I am thinking about doing the Rocket City Marathon and went to it’s main page. I have my own training schedule (modified Hal Higdon’s) for marathons, but like to see how it differs from others. I saw a link to their marathon training guide and couldn’t believe this schedule. It wasn’t just for advanced runners either. It max’d out at 70 miles per week, but nowhere in the 26 week schedule do you get a day off!!! When I first saw this I figured I was reading it wrong, but I printed it out and looked again later and still - not a single day of rest. I’m supposed to run 23 miles on Sunday and follow that with 5 miles the next day?! I’m not new to marathons (ran 5 last year) and I always take a day of rest after any run 16 miles or more. Isn’t this overkill? Check it out and I’d like to hear what you guys think. Maybe I’ve been too soft on myself and need to step it up?
Was the 5 miler an active recovery day? I am presently training for an Ultra on short notice. I will not be taking days off unless I get serious body signals to do so. Ran long on Mon. light 3 miles on grass for recovery yesterday.
It says to alternate “hard day/easy day”, but I am a firm believer that it will do your body more good to give it a complete day of rest after a long, hard run.
Seventy miles per week is not that much for marathon training at all. Especially considering a 23 mile run included in that mileage. With that being said, 23 miles is too far to be running for a workout. Unless you are a fast runner (ie a sub 2:20 marathon) then the time it will take you to complete this run will hurt your body too much. The limit really is around 20 miles for a long run. The best bet would be to try to put in a few doubles throughout your week. This will boost your mileage, and get your body the miles without the pounding you take from running strictly singles. The more mileage you can build up to (while staying injury free!), will only benefit you in a marathon. Speed work is pretty much to be left alone until about a month or two away from your race. By speed work I mean anything shorter than mile repeats. After you hit your peak mileage, that is when you lower your mileage and up your pace. It wouldn’t hurt to run a 10K or two during your training to gauge a pace for your race. Unfortunately I couldn’t download your training guide, so I probably could be covering the same things you already know. Also, a little background info would help so we could help with your expected pace. By this I mean, previous mileage, marathon times, 10K times, injuries etc. Good luck!
I’m 6’4" and about 200lbs, so I’m no speed demon, but I run most marathons between 3:50 and 4:00. I have had knee problems over the past year so I tend to ease off the speed. I would like to break 3:45 in this one. It’s a flat corse at a cold time of year, so that’s to my advantage. I am signed up for my 1st IM next June, so I guess I need to step it up anyway. I’ve just heard so much about how rest is a part of training.
I think everyone’s body trains a little differently. I personally will be injured if I run more than 5 days/week and sometimes even 4. I have a friend who regularly puts in 70+ weeks who would never dream of taking a day off, including the day after the marathon.
how many marathons have you run? I ran my first last year on no more then 55 miles per week, with a few 20 mile long runs. Not taking a rest day will lead to:
burnout
chronic over use injuries like shin splints and the like
further aggravating your knee issues
Considering how large you are for marathon speed, that much weight is alot on your body. 3:45 is very do-able on less then 50 miles per week.
Jack Daniels has a new book out, the 2nd edition of his Daniels Running Formula, another excellent book is Pete Pfitzinger’s book on marathoning.
Daniels is good, but the Vdot and Lactate theory can get somewhat confusing. As far as your workouts, I would mainly work on your endurance. Long “steady” (as opposed to “slow”) distance will be great. By steady I mean “conversation pace.” Speed will coome, I promise, if done at the correct time. Speed work is the most common cause of injuries, due to the high demand of stress it places on your body. Long runs, an hour or more, help you build strenght, endurance, as well as help you physiologically by creating more cappillaries which will carry more blood and O2 to your muscles allowing a greater work rate. Like I said before, build up as much of a base as you possibly can, and the speed will come once you start to taper. If you really feel the need to run faster, do some hills, or maybe a Fartlek (intervals of hard and fast running at your own discretion) once every couple weeks.
I’ve done 7 total. I think my knee problems are from doing 5 of those in 2004. I want to squeeze one more in before I start training for IM Coeur D’Alene next June. I think because of my size that I need at least 2 days of rest per week (from running). In my other schedules, I would max out at 50 miles per week with my longest run being 20 miles. I think for this next one I’ll max out at 60 miles, with long runs of 22. I think anything more than that is too much.