Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
Hansons Marathon Method
The materials in this website are in no way intended to replace the professional medical care, advice, diagnosis or treatment of a doctor, qualified personal trainer, therapist, dietitian or nutritionist Runners's World, Part of the Hearst UK well-being network © Copyright 2017
Comments
It was very interesting listening and they guy sounded like a top bloke.
Hi Millsy.Thanks for the heads up. I am about half way through that episode and am planning to listen to the end on tomorrows run so will look forward to that bit. It will be interesting to hear about what the Elites do. The schedules I saw looked bloody hardcore
, lightyears away from an also-rans!
MR - Good to hear of your experiences using Hansons in the past, and what you are up to at the moment. Please keep us up to date. Sounds like you are following the recommendation on extending the easy mileage if the base easy mileage is well within your capability
Week 10 completed for me which is the midway point in the plan.
Plan summary pdf
A really solid week completed, with both the speed and tempo sessions going smoothly.
Taking some ideas from the book I ran today's long run progressively, adding in a couple of very slow miles at the beginning to get enough time on feet. Pace was ramped up to end the run on Marathon Pace, to bring up 16M just shy of 2 hours.
Stats week 10:
Easy 40 @ 7:05
MP 9 @ 6:15
Speed 3 @ 5:30
LRun 16@ 7:10
Total 68 @ 6:56
Not having to run 20s sounds very appealing, given the timeslots available to me for such runs.
I guess something underpinning this is the way in which a run on a given daystays with you for the next day's running. Does anyone have a handle on how fast this rate of decay actually is?
ie if you ran 5 miles a day Monday - Friday, how many miles worth of fatigue have you accumulated on saturday morning before you start a long run?
I couldn't put a finger on that Nayan. For Hanson's it is a build up from the Thursday tempo run, followed by an easy run, then a run on the Saturday where you run at a reasonable pace, before the Sunday LR, Example:
Thursday 14-16 miles, incl. 10@ MP
Friday Easy 6 - 8
Saturday Moderate 10
Sunday 16 LR
I played around with a few numbers to back-solve for this half life business. It seems they go wioth a half life of about a day. ie If you were totally tapered but ran 10 miles today, then before you run tomorrow it will be as if you had aleady run 5 miles or so.
Looking at that plan from Thruisday, you'd start Sunday's feeling like you've already run about 10 miles, so those 16 miles should simulate the business end of a marathon (in theory).
Its a nice idea. I think i'll get this marathon out the way and try it for my next one.
I agree that you will never really simulate the last 16 miles of a marathon in training. But then I feel the same with running 20 or 24 miles, or an over-distance run which I have done in the run up to previous races. The Hanson long runs should not wipe out your glycogen which could interrupt the next day of training. If anything I'm feeling far more energised now, running more miles and on more days.
Speed Ladder workout.
Tomorrow is my final speed workout for a while, which is a speed ladder of 400m-800m-1200m-1600m-1200m-800m-400m with 400m recoveries.
Every other speed workout in Hanson's basic and advanced plans totals 3 miles of 5/10k paced running. This one totals 4 miles. I'm a bit confused why they slipped this in - it is a bit of an anomaly in the text. Happy to do it all the same
do you need to be able to run without many rest days before you get into this? I still tend to need two rest days per week I must say
Good intervals MR.
For the rest day I often take a 30min jog first thing in the morning. I've found that it loosens me up nicely after the speed work session on the Tuesday. I don't feel the need to do any more than that as it serves nicely as a recovery run. If I don't so a gentle run, then I opt for a light aerobic row on an erg.
The Hanson book has the rest day as one of the opportunities for increasing the easy mileage, the others beings increased warm up / cool down, or extending the easy runs.
Nayan, the book includes two plans, a basic plan and advanced plan. Under both plans you will end up running 6 days per week. The basic plan has a slower build and initially there are a few weeks with 5 days running, before you hit 6 days per week.
On-line there are a variety of plans to buy, and I think one of them is pitched at 'getting-round' where you run less days per week.
That is not to say you have to be running 6 days a week for weeks and weeks before starting the plan. I came from 4 - 5 days per week. I am doing a 20 week plan which allowed a few weeks of easy running only for 6 days per week. Quality sessions were then gradually introduced until I was on 3 sessions per week.
Thats more or less how I'd be coming into this. Random, semi structured running for 6 months odd then Early HADD type base building, then with one marathon under my belt.
Cool - sounds like something for the summer
Until recently I did have a pilates class on a Wednesday, but its timing changed - I need to look for something else.
I am feeling a bit battered today after that Pyramid Speed session. It was far tougher than all the other speed workouts with an extra mile stuck in the session at 5K pace. Time to hit the foam roller today.
That is me done with the speeds sessions for now, and start the strength workouts from next week.
MR - which marathon are you training for?
edit: deleted post due to pc problems
Week 11
Link to summary document
Week 11 had the first deviation from the standard ordering of sessions to accommodate Wokingham Half Marathon. Tuesday remained a Speed session, Thursday was Long, and on Sunday the half marathon to be paced at GMP.
Tuesdays Speed session was a tough one, with an extra mile included in a speed ladder workout of 400-800-1200-1600-1200-800-400, all with 400m jog recoveries. That is the final speed session before the strength sessions being next week.
Thursday was run as a progressively paced long run.
Unfortunately Wokingham HM was cancelled due to bad weather / flooding. Some of my local tempo routes were also under water, so I opted to run the session on the treadmill. 16 miles, with 13 @ 6:15 pace felt OK, with heart rate settling at 85% was much better than some of the shorter tempos I have run.
The plan now adjusts back to normal over the next few days taking care not to overload with too much quality after a weekend tearing it up on the treadmill. The Hanson books provides advice / guidance on this.
Weekly Stats:
Total Miles 76 @ 6:58
Easy miles 45 @ 7:17
Tempo miles 13 @ 6:15
Long Run miles 14 @ 7:02
Speed miles 4 @ 5:30
Hi MR.
Sounds like you had another good week, with plenty of extra easy miles in there. An extra mile or two on the long run won't hurt if you are up to 64 miles
I had a bit of an accident in Iceland last year (fell over on a long run) and had to take to the treadmill for a few weeks. I soon started to appreciate the treadmill for what it is and usually do most of my quicker sessions on them now. The big down side is that you do not learn to pace yourself.
For getting fast in a short time question - don't know - there are always plenty of people faster than me. No sporting background as such - I simply cut every corner / broke every rule in terms of getting my weekly mileage up to around 40 / 50 miles per week, then started adding in tempo runs. I got away without too much injury, and this worked for marathons / half marathons, but I'm no way near the same standard at 5k / 10k races
No, I don’t miss these. The treadmill is just a different environment for me where I know I can run a full tempo / speed session without being disturbed / delayed. In the winter the other advantage is that I get some miles in a hot/sweaty environment, so a warm marathon in April wouldn’t be such an issue. Most of my running outdoors is in the dark, so I don’t really find winter training too inspiring.
At the end of the day we are all wired differently, and most seem to hate the treadmill.
Currently my head is not in the right place and running has become a box ticking exercise of late. Nothing to do with the Hanson’s schedule though – it is as varied as you are likely to find.
Week 12
Easy 54 @ 7:10
Strength 6 @ 6:01
Long Run 16.6 @ 7:13
Total 76.6 @ 7:04
Long run taken instead of an easy 10, ran as time on feet for a 2:00hr run
AR, am still enjoying reading this thread thanks
Not entirely on topic but am also interested in your TM running as most of my running this year has been indoors. Like you I found that rather than it helping my pacing when I go outside it's all over the place but am pleased to say I'm generally running faster outdoors than in for the same AHR (am a HADDer).
Spring Marathon is looming and am still considering merging Hanson's and HADDing into my own plan for a September Marathon
I'm not running any serious flat road marathons this year as 2 years of chasing PBs, GFA places and then a Sub3 time turned everything into a bit of an obsession with hitting certain mirages and paces all the time.
I'm really enjoying focusing on trail runs this year where hitting certain paces all the time is less important.