Irish Marathoners

woodchopper

I've had enough of some of the other silly threads so I have decided to take this forum back to the good old basics of spreading training information to the wider benefit of the audience. My topic is on the training of the top Irish marathoners:

I shall outline a two week schedule of Allistair Cragg's marathon programme. Its a two week cycle and there are six of these cycles. At the end of the first six week period (Half way through the Marathon programme) his coach has him race (usually a half marathon) then they proceed with the programme. There is usually a increase in volume as the phase goes on prior to the taper.

Sample two week cycle:

Monday: Two easy runs

Tuesday: Intervals: ranging from 1k to 2 mile depending on period at around half marathon/ 10k pace., easy pm run

Wednesday: Medium Long Run ie 12 miles or late on in phase this reaches 17 miles.

Thursday: The same as Monday

Friday: Marathon Tempo: ranges from 8 mile to 16 depending on period of cycle.

Saturday: See Monday's training

Sunday: Long run: ranges from 18-23 miles with surges after 90 minutes ie 30 seconds up to 90 seconds.

Monday: Two easy runs

Tuesday: Shorter Intervals ie 400s, pm recovery run

Wednesday: Two easy runs

Thursday: Shorter Tempo at half marathon effort ie 5 -8 miles

Friday: easy run

Saturday: Marathon practice run: ie 20 mile 10 mile easy, 10 miles MP or late on prior to peak 8 miles easy, 12 miles MP, 3 miles easy

Sunday: Recovery day

This two week cycle is repeated six times before racing. In Allstars case the New York half marathon was his 'tune up' race before Boston were he encountered blisters and was forcedto stop.

It would be great if other posters could detail the programme of other top Irish marathoners. You dont have to mention their coaches or names if you dont want to but can describe their Marathon programme. This is a training information thread only, no personal remarks about athletes will be tolerated only remarks that are specific to training.

It would be interesting to compare how the Irish based marathoners train in comparison to those training abroad. Of course not all elite Irish marathoners are full time athletes.

Regards
Woodchopper

Gringo78

What kind of gym/weights sessions would be involved?

woodchopper

Gringo78 wrote: »

What kind of gym/weights sessions would be involved?

His group in Mammoth Lakes has a strenght and conditoning coach and they workout most days of the week. Although the workouts are kept short, ie under one hour. A mixture of plyometrics such as frog jumps, box jumps, short hill sprints, the usual core rountines, there are so many way to work the core region so the coach mixes it up. Also some agility/ladder work is done.

Also intervals are run on the roads over marked distances usually a 45 minute drive down the mountain. They also train in San Diego when the snow in Mammoth gets too bad in Winter/ Spring.

ecoli

This is not an Irish Marathon runners however I think still should give some insights as they are 2.14 marathon runner


Typical week
Monday AM 30 min recovery
PM 50 min easy + weights/plyometrics


Tuesday AM 50 min easy
PM Session totalling 8-12 miles

Wednesday AM 30 min easy
PM 65 min easy

Thursday AM 65 min easy + weights/plyometrics
PM 12 miles progressive (ending at sub Threshold pace)

Friday AM: 30 min easy
PM: 50 min easy + 10x100m hills strides full recovery

Saturday AM : Session totalling 14 miles
PM : 30 min easy

Sunday 2 hr steady

Total weekly mileage : 125 miles

What I have noticed with a the few elites is the focus on spacing out the quality sessions as much as possible throughout the week. While most of us focus on our sessions in a week many of them put the emphasis on the recovery from these sessions

woodchopper

ecoli wrote: »

This is not an Irish Marathon runners however I think still should give some insights as they are 2.14 marathon runner


Typical week
Monday AM 30 min recovery
PM 50 min easy + weights/plyometrics


Tuesday AM 50 min easy
PM Session totalling 8-12 miles

Wednesday AM 30 min easy
PM 65 min easy

Thursday AM 65 min easy + weights/plyometrics
PM 12 miles progressive (ending at sub Threshold pace)

Friday AM: 30 min easy
PM: 50 min easy + 10x100m hills strides full recovery

Saturday AM : Session totalling 14 miles
PM : 30 min easy

Sunday 2 hr steady

Total weekly mileage : 125 miles

What I have noticed with a the few elites is the focus on spacing out the quality sessions as much as possible throughout the week. While most of us focus on our sessions in a week many of them put the emphasis on the recovery from these sessions

Do you know what sort of sessions are on the Tueasday and Saturday. I guess it is half marathon/10k pace efforts considering the running volume

ecoli

woodchopper wrote: »

Do you know what sort of sessions are on the Tueasday and Saturday. I guess it is half marathon/10k pace efforts considering the running volume

As far as i know (not certain of the consistency of this over the course of a marathon cycle) one session was more Marathon specific while one was a combination of tempo miles followed by reps so for example 6 mile tempo followed by a few 400 - 600s or other lower distance reps.

I think these were more 5k-10k paced quickest with short recovery though as far as I am aware

Seres

ecoli wrote: »

This is not an Irish Marathon runners however I think still should give some insights as they are 2.14 marathon runner


Typical week
Monday AM 30 min recovery
PM 50 min easy + weights/plyometrics


Tuesday AM 50 min easy
PM Session totalling 8-12 miles

Wednesday AM 30 min easy
PM 65 min easy

Thursday AM 65 min easy + weights/plyometrics
PM 12 miles progressive (ending at sub Threshold pace)

Friday AM: 30 min easy
PM: 50 min easy + 10x100m hills strides full recovery

Saturday AM : Session totalling 14 miles
PM : 30 min easy

Sunday 2 hr steady

Total weekly mileage : 125 miles

What I have noticed with a the few elites is the focus on spacing out the quality sessions as much as possible throughout the week. While most of us focus on our sessions in a week many of them put the emphasis on the recovery from these sessions

Its interesting to see that practically all the sessions are in terms of time on your feet instead of distance .

MaroonTam

Its great to see how the top guys do this.

One thing we always focus on is the Marathon specific phase of training.

I would be particularly interested in what these guys are doing "out of phase" over the off season in terms of base and maintenance.

I think its important to look at the overall training aproach, rather than just segments.

BobMac104

I am reading "running with legends" which is an amzing book by the way and contains sample training weeks for most of the runners featured in it. I just finished reading about steve jones last night. Amazing stuff altogether.

When i have it to hand ill type down one from it

ecoli

MaroonTam wrote: »

Its great to see how the top guys do this.

One thing we always focus on is the Marathon specific phase of training.

I would be particularly interested in what these guys are doing "out of phase" over the off season in terms of base and maintenance.

I think its important to look at the overall training aproach, rather than just segments.

Some people aim for different things. I know one of Irelands sub 2.20 marathon runners went from Marathon in April to 5k-10k training and Summer track season and managed to PB in 1 mile - 10k before heading back into another marathon cycle for another marathon in Oct

If you are looking for easy base though here is one example though may not be 100% accurate as athletes can ommit things in these type of blogs from time to time

http://www.runnerslife.co.uk/andrew-lemoncello/Training/training-7-2-2011/735

MaroonTam

Interesting to note Lemonchello can have a two minute spread on his easy run pace (from 5:30 to 7:30)

That would be like me running between 7:30 and 9:30, which would feel like a crawl!

ecoli

MaroonTam wrote: »

Interesting to note Lemonchello can have a two minute spread on his easy run pace (from 5:30 to 7:30)

That would be like me running between 7:30 and 9:30, which would feel like a crawl!

True but there is a place for it. In know my more natural easy pace is 7-7.20 these days yet you will still see alot of 8/ 9 min miles in my training.

The only thing you have to take into account is Andrew is training at High altitude so his slower stuff is still probably bit harder than it appears given his range in easy pace

woodchopper

ecoli wrote: »

Some people aim for different things. I know one of Irelands sub 2.20 marathon runners went from Marathon in April to 5k-10k training and Summer track season and managed to PB in 1 mile - 10k before heading back into another marathon cycle for another marathon in Oct

If you are looking for easy base though here is one example though may not be 100% accurate as athletes can ommit things in these type of blogs from time to time

http://www.runnerslife.co.uk/andrew-lemoncello/Training/training-7-2-2011/735

A couple of questions if its alright:

Did the athlete train specifically for the track season or just run the races with some race pace work while keeping the mileage high.

Did the athlete in question take any down time after the Summer track season or just transfer straight into a Marathon Cycle.

And finally if so how long was the recovery cycle from the Spring Marathon to the Summer Track season

ecoli

Did the athlete train specifically for the track season or just run the races with some race pace work while keeping the mileage high.

As far as I know trained specifically while mileage was lower it was still high enough (I think roughly 20-30 miles less)

Did the athlete in question take any down time after the Summer track season or just transfer straight into a Marathon Cycle.

Either straight into or a down week

And finally if so how long was the recovery cycle from the Spring Marathon to the Summer Track season

Regeneration phase was 2-3 weeks after marathon approx