dublinMarathon Training Advice

potsy11

Hey guys

Its marathon no 5 for me this year (one a year).

2007 3.52
2008 3.40
2009 3.27
2010 3.27

I am looking at hitting 3.15 (this was also my plan for last year, but i blew up).

I am currently running pretty casually and gettign 15-25 miles in a week.

My head is a little wrecked with all the trianing plans out there and I am trying to get one that suits.

I have found this and would appreciate comments on the format.

Last year i didnt commit 100% to the training plan and was pretty much unfit going into a 16 week plan. I struggled from the offset and Dublin was a long day for me after 17 miles.

Would appreciate some advice.

I do use a HR monitor and have LT results from 2 years ago!

Cheers in advance

Potsy

ger664

Agree there are so many training plans out there its hard to settle on one.

Plan looks okay with the exception of the hill/speed work. You would be far bettr off doing the hill work in the first half and track/speed/fartleeks work in the second 9 weeks.

Other then that I would personally do the following. There is now real science to back this up just what I do in general.

The friday race pace runs. I do these at a tempo pace faster the race pace. Somewhere between 10K and half marathon pace depending on length.

As regards Race pace you can incorporate so race pace miles into the shorter LSR if you want. I rarely run at marathon pace as I trust that if I do the training i will be able to run the race pace in the race.

All plans I have seen suggest the long run on a Sunday, I do mine on Monday/Tuesday Evening, which means I can do weekend races instead of tempo runs without having to compromise my LSR and get rest day in between (depending on race day). Downside is it shortens my taper a small bit (2-3 days).

Whatever plan you do make sure you do the LSR's and hill work, you dont need to be a slave to it but if you miss too much as u found out last year it hurts on the day.

ThePiedPiper

If you go into your 18 week training programme with a good level of fitness and a good base built up, then it really will reflect well on your times. 25 miles a week would be a perfect way to do this .

Whichever plan you use, or whether you've your own informal one, you should include all of the following type runs each week:

1. Long Slow Run with some marathon paced miles.
2. Medium distance (maybe 8-12 mile) with some tempo miles (faster than race pace).
3. Interval training, 400m, 800m and mile repeats. If you can lower all of your times over these distances, it'll help on the longer runs.
4. Easy runs. And easy must actually mean that, maybe a minute slower than race pace.

There's no real need to do huge mileage. For one marathon programme, I was hitting 100 miles a week which is too much. For my two fastest marathons, my maximum mileage would've been 75-80 per week and the norm around 55-60. It's the quality of the sessions you do that is important.

I'll admit I don't strictly follow any plan but I know what works for me and any of the things I mention above are probably in most training plans.

heffsarmy

potsy11, I would recommend daniels running formula. There are 2 marathon programs in the book, plan A and elite. I have used plan A and its was very good, the workouts can be hard, but you will be more than ready to tackle the marathon in 3.15.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Daniels-Running-Formula-programs-marathon/dp/0736054928

TheRoadRunner

heffsarmy wrote: »

potsy11, I would recommend daniels running formula. There are 2 marathon programs in the book, plan A and elite. I have used plan A and its was very good, the workouts can be hard, but you will be more than ready to tackle the marathon in 3.15.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Daniels-Running-Formula-programs-marathon/dp/0736054928

I'm not a fan of the one fits all plans but the Daniels one is an exception. The plans are quite loose but if you hit the sessions and run easy on the days between these, building your mileage up to a predefined level you won't go wrong.

average_runner

Quick Question;

Do you need to do hill work if your long run brings up all the hills in phoenix park on each lap?

ger664

average_runner wrote: »

Quick Question;

Do you need to do hill work if your long run brings up all the hills in phoenix park on each lap?

Yes. Hill workouts should be done at the same intensity as interval/track workouts.

Having hills in your LSR is an added bonus, just drop the pace and keep the intensity low.

Clearlier

Hi Potsy,

There are many ways to skin the 3:15 marathon cat. The key as you aluded to is getting a plan that suits you. If you can give us a little more history of your running we could probably give you a better idea of how well this particular plan would suit you.

There are two ways to improve your result. You can up your volume (mileage) or your intensity. Mostly, you'll want to do both. So long as you keep doing that without injury or overtraining you'll keep improving.

As a general guide to running a marathon I think that the guide is pretty good.

• It advocates marathon pace running
• It gives reasonable advice on non-running training.
• It alternates the long long runs with short long runs which for a low mileage plan is a pretty good idea.

Where I think it could be improved is:

• I think that it's a little light on mileage (would start by upping Tuesdays run)
• I would have a regular tempo run in there perhaps alternated on a week by week basis with the race pace runs. Same overall distance as advocated but with the middle few at 10mile pace and the rest to warm up and down.
• The taper is too long

A point to note is that despite what the author says this isn't a periodised plan.

Daniels would do a good job. Pfitzinger and Daniels' Advanced marathoning would do a good job too.