Question:
I'm wondering how much road (as
opposed to trail) running I need
to attain the necessary conditioning
to safely run a marathon. I run
mostly trails, avoid road running
to avoid injury, and recently began
training for a marathon. A veteran
runner warned me that trail running
exclusively will not condition me
properly for safely running asphalt
in the marathon.
Suppose I'm
at the training level of 40 miles
per week with a 16 mile long run.
I don't have a good feel for if
10%, 20%, or 30% road miles per
week would be adequate? Or, would
I need to do every other long run
on the road. I feel like I should
be able to keep my speed and LT
work off road. Then do the needed
road work with long run miles, but
how many? I have 5 years of road
running and 2 marathons behind me.
Answer:
For me, I ran a lot of my mileage
for my first marathon on the little
strip of stones beside the road
(I live in a rural area in north
central Ohio). I came to regret
that during the marathon because
I didn't become accustomed to the
proper road conditions that the
marathon was to take place. My advise,
run on the same surface you are
going to run your marathon on.
Running on
the roads can quite simply hurt.
Doing all of your marathon training
on them may find you amongst the
many that do not even make it to
the start line. However, doing all
of your training on trails will
find you likely having problems
during road marathons, as your legs
will not be used to the pounding.
A balance
needs to be achieved. For those
that are biomechanically gifted
enough to be able to run softly
on any surface, you have been blessed.
For the rest of us who are trying
to perfect the art of running softly
on any surface, a combination of
training that helps us reach a peak
in an uninjured state is the way
to go. For me, it's about a 50/50
mix, give or take, of trails and
roads. Where I live allows me the
luxury, if you can call it that,
of combining the two in virtually
any run of any distance.
