Plan for Cork City Marathon 2017

hot buttered scones

I'm considering doing the Cork city marathon in June and I wanted to try and organise a plan around my working hours. As a shift worker I often find it difficult to run sessions from set plans on the right days e.g. Sunday might be a 20 mile long run but I'm working from 8 to 8 - so thats getting up at 4:30, running to work (possibly in the dark with some country roads) and with no public transport links, having to organise a lift home. It's much better for me to just organise these runs (as much as possible) to fit in with my schedule. With that in mind, I took the Meno marathon plan and moved things around a bit. I also want to do a couple of smaller races in between - some of which fitted into the plan and others which I just shoe horned in there. The 5k is there as a tester/hopeful confidence booster. The Ballycotton is a goal race. The UCC 10k - I just really want to do this race. The Limerick half is still optional - I'm not 100% on this and I'm not sure if I want to make to effort to go all the way up for an MP session. The BHAA 6 mile in May - it's my works race and it think it's well positioned for a tune up race.
I've tried to avoid the following as much as possible:

1. No long runs before a day shift
2. No long runs or sessions lasting longer than an hour in between night shifts
3. Any runs before day shifts to only last an hour max (occasional exceptions).
4. Try to schedule rest days on Day shifts where possible

I haven't nailed down exactly what my rest days will be or what I'm going to do on the easy days exactly - it will be all time permitting.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PMATPGhYc01j6A2dNm9NwvcQ7_BMz45DK7QYSemoZlQ/edit?usp=sharing

I've been following the Graduates 10k-HM plan to lead up to Ballycotton.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LOkLQ_a9NHWe97yaRkfF6ArFmCHmtf9y1tU0LR7uMr8/edit?usp=sharing

I'm currently on week 10. I'd be dropping this in favour of the plan above. Alternatively, I could finish out this plan and then do 12 weeks of marathon specific training to lead up to Cork. But what plan? I was thinking of editing the Meno plan above to do over 12 weeks, but where do I begin? Do I just jump in in week 12? Do I just start increasing the long run now?

As ever any input will be appreciated.

Kennyg71

Not sure I'm best placed to advise, but I've read a couple of logs where people
are on shift work and they seemed to not to get hung upon fitting in runs over
a week rather just take the plan as a rolling plan with, easy hard and Lr fitted in
as they went over maybe 10 day cycle, Could be worth using existing plan
and fit in runs as you can, if it's a failed experiment move on to Dublin.:)



Best luck.

Murph_D

I think if you stick to general principle of allowing the right amount of recovery after sessions, races, and long runs you'll be better off - at first glance you seem to have moved some of those hard workouts too close together to suit your schedule. I think what G says above is good advice, although it would mean maybe stretching plan over longer period, which may be a little late. Then again, you're not starting from scratch, have a few marathons under your belt (if I remember correctly) so maybe you can get away with being a bit more aggressive. Be especially conservative around those races though - recovery more important than hitting every session.

Good luck! Will miss not doing Cork this year.

hot buttered scones

Kennyg71 wrote: »

Not sure I'm best placed to advise, but I've read a couple of logs where people
are on shift work and they seemed to not to get hung upon fitting in runs over
a week rather just take the plan as a rolling plan with, easy hard and Lr fitted in
as they went over maybe 10 day cycle, Could be worth using existing plan
and fit in runs as you can, if it's a failed experiment move on to Dublin.:)



Best luck.

I usually follow a plan and try as best as I can to get the given workouts done in a week as laid out in the plan. This usually ends up looking a bit like what I've laid out above though because I'll move the longer runs around to suit.

Murph_D wrote: »

I think if you stick to general principle of allowing the right amount of recovery after sessions, races, and long runs you'll be better off - at first glance you seem to have moved some of those hard workouts too close together to suit your schedule. I think what G says above is good advice, although it would mean maybe stretching plan over longer period, which may be a little late. Then again, you're not starting from scratch, have a few marathons under your belt (if I remember correctly) so maybe you can get away with being a bit more aggressive. Be especially conservative around those races though - recovery more important than hitting every session.

Good luck! Will miss not doing Cork this year.

Yeah I have 3 marathons done and I suppose I'm just trying to organise things better this time. There are a couple of weeks there where things are just a bit too close together - but it's a work in progress, an experiment as Kennyg71 said above, and as usual I'll listen to my body and maybe swap out some easy runs for recovery runs or rest days as needs be, and also move sessions around. As the mornings get a bit brighter I may have to just bite the bullet and head out at 5am before work for a couple of the long runs. I'm about 80% sure I won't be doing the Limerick half or any half in the lead up. Having thought about it I have enough races in there to do me, and it usually takes me a couple of weeks to recover properly from a half anyway.

Cheers for the responses.