I am intending to run a marathon next fall as a BQ attempt. I am also interested in Wildflower in May. If I am serious about qualifying for Boston and needing to drop 5 minutes off my marathon PR (seems doable, but a big undertaking), would training for Wildflower be a mistake or can it actually help me? I would only have about 3.5 months of marathon training after an HIM.
I like that schedule. A spring HIM will give you enough time to train for a fall marathon. You just need to really dedicate the time to put in enough miles each week during the summer and early fall.
I think it would be good for building an aerobic base but I’d be concerned that your run mileage might suffer during HIM training making it hard put in the miles safely during marathon training. I think with only 3.5 months you should try to keep your run base high enough so you can jump into the marathon program and not waste a lot of time.
Running is running. Assuming that you build a sufficient base to run well in May, the 3.5 months you have until your BQ attempt is ample time to get marathon-specific with your running. The other advantage is that you’ll be building a base during the ramp up to your HIM/IM, which will involve a lot of low-impact cardio work (in the form of running and swimming). This should leave your legs a bit more fresh for the transition over to your marathon training.
My best marathon-specific running came on the heels of an HIM/IM focus, as opposed to a marathon-specific focus. I’m not saying that it’s the optimal path, but good results can be had.
I am intending to run a marathon next fall as a BQ attempt. I am also interested in Wildflower in May. If I am serious about qualifying for Boston and needing to drop 5 minutes off my marathon PR (seems doable, but a big undertaking), would training for Wildflower be a mistake or can it actually help me? I would only have about 3.5 months of marathon training after an HIM.
Sketch season plan for you:
Nov - ~early March: train like a short course athlete, focusing on lifting speed/watts at threshold on the bike, VDot on the run. Think 40k bike TT and 5-10k runner.March-WF: take that fitness above and transition to HIM training. If you are a warm-winter athlete, you could get a head start on this by creating a ~2.5-3hr long ride and ~1.5hr long run in Feb. These should be very hard tempo sessions, with Z1-2 volume on the front and back end to get in the time.
WF thru about mid-3rd week of May: take some time off to reset your head.May thru your fall marathon: roll that running speed above, that you’ve spent months building, into full-on marathon training. Forget the swim, forget the bike, train like a marathon runner. IOW, if you’re going to do it, go all in.
That said, we generally don’t recommend that triathletes do marathons, our thoughts here, some talking heads video stuff here. But, it’s Boston, we get that. Just that there are many considerations that we like our folks to be aware of.
Wildflower is a GREAT early season race because the run is legit = should be a great goal to keep you motivated through the winter. If you don’t show up to that course with your A running game it will definitely kick your ass. I’m doing WF as well next year and will be doing a series of a 5, 10k’s, half marathons through the winter to put a goal race on the calendar every few weeks.
Good luck!
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Thanks for the detailed advice! Sounds like it is doable. I have a specific half marathon goal for the spring in mind that I may modify to fit into Wildflower. Obviously run time depends on the first 2 legs of the race, but for a well-executed race is there any tranlsation of 13.1 miles at the end of 70.3 to an open half marathon?
The fitter you are on the swim and the bike, the closer your tri run will be to your open time. That’s true across all the distances.
If your primary goal is running a good marathon, you need to consistently be running 5-6+ times per week year round. Don’t follow one of those tri-training “plans” w/ 3 runs. A lot of folks manage BQ level marathons with 45-60 mpw - no reason you can’t do that in addition to triathlon training.
Thanks for the detailed advice! Sounds like it is doable. I have a specific half marathon goal for the spring in mind that I may modify to fit into Wildflower. Obviously run time depends on the first 2 legs of the race, but for a well-executed race is there any tranlsation of 13.1 miles at the end of 70.3 to an open half marathon?
In my opinion, a “good” HIM half marathon is within 3-5’ of your open half time. >5’ and I would start to question your bike pacing first, your pacing of the first 3-4 miles of the run second.
That said, the WF run course is very hilly…but it’s also about 12.5-6 miles long vs 13.1. I’ve consistently gotten that measurement on a GPS (usual caveats there) on training runs and races on the course over the years.