A friend and I are training for a marathon that is now 21 weeks away.
We are going to train together (have had an excellent experience as training buddies in the past - similar pace, etc.). So we want to agree on a training plan that works for both of us. It will be our first marathon.
She picked up the Galloway book - and we ended up discussing it last night.
I have done other reading, and Galloway is so different from most. The more I read, the less I know what to do.
Let’s start with a point by point on concerns about Galloway.
- The plan calls for a 26.2 mile run in training. (That is for the beginners. The next plan up calls for a 26.2 AND an overdistance of 27-28 mi.)
I glanced at 7 other 18- to 21-week training plans out there (Higdon, Pfitzinger, etc.). Between these 7 plans, the “longest recommended run” was:
20 mi (5 plans)
21 mi (1 plan)
22-23 mi (1 plan)
Quote from Pfitzinger’s book: “My experience as a runner and coach indicates that long runs greater than 22 miles take much more out of the body than do runs in the range of 20 to 22 miles. I occasionally included runs of 27 to 30 miles in my marathon preparations and believe that I ran slower in my marathons because of these efforts.”
Galloway - perhaps anticipating criticism that his longest run is too long - counters by saying that a 26.2 is doable without injury in training if you (a) take walk breaks; and (b) run at a pace a full 2 minutes per mile slower than you are capable of.
My friend has pointed out that mentally, it would be useful to do the 26.2 in training to “know you can do the race.”
- Speed of the long run. Galloway wants you to do any given long run a full 2 minutes slower per mile than you “could” run that distance that day. This seems more conservative (slower) than most of the other plans, which seem to recommend in the range of 10%-15% slower.
E.g. When we get up to our 15 mile long run, let’s say we “could” do it at a 10 minute/mile pace. Galloway would say, run it at a 12 minute/mile pace. Others say, 11-11.5 minute pace.
I am all for avoiding injury. So on the surface, the slower pace (Galloway) sounds safer. On the other hand, at least one of the plans cautions against going too slow. (Can’t remember which one.) He says you start to lose your good form when you run too slow.
I find the idea of slowing down to a 12 minute mile pretty unpleasant. However, if someone persuasively showed me that I must do this to avoid injury, I would be more likely to consider it.
- Volume during the week. Galloway wants you to do 3 midweek runs: One at ~45 min., 2 at ~30 min. This totals only 1:45 per week.
Now, I can understand why you might limit the length of your midweek runs if you are beginner runner. For a just-off-the-couch person, ramping up the volume too fast may be a recipe for injury.
But we’re not beginner runners.
Most of the other plans recommend more volume midweek. Some of them are saying that a midweek middle distance run should ramp up to say 13 miles later in the training. Their point is that, to even make it possible to complete the weekly long run without injury, you need to be “locking in” endurance gains from a middle distance run midweek.
Daniels - the opposite extreme from Galloway - wants you to do really high midweek volume and then limit your long run to 25-30% of your total weekly miles!
Does Galloway’s low-volume approach work for some people? I am skeptical, but want to keep an open mind.
There is one thing that both of us DO like from Galloway. That is the walk breaks. After running for a few years without walk breaks, I started experimenting with them 3 years ago and they worked for me. I (we both) now incorporate walk breaks for runs over 9 miles or so. As a result, in our races we pace consistently and always end up passing a ton of people in the last few miles.
As for background: We have both been running for a few years. Both done a few half marathons. I have a good base right now, having completed a half ironman one month ago. She too has a good base - it’s been a few months since she’s run long, but she runs very frequently in any given week.
I am especially interested in what the running coaches here have to say - as well as marathoners who have tried different approaches and discovered which one has worked best for you.
Thanks and looking forward to an interesting debate.
