Assume you decided there was a marathon you wanted to run 12 weeks from now. Assume further that you had been running 25 miles a week consistently for the last 9 weeks but nothing longer than an hour and no speed work other than some strides. Your marathon PR is 3:20 a few years ago but that was off a more extended build with weekly mileage consistently in the 35-45 mile range. You’d be happy to run this one in 3:45 or so and not feel completely decimated when you were done.
What would your training outline look like over the next 12 weeks and how much biking and swimming would you include as cross training (assume you have been doing those both fairly regularly over the last 9 weeks as well)?
I am a marathoner who has migrated to triathlons. 12 weeks is enough if you have a base and not much time if you don’t. 25 MPW is low. Basically it is running 3 or 4 times a week with no long run.
I would run daily. Whatever distance you typically do, run that every day. The first week or two I would run mostly at an easy pace. Then I would run at tempo one day and easy the next. On the weekends I would run a long run (15+ miles). Within a month or so I would have my long run at 20 and that would be on hills, which is my preference.
As to speed work … I only do that within a run. Basically pickups. If I do track work, the shortest distance I will do is 400M. I never do strides. Most injuries I have sustained were a result of doing sprint tract work.
As to cross training. Hmmmm. When I train for marathons … I run, then run some more. But I have done a marathon and an IM in the same month and there I split time between swimming and cycling and then ran. Basically I would swim or cycle for an hour then run 6 to 8 miles.
I have run enough that ramping up the mileage causes me no issue. For some, that is a problem … so be cautious and read your body. 12 weeks … yeah, you can likely do that.
Thanks for the advice, it is right along the lines of what I was thinking: increase frequency to 5-6 times a week with some shorter runs and start building a long run.The key will be safely building up the weekly long run from 1:00 to 2:00/2:30 over the next 2 months which is a lot in a fairly short window
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Run lots. Every day. Don’t worry about speed work, just get in the miles. 12 weeks really isn’t a whole lot. I would very much recommend to include medium-length runs in addition to your long run. Those can be tough to do on weekdays, but they make the long run a whole lot more doable, and a whole lot easier to recover from. My standard diet is 1 long run, 2 medium-long runs (around 2/3 the length of the long run) and 4 shorter runs. If you feel that you want to do more than just steady running, then instead of speed work add in exercises that will help you to ward off injury.
I’d take a look at the Pfitz 12-week marathon plan.
I actually think 12 weeks is the optimal MENTAL length of time to train for a marathon. I’ve done 12, 18, and 20 week versions, and the 18 week (PFitz 18wk/70) was long enough that I was mentally done with training even before I hit taper, and while I was fired up on race day and had a great race, it was not mentally enjoyable for me to slog through those last weeks of training pre-taper due to the mental fatigue of hammering for that many weeks on end. On the Pfitz 18wk, I always felt rearing’ to race about 14 weeks into it, despite the heavy volume+speed at that point and lack of taper, definitely more mentally excited about racing than I did in the final weeks.
Unfortunately, for the marathon, I do think it does take a longer buildup to safely get to your potential, though. With 18 weeks, you can more gradually phase in the volume and intensity and likely avoid an overuse injury that you have a high risk of getting if you try and squeeze the same results out of a 12 week compacted program. I didn’t PR with my 12 week program, but I will say it was by far more fun to train for and more enjoyable to race even if I knew odds of hitting a PR were low compared to my 18/70 and 18+/70+ training.