Dublin Marathon 2016 - Mentored Novices Thread

I think the strides are run towards the end of your run. I was planning to do the first one after around 4.5-5 miles, fully recover then repeat etc. followed by the easy run home.

Following up on the previous question;

With marathon training yes it does seem to break the general rules of long runs double the distance of the event however there are very good reasons for this.

Plenty of research has been done over the last 30-40 years to show that the optimum benefits to be got aerobically from a long run generally tend to be between 90 min and 2.5 hours. After 3 hours aerobic benefits begin to plateau while the injury risk increases exponentionally. The reason why the 20 miler has become sacred is that many of the hal higdon etc plans that were devised were devised at a time when the average marathon finishing time was around 3.30 which running at the right intensity levels for an easy run would give you a 3.10 20 miler as your max long run which would be in lines with the guidelines for low injury risk long runs.

Another element is that was summed up by a US coach previously was as follows

"metabolic fitness preceeds structural readiness"

There is a reason why some one untrained can hop on a bike and bust out an hour or two on a bike (at relevant low intensity level) while you can't do the same in running. the reason is while the lungs and heart might be up for the challenge the limbs aren't

Running is similar to walking in that the first and probably most important muscle in the movement is a hip muscle, basically this instigates walking and without it you wouldn't be able to lift you foot off the ground to start a walk or a run. While this muscle is used on one side of your body to start the action of walking/running the other side is stablizing your pelvis through every stride.

Unfortunately with most of us not walking enough and living office lives where we spend a good chunk of our day in seats these muscles don't have a huge amount of endurance especially in our first few years of running. When we run for too long these fatigue and cause your hip to buckle which creates biomechanical issues down the kinetic chain along the knees and ankles which ends up being the root cause of many common running injuries (ITB Syndrome, Shin Splits, Runners Knee, Plantar Fasciitis etc)

In order to get better bang for your buck you would be better adding one mile to each of your weekly runs rather than putting them all into a longer long run for endurance and muscular strength (as well as addition of squats and a few other Strength and conditioning exercises) for the 1st few years of your running less is more in terms of the long run. If you are consistent with your 90+ long runs (but below three hours) you will gain the strength needed to get you across the line without a doubt.

(Sorry for the long winded post)