Question:
I have some questions and concerns
concerning my curring running plan.
I am now following a mileage buildup
schedule from State of the Art Marathon
Training at their website.
Here are the weekly miles:
14, 15, 16, 12, 17, 18, 20, 13,
22, 24, 26, 15, 28, 30, 32, 17,
34, 35, 19.
Here are the weekly percentage changes:
+7%, +7%, -25%, +6%, +6%, +11%,
-35%, +10%, +9%, +8%, -42%, +8%,
+7%, + 7%, +3%, -74%, -46%.
At the end of the 19th week you
continue to hold your training levels
until the marathon is 4 months away.
Once you reach the 10-mile mark
of your long run, you can then alternate
your long run sequence weekly as
follows: 8, 9, 10, and then 6-mile
long runs.
The marathon training schedule weekly
miles are as follows:
34, 36, 18, 38, 41, 43, 20, 42,
38, 22, 43, 38, 24, 46, 36, 30,
22, marathon.
The weekly long runs are as follows:
10, 12, 6, 14, 16, 18, 6, 20, 14,
7, 21, 14, 8, 22, 12, 14, 10, marathon.
Has anyone here followed this plan?
How did it work out for you? There
are a few concerns I have about
the plan. One is that the recovery
weeks are a drastic reduction in
mileage. During the marathon training
phase the cut backs are 50% of the
previous week. My other concern
is that there is no speed training.
I'm guessing that if you paid for
the personal training version of
the plan (requires a minimum payment
of $70); Art would work in some
speed training based on your running
ability. Is this more of a first-time-marathoner
plan?
I am 46 years old. I have run 4
marathons in the past. One a year
from 1996 to 1999. I've finished
in the 3:40 to 4:00 range. I took
almost a 2 year layoff until August
of '03. Because of the long layoff
and weight gain I started bak very
slowly in order to avoid an injury.
I am currently on week 15 of the
buildup plan. My weight is less
than it was before my fastest marathon.
I have not made any plans for a
marathon yet. However, I am considering
a fall marathon (Chicago or Marine
Corps) or a January '05 marathon
(Houston). Should I be approaching
this as a first- time-marathoner?
Given my past running history, should
I push it a bit and add some speed
work to my training?
Answer:
It's not possible to get in 20 mile
runs and train consistently without
having some 40 mile weeks, so the
only way to stay at an average of
30 miles per week or so with such
a schedule is to have a lot of week-to-week
variation in volume.
Keep in mind that a week is an arbitrary
way to divide up time anyway, and
for the purpose of marathon training,
where you cycle the lengths of the
long runs, it's not a very good
one. Most marathon training programs
are divided into microcycles consisting
of 2-4 weeks.
I'd say that
this means that time is on your
side. Depending on exactly what
you do, you may well have a chance
to build up to a consistent 40mpw
before starting your marathon training
program. That would put you in a
better position to commence a more
advanced program than this one.
And yes, I think you should look
for a slightly more advanced program.
You do
appear to be interested in doing
more than just finishing, so the
design goals
of this training program are not
really compatible with your personal
goals.
There are some more competitive
marathon training programs on the
Running Times website. See their
basic marathon
training program for example (this
program includes strides, tempo
runs, buildup races). I can't make evaluative
statements since I haven't done
those
programs or run marathons -- except
to say that the Running Times programs
look
more advanced and competition-oriented
than the state of the Art program.
This page has some
milage schedules written by Bob
Glover. These cover several different
levels of
training. The fact that he doesn't
include speed work does not mean
that he
doesn't recommend it. The training
FAQ discusses speed work. Bob Glover
has
maintained respectable milage over
31 years, run several marathons
and some
ultras, battled all sorts of problems,
and still can be seen out there
with
his running team
