Designing a Training Plan

Sosa

For Dublin last year i more or less did the P&D 18 week up to 55m plan.

I bought the advanced marathoning book and learned alot from it.
I was looking at the 12 week plan of up to 70m for Cork ( i still have not decided ),but didnt really like the look of it.

I have decided to put my own plan together,wondering what are peoples thoughts on this,i will consult p&d and take bits and pieces.
I know where i went wrong for Dublin and dont see the 70m plan fixing any of that.

There are 3 key runs a week i want to do.
1 long run
1 pmp run of 10+ miles ( building up,as they get bigger i will incorporate them into the long run)
1 of either Intervals or Tempo.
The rest will be aerobic and recovery.

I think alot of people think to much about training for marathons,i did for my first...im going the casual route this time round.

I will race more also,a half in Wexford 5 weeks before.
A 7.5m Waterford to Tramore the following week.
There is a 10m race in Cobh on April 18th that i will consider if its early...11am at the latest

petermijackson

What is a pmp? Just showing inexperience here....

mcdonrob

petermijackson wrote: »

What is a pmp? Just showing inexperience here....

Predicted/Planned Marathon Pace

Gringo78

Sosa wrote: »

There are 3 key runs a week i want to do.
1 long run
1 pmp run of 10+ miles ( building up,as they get bigger i will incorporate them into the long run)
1 of either Intervals or Tempo.
The rest will be aerobic and recovery.

I think alot of people think to much about training for marathons,i did for my first...im going the casual route this time round.

I will race more also,a half in Wexford 5 weeks before.
A 7.5m Waterford to Tramore the following week.
There is a 10m race in Cobh on April 18th that i will consider if its early...11am at the latest

I'd agree, putting a plan together is the next best option to actually talking to coach and getting them to tailor one for you.

I'd agree with your outline of a plan above, its broadly similar my own outline plan.

You pack a lot of miles into the week though and run 6 days normally so I'd say you'd benefit more from keeping the PMP runs and the LSR's seperate. If you run them jointly, my own opinion would be that you lose the true desired effect of the LSR which is to train your fat burning metabolism. Why combine them when your running a 70 mile week?

Agree on the racing too....races recalibrate what your body feels is possible, this is very important for someone who is only running for 2 or 3 years are your perception of what is fast changes nearly every few months (i.e last year you though sub 61min 10 miles was ridiculously fast, now you'll hope to never run that slow in a 10 mile race again)

I don't know what the terrain around waterford is like, but since january I have tried to keep all my easy runs hilly, even recovery runs. I run nice and slow but i still feel my legs have got stronger because of it. The bigger and tougher the hill I can find the better. I've found since doing that that I actually tend to recover while running up moderate hills i.e my pace doesn't change but the difference in stride up hill seems to give some sets of muscles a breather while running uphill meaning when i hit the flat at the top I feel fresher than at the bottom of the hill if that makes any sense? Obviously I've been doing this cos i'm running connemara but I know now it would be really useful for any marathon....to be able to look forward to moderate uphills as much as downhills is a powerful tool in a marathon both physically and mentally.

The tempo run has been for me the single most run which has led to improvement in my race times over the last 9 months.

aero2k

Sosa wrote: »

I have decided to put my own plan together

I think the biggest factor in people not being able to follow a plan is because it's not their plan. If you make your own you can design it to fit your lifestyle.

Sosa wrote: »

I know where i went wrong for Dublin

That's the key to getting it right next time.

Sosa wrote: »

There are 3 key runs a week i want to do.
1 long run
1 pmp run of 10+ miles ( building up,as they get bigger i will incorporate them into the long run)
1 of either Intervals or Tempo.
The rest will be aerobic and recovery.

This looks good, personally I think good recovery is the single most important thing.

Sosa wrote: »

I think alot of people think to much about training for marathons

Yep. I like to keep it simple.

Sosa wrote: »

I will race more also,a half in Wexford 5 weeks before.

I think 5 weeks is the ideal gap, you can go flat out for the race, have two weeks to recover, then get into taper mode. I've been squeezing in a few races but treating them as timed training sessions - i.e. no special preparation other than my planned training. I think races are great for giving you a short term goal, measuring progress, identifying target training paces for intervals etc, and for relieving mental boredom.

Great stuff Sosa, best of luck with the new plan.

Sosa

Gringo78 wrote: »

I'd agree, putting a plan together is the next best option to actually talking to coach and getting them to tailor one for you.

I'd agree with your outline of a plan above, its broadly similar my own outline plan.

You pack a lot of miles into the week though and run 6 days normally so I'd say you'd benefit more from keeping the PMP runs and the LSR's seperate. If you run them jointly, my own opinion would be that you lose the true desired effect of the LSR which is to train your fat burning metabolism. Why combine them when your running a 70 mile week?

Agree on the racing too....races recalibrate what your body feels is possible, this is very important for someone who is only running for 2 or 3 years are your perception of what is fast changes nearly every few months (i.e last year you though sub 61min 10 miles was ridiculously fast, now you'll hope to never run that slow in a 10 mile race again)

I don't know what the terrain around waterford is like, but since january I have tried to keep all my easy runs hilly, even recovery runs. I run nice and slow but i still feel my legs have got stronger because of it. The bigger and tougher the hill I can find the better. I've found since doing that that I actually tend to recover while running up moderate hills i.e my pace doesn't change but the difference in stride up hill seems to give some sets of muscles a breather while running uphill meaning when i hit the flat at the top I feel fresher than at the bottom of the hill if that makes any sense? Obviously I've been doing this cos i'm running connemara but I know now it would be really useful for any marathon....to be able to look forward to moderate uphills as much as downhills is a powerful tool in a marathon both physically and mentally.

The tempo run has been for me the single most run which has led to improvement in my race times over the last 9 months.

Alot of good points there Gringo...thanks
What you said about the lsrs is true and where i went wrong last time out.
I am going to do them slow this time,my medium longs during the week i will use to do my pmp workouts.

There are plenty of hills around waterford,i live on top of the town...so regardless of which direction i take i will be coming home uphill.

I love my pmp runs and the tempos but i have a feeling that the lsr's will bore me.

DULLAHAN2

Sosa wrote: »

For Dublin last year i more or less did the P&D 18 week up to 55m plan.

What time did you do dublin in?

Sosa

DULLAHAN2 wrote: »

What time did you do dublin in?

3:14...got to 20m @ 3:00 pace and then completely fell apart,walking alot of the time,the body just shut down.