any comments on my training plan for connemara?

connie_c

Any comments on the training plan below? Im 26 and male.Race is April11th 2010.When I run the marathon it will be almost a year to the day from when I began running. I've lost almost 3 stone. Im between 14 and a half stone and 15 now,havent checked in a week or 2. Did a 45ish minute 10K tonight.Thats fairly normal for the last 2 months. Ive done one 10k race a month ago, 48.07 but it all went badly on the day. Anyway McMillan calculates ill do a marathon at just over 3.30. Im aiming at 4.30 ish but really just want to get around. I do about 30k a week now. Is what I have below ok?Perfect?Wrong?Too Easy?Too Hard?

Any comments appreciated. Currently I haven't been training so much as running a big circle 3 or 4 times a week.

Week Mon LSR Tues Wed Thur Fri Sat Sun
1 Dec 21st-27th 6 miles Rest 4 miles,incl 4.00 TUT Rest 1 hour run (xmas) Rest 4 miles
2 Dec 28th-Jan 3rd 6 miles Rest 4 miles,incl 4.00 TUT Rest 1 hour run Rest 4 miles
3 Jan 4th-10th 7 miles Rest 4 miles,incl 5.00 TUT Rest 6 miles Rest Rest
4 Jan 11th-17th 8 miles Rest 4 miles,incl 5.00 TUT Rest 6 miles Rest Rest
5 Jan 18th-24th 9 miles Rest 4 miles,incl 3 x 2.00 AI Rest 4 miles Rest 5k race
6 Jan 25th-31st 7 miles Rest 5 miles,incl 6.00 TUT Rest 7 miles Rest Rest
7 Feb 1st-7th 10 miles Rest 5 miles,incl 6.00 TUT Rest 7 miles Rest Rest
8 Feb 8th-14th 12 miles Rest 5 miles,incl 7.00 TUT Rest 8 miles Rest Rest
9 Feb 15th-21st 12 miles Rest 5 miles,incl 7.00 TUT Rest 8 miles Rest Rest
10 Feb 22nd-28th 14 miles Rest 5 miles,incl 3x3.00 AI Rest 4 miles Rest 10k race
11 Mar 1st-7th 5 miles Rest 5 miles,incl 8.00 TUT Rest 9 miles Rest Rest
12 Mar 8th-14th 16 miles Rest 5 miles,incl 8.00 TUT Rest 9 miles Rest 18 miles
13 Mar 15th-21st Cheltenham Cheltenham Cheltenham Cheltenham 10 miles Rest 4 miles
14 Mar 22st-28th 20 miles Rest 5 miles,incl 9.00 TUT Rest 10 miles Rest 4 miles
15 Mar 29th-Apr 4th 10 miles Rest 3 miles,incl 3x3.00 AI Rest 5 miles Rest 3 miles, incl 3 x 2.00 AI
16 Apr 5th-11th 5 miles Rest 3 miles,incl 3x2.00 AI Rest Rest 2 miles MARATHON


The cheltenham thing is a stag.....and TUT is time under tension apparently, cant remember AI but Im sure ye know. Thanks again

tunney

connie_c wrote: »

Anyway McMillan calculates ill do a marathon at just over 3.30. Im aiming at 4.30 ish but really just want to get around

Good because McMillan calculators are really crap for new to running people And just crap in general really.

Good to see someone not basing their entire training and expectations around an online calculator.

Krusty_Clown

I would up the mileage on your LSRs. You're spending too much time around the 6,6,7,8,9,7 area, and not enough LSRs at the 15-20 mile mark. you have only 1x16, 1x18 and 1x20.

I presume that you are already running distances of around 10k comfortably, if you can run the distance in 45 minutes and running around 20 miles per week at the moment? If not, you have between now and the start of your program to start building the mileage. Don't leave it all until Christmas. Start now.

Blueskye

I would up the mileage on your LSRs. You're spending too much time around the 6,6,7,8,9,7 area, and not enough LSRs at the 15-20 mile mark. you have only 1x16, 1x18 and 1x20.QUOTE]

+1
I am no expert but did my first marathon in Dublin last month and my lsr's were 16, 17, 18 and 20 x 2 and I wish I had done more lsr's in that distance range. I am also doing connemara and will be including more lsr's in the 18 - 22mile range. Oh and get lots of hills in your training.
Best of luck with it.

connie_c

Great stuff, this is exactly the stuff i need to know. Ive thought about the hills and intend to do most of the lsr's around Naas to Blessington to Ballymore. Plenty of Hills!

How does recovery work between these big runs at the end of the training plan. If I got in 16, 17, 18 and 20 x 2 milers am I going to need lots of time to recover between these?

People always talk of needing to recover for weeks after 26 miles but you dont have weeks to recover in the middle of a training plan. Is the key to go way below your intended marathon pace?

gerico

try marathonrunner.com for a decent training schedule and general prep advice. Best of luck

aero2k

tunney wrote: »

Good because McMillan calculators are really crap for new to running people And just crap in general really.

Good to see someone not basing their entire training and expectations around an online calculator.

Yep, he was 21 seconds out for DCM based on my 1/2 marathon time.:)

I take your point about basing training and expectations around an online calculator - any good programme has many strands. McMillan can be a useful tool for setting goal paces for training and racing.

OP I have two concerns:

1. you appear to be following a programme with abbreviations you don't understand (I don't understand them either). You have a much better chance of sticking with something that you do understand
2. you have 4 consecutive non-running days less than 4 weeks before your target race. You might want to reconsider that.

+1 on the comments from Krusty and Blueskye re. long runs.

Krusty_Clown

Have a look at the long run schedule in this plan (you don't need to adopt the whole plan, just look at the pattern for the long runs). Progressive build up, recovery weeks, then alternate between 20 and 12, until taper time.

rigal

Well done on losing all that weight!

The main issue people seem to have during training for their first marathon is getting injured. There are many reasons why this happens but the most common reasons seem to be:

Wrong footwear - if you haven't done so get gait analysis to ensure you're using the appropriate running shoes.

Overtraining - it's great to be eager but if you do too much too soon or start adding in extra sessions you'll increase the risk of injury.

Missed training sessions - these aren't a huge issue (within reason!) so long as you don't miss too many long runs. Just don't try to catch up on missed training sessions e.g. miss a long run one week and then try to do two the next week to compensate.

Running too fast - do your training runs at the correct pace (as stated in your training plan). Even if it feels easy don't be tempted to run too fast or you'll burn yourself out or get injured or both...

These are just a few of the mistakes I made when training for my first marathon and from following logs on boards for the past year many others have made similar mistakes.

Best of luck!

connie_c

Y
OP I have two concerns:

1. you appear to be following a programme with abbreviations you don't understand (I don't understand them either). You have a much better chance of sticking with something that you do understand
2. you have 4 consecutive non-running days less than 4 weeks before your target race. You might want to reconsider that.

+1 on the comments from Krusty and Blueskye re. long runs.

I just got a book, one of the runners world ones, thats where i got the basis for the plan and the abbreviations.

The 4 non running days are in there to stay and i doubt ill get a run in but i wont rule one out in there. Hopefully I'll manage something hungover or not.

And thanks for the link Krusty, it looks very useful.

Thanks for all the comments everyone. Very useful stuff.

And I am planing on going for the gait analysis in a few weeks when the shoes are worn out.

belcarra

connie_c wrote: »

And I am planing on going for the gait analysis in a few weeks when the shoes are worn out.

Why not go for it now so you know what runners are best suited?
You don't have to buy them when you get the analysis done. But being armed with the info, if you see a cheap pair of what's recommended somewhere then you could save some money... Or you could then buy them on-line?

connie_c

Thanks for the tip but I manage a small shop in Ireland. If i get advice off a retailer that I value I'll buy from them even if it costs a few euro more.

Art of Noise

I think you should try something longer than 10 miles sooner than you have planned. If you can do 10k in 45 minutes already I think your being too conservative in waiting until February to do 10 miles.

Good luck with the training.

connie_c

Thanks for the tip. I agree now that I have started researching it properly. I havent done up an official plan yet, will do when i have my facts straight and I'll repost it then.

I did 9 miles tonight and felt fairly comfortable but I went fairly slowly.Took me an hour and 20 mins ish.I just looked at the clock leaving and coming back so thats not exact and neither is the 9 miles. Map my run says 9.17. I think I'm going to try building up sooner. Am 90% sure I'm going to do the waterford half marathon in december. Have to get saturday off work.

I think that if I can get my long runs up to 13 to 15 miles by december/january that would be much better.

The book I got puts me in the beginner section but the intermediate info seems more applicable to me. I didnt want to assume I should use that plan but from advice on here and from a running friend thats what Im reading now. It looks like much better advice although I would still call myself a beginner.