to make my ultra training. It is a goodie thats for sure.
I hope you get your BQ at Hyannis, cuz it would be awesome to see you at Boston! I have absolute faith in you!
Progression-to-tempo runs. A good weekly staple. I love them since they fit my mindset in the early hours:
1. Start out at an absolute shuffle ~9-10min/mile
2. Gradually and naturally increase your pace as the run continues until you feel the click.
3. Then maintain until you are feeling tired and back off to a slow pace to the finish.
Let the length of this run naturally increase week to week as your fitness improves. Keep measurement by the average pace over the entire run. This keeps you away from trying to figure out which part of the progression is MP (since a lot of the workout is faster than MP). Not looking at your splits during the run helps with this and keeps the pace natural and tuned to how the body is feeling on that particular day.
I have used these types of runs often and they optimize time spent running. They get masked in the log however. A look at my log shows a lot of 10 - 15 milers at ~ 7:30 pace but the workout itself was much different than the log reveals.
I've been a Pfitz man for years and he hasn't let me down yet. When I 1st started it, the toughest run was always that med-long mid-week run. It's key run for your endurance and mind over matter. Lately I've been tweaking it with runs like Andrew suggests of just plain vanilla fartlek type runs where he says to just run x miles. It's a great plan!
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