In my third year of IM racing and hoping for best race on July 27 (sub 10:30, for sake of discussion). I plan on a hard effort at the Boston Marathon next month, hoping for PR (sub 3:00), and feel good about my training thus far. Wanting to get some thoughts on running (not racing) a second marathon 5 weeks after Boston. Will it be too much, even if I use it as a medium-effort, long training run?
Without knowing you or your training which is really not fair, but I’ll go ahead anyway and say that running ANOTHER marathon 5 weeks after Boston and before a July Ironman race would not be a good idea. You could do it. But if you are a 10:30 IM athlete you are likley concerned about your performance - that performance is contingent on you getting in key work-outs at specific levels of intensity. If you are recovering properly from the marathons you will be spending too much down time during key training time for the July Ironman.
I would even go so far to question the Boston Marathon attemp in April. Boston is a brutal course. Legs get beat up on that course like you would not believe. Many that I have spoken to who have done Boston talked about an extraordinarily long recovery period. For a really good go at an Ironman in July, that month after Boston, would be a key time for some very specific Ironman training.
Just my thoughts.
I wouldn’t do it. 26.2 miles will trash you too much regardless of the effort. You will compromise your training.
Agreed. Marathon and Ironman are very different events. If your key goal is the IM, I wouldn’t do Boston. On the other hand, Boston is pretty cool, so you could say what the heck and do it. I once did IMs 5 weeks apart w/ both in the time range you are looking for. these are still my 2 fastest when others said i couldn’t do it…I just wanted to travel both places and THAT was my priority.
Good Luck,
david
I was actually toying with the idea of running a Marathon this March as part of my long training run. Then I got sick and totally bagged the idea. Anyway, I’m getting better but still can’t resume trraining for another week.
But my coach convinced me that the ONLY thing running a Marathon is going to do is make me tired and interupt my triathlon training. Remember, it takes between 8-12 weeks to recover properly from a hard run marathon and you don’t want to risk loosing quality training following the weeks after your race.
If you want to run, go have fun. I wouldn’t run it. I’d go out and run some half Marathons or 10 milers instead. BUt just be mindful of what you’re trying to do w/ at IM.