Peak week before a marathon. When and what?

KielyUnusual

As I'm now in to what I would consider my peak week before the London Marathon in three weeks, I thought I might get the thoughts of some other Spring marathoners (or not I suppose) on when they plan their peak week and how tough they make it?

For me, I would plan it for three weeks out and then straight into a two week taper. It might look something like this:

Mon

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Tues

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Wed

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Thurs

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Fri

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Sat

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Sun

AM:5 EP PM: 6 EP|Track|12 EP|2 w/u, 13 MP, 2 w/d| AM: 5 EP PM: 8 EP|Race| 21 EP

The track session would be an all out affair and the race would be under 10k but again at full effort.

Clearlier

KielyUnusual wrote: »

As I'm now in to what I would consider my peak week before the London Marathon in three weeks, I thought I might get the thoughts of some other Spring marathoners (or not I suppose) on when they plan their peak week and how tough they make it?

For me, I would plan it for three weeks out and then straight into a two week taper. It might look something like this:

Mon

|

Tues

|

Wed

|

Thurs

|

Fri

|

Sat

|

Sun

AM:5 EP PM: 6 EP|Track|12 EP|2 w/u, 13 MP, 2 w/d| AM: 5 EP PM: 8 EP|Race| 21 EP
The track session would be an all out affair and the race would be under 10k but again at full effort.

My first thought is that a long marathon pace run, a long run, an all-out track session and an all out race is asking for trouble injury wise. I'm advising a guy who'll probably run about 2:32 at London and he's doing one long workout (60 + mins of running between half and marathon pace) and a long run (Canova sessions) each week. The only other notable run is a 15 - 18 miler. I honestly couldn't tell you when his peak week was except that it was before the marathon specific period began or specifically what he did in it. I can tell you that he has averaged 20mpw more than what he was doing before he started this cycle.

I think of peak weeks as doing the same as any other week but a little bit more and while it's nice to be able to say that you ran x no. of miles in a week what's more relevant is the consistency of your training in the weeks, months and even years before as well as the marathon specific part of your training when coming up to the race.

EauRouge79

KielyUnusual wrote: »

For me, I would plan it for three weeks out and then straight into a two week taper. It might look something like this:

Mon

|

Tues

|

Wed

|

Thurs

|

Fri

|

Sat

|

Sun

AM:5 EP PM: 6 EP|Track|12 EP|2 w/u, 13 MP, 2 w/d| AM: 5 EP PM: 8 EP|Race| 21 EP

The track session would be an all out affair and the race would be under 10k but again at full effort.

If I ran that kind of schedule I can guarantee that I would pivk up a muscle type injury. Seems very heavy 2-3 weeks out. Just my very humble opinion.

I want to get a 13 mile Marathon pace run done tomorrow evening after work. If only I had decided on what that Marathon pace will be...........

I will however run a 10k race at full tilt this Sunday. Always do this 10-14 days out from a marathon.

KielyUnusual

It probably is a bit much alright. Between missing almost 2 weeks and not wanting to do anything too serious for the final fortnight, I'm basically attempting to jam a lot of work in to this week. Got the marathon session in this evening so that's basically the major one I wanted to get done. Took a rest day yesterday and I'll just play it by ear over the weekend. Probably run the 4 mile BHAA out in Raheny anyway.

When I was asking about peak weeks, I wasn't really referring to peak mileage but more so the peak intensity. I've always put this in three weeks out and straight in to a two week taper. This was just something I decided upon myself and I was wondering if people generally plan this a little earlier in their schedule.

W.B. Yeats

Novice question here-

Physiologically will you have enough time to get any benefit of that level of tough training with just 2 weeks to go to the marathon? I thought you needed more time for the body to react to the increased stress?
Psycholigically I can understand the benefits of the volume of training although I do agree with the others re the intensity of the training sessions in one week.

KielyUnusual

W.B. Yeats wrote: »

Novice question here-

Physiologically will you have enough time to get any benefit of that level of tough training with just 2 weeks to go to the marathon? I thought you needed more time for the body to react to the increased stress?
Psycholigically I can understand the benefits of the volume of training although I do agree with the others re the intensity of the training sessions in one week.

I might be wrong here but I think it's generally accepted that it takes between 10-14 days for the body to make the physical adaptions to the training that you're doing. That was part of the reason why I decided to put in some of my tougher sessions three weeks out from the race. A quick google didn't suffice to get some evidence to back up that figure but I think I might have read it in Running Lore by Tim Noakes (very good book by the way)