Question:
I am planning to run my first marathon
in late oct/ early nov of this year;
I am currently doing 30-40 miles/week,
and have gotten up to 16 miles for
a weekly long run.
All of the marathon training programs
I have seen (Runnersworld.com, Jeff
Galloway's book) describe training
programs of 15-32 weeks duration,
starting at a lower mileage than
I am currently running. Am I in
danger of burning out if I keep
up the 16 milers? Using Galloway's
3-tier approach (base, hills and
speed), where the long run does
not really get above 12 miles until
about 16 weeks, how do I adjust
for a longer training period- back
off the miles until mid summer,
or stay at my current level?
Answer:
I'm not sure I'd pay attention to
the Galloway plan if you're planning
on a fast marathon, which a 3.20
is Galloway is really more geared
to surviving a marathon, not racing
one.
You are running 16's very early
if you're not racing till Oct./Nov
If it were me, I think I might throttle
back Either that, or find a 'thon
a bit earlier, although there isn't
much on the calendar earlier than
late Sept You will also need to
find a plan that targets a 3.20+
goal time, and run it pretty much
too the letter, especially if this
is your first marathon.
I'm not a
big fan of Galloway, first of all.
Not that I claim to have any final
answers about marathon training;
I think we're all different in the
way we react to the various training
bits. I've done 13 of them, however
and have experimented with quite
a few things over a 22 year period.
I tried Galloway once--what didn't
work for me was the program's heavy
emphasis on marathon paced training.
My legs were dead on race day.
Anyway, briefly,
here's what works for me: I'm doing
roughly 30+ mpw all year round,
first of all. I usually do a spring
and a fall marathon, which means
I'm pretty much in training or recovery
all yea round. Starting from my
base, I do a 9 week training sequence
followed by a 4 week taper (most
people do 3 weeks, but research
suggests that we need 4 weeks to
recover from any runs over 11-12
miles due the muscle damage incurred).
So I start 3 months to the day before
the race. Some of my experienced
friends do a 4 month sequence, reasoning
that there may be weeks that they
are sick, busy, etc.
Probably a
wise move, but I've never done it.
(As an aside, during my current
heavy training, I missed a full
weeks due to a hernia operation
and I still feel great--I'm running
Boston in 5 weeks.) So on the odd
weekends I do my long long runs,
starting at 16 and gradually building
up to 22 (this time I did a 24 for
the first time and I think it was
a great race simlator). On the evens
I do a moderately long run (11-14)
that includes gradually increasing
distance at marathon pace (6-12
miles). Also, on the very long runs
I do some marathon pace miles late
in the run, to simulate running
at speed when tired, as I will have
to do in the race.
I practice
my drinking strategy on the long
runs--5-6 sips of gatorade or similar
every 15 minutes. I do a LOT of
long hills--today, for instance,
I did 2 laps of a 2 1/2 mile hill
(10 miles total); both the up and
the down hills are essential to
race the marathon. You need the
power beause it's a power event
primarily and NOT an endurance event.
Other very important training bits:
Speed work--especially running at
higher than lactate thresold pace,
which promotes lactate clearance.
One of the
best predictors of marathon success
is lactate threshold pace. Therefore,
I do groups of miles at 10k pace,
therefore, once a week. The latest
research is that the old Jack Daniels
LT pace workouts (25' at your 15k
or 10 mile race pace) are not as
good as the higher paced work outs
in improving your LT pace. The rest
are easy runs. I do between 40 and
55 mpw during my heavy training.
I taper pretty
drastically in the last 4 weeks,
but mantain intensity by doing a
lot of 10k/5k paced intervals.
