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Hansons Marathon Method
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I'm training for the London Marathon in April, today was day 1 of the Hansons Marathon plan starting with an Easy 6 mile run.
Is anyone else planning on using this plan?
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Another 6mile easy run yesterday completed
I am moving the program around slightly, so will have a rest day on Saturday rather than the Wednesday so my plan will look like this:
Sat- rest
Sun-Tempo
Mon- Easy
Tue- Easy
Wed- long
Thur- Easy
Fri- Speed
my marathon PB is 3:21 so I would love to get a PB of 3:20 or under. I will see how my training goes and reassess closer to the time.
What are other peoples thoughts on the Hansons Marathon Method? Is anyone else following the plan?
Hi Gazelle, I have just finished the Luke Humphry book The Haneon Marathon Method and am considering following the beginners plan for a June marathon. Have you read the book? I like the explanations of the benifits of each run and the suggested paces to run at. However running 6 days a week would be challenging. I am a slower runner than you, aiming for 4:30. I will follow your progress with interest
Hi Zola,
Yes I have read the book and agree that it is nice having the correct paces written down
I like the idea of shorter faster runs with the cumulative fatigue rather than the standard long run once a week approach. I'm not a fan of doing lots of 20mile runs.
Have you ran a marathon before? How many days are you currently running a week? it may be worth following the first 5 weeks of the beginner programme now (5 sessions a week) and then repeating it again When you start the program. This will build a base level for you and give you confidence
i did easy 6mile last night and have just completed an easy 8mile. The first two weeks of the programme are quite easy and a little boring as most of the sessions are at the same pace, the third week has 3 hard sessions yikes so I will enjoy these first two weeks.
This will be my fifth marathon, last year I got injured half way through training
which marathon will you be running in June?
Good advise there Gazelle re following the first five weeks of the beginners programme. Makes perfect sense to me. Currently, I am running 4 days a week so stepping up to 5 now in preparation for 6 sounds good.Like you, I am not a fan of the 20 milers. I did 3 of them in 2014 preparing for Dublin City Marathon (my first) and tbh they left me drained and had a negative impact on my training the following week. My June marathon if the Cork City Marathon (my home town????). Are you on the advanced plan?
Happy new year one and all.
I have completed the last easy 6mile of the week, just the speed session tomorrow to go then a rest day
I'm looking forward to the speed session 12x400m
Zola, yes I am on the advanced plan. I picked this one as the beginner program starts off with low mileage for the first 5 weeks. I have been doing approx 20-30miles a week for the last few months, mainly tempo run 6-8miles Monday, off road 8-10miles on Wednesday and a speed session on Fridays. The other days I go out for a few miles jog or on my road bike.
What mileage are you doing at the moment and what type of sessions?
I will report back my 400m splits tomorrow once I have done them, I'm hoping the weather will be on my side and that I can run the splits in the time needed, this would be a great confidence booster
My Speed session went well today. 12x400m, all done along the river path so had to avoid people and dogs!! Our nearest track is about 30mins car drive away.
The reps went well and it felt like I was running into the wind on every other rep( ran out for the first rep and back for the second rep and repeated). Reps ranged from 1min 37sec(6:30mm) to 1min33sec(6:13mm). I really enjoyed this session and am bang on track for a sub 3:20 finish. I just need to add the marathon pace sessions onto the programme next, let's hope my pace and target stay on track.
rest day tomorrow.
Hello. I too am going for the Hanson plan. Had a disaster in my first Marathon last April in Madrid...it was completed, but it was a mess. So following research I have taken the plunge for Hanson in the hope it will help me to complete some unfinished business in the VLM. Not going for super fast, just want to feel stronger than I did in Madrid...it's a special day and I want to 'enjoy' it as much as I can. It will be nice to keep in touch in the build up to see how the plan is progressing. At present I am up to the 8 mile long run (well doing it tomorrow morning). Thing that does make me a bit, nervous is the 16mile max long run. The book though makes a lot of sense and kind of answers my dark moments last April...time will tell!
Also useful to see your interval timings...never done them before and due for the 12 x 400 on my school track...gives me something to aim for!
Just ran Seville and followed Hansons method. Would recommend it, but I did tweak it here and there . Happy to help with any questions/concerns etc
I’m 10 weeks in to the advanced schedule. Speed intervals finished, next week the strength training starts!
Haven’t missed a session yet although I’ve had to shuffle a few.
It’s a lot tougher than I think most people who just see the fact that the longest run is 16 miles would think.
I’m probably fitter than I’ve ever been on any other training plan (P+D, RW etc).
How this translates into marathon finishing times I do not know. Aiming for a sub 3:30 at the Shakespeare marathon and hoping that this will finally get me there.
Well done Muss on the marathon.
I am doing Hansons 60 - 80 plan (available on the website) with a few miles knocked off here and there.
I used the Advanced plan in the book over the summer to great effect, getting a 6 min PB at the Chester marathon (3:19)
I am now aiming for 3:15 at Manchester.
I like the lack of Medium Long Runs (P&D idea) but don't like the lack of recovery run on Monday. The cumulative fatigue really builds up over the weekend through to the Tuesday session!
The Tuesday speed intervals are killer at the end of six days of running. The Wednesday rest day is most welcome.
The Thursday tempo run pretty much map to the P&D MLR since they start at 8 miles and increase to 12 miles by the end.
Ramjet - Thanks very much. Last few weeks of training were interrupted by injury so the plan went out the window . Was originally on for 2:45:00 on the pacing tables so was more than happy with 2:53;00. Do you have a link to that plan? Did you have to pay for it?
Chomski -i found the cumulative fatigue element really difficult to deal with specifically the Tuesday Speed sessions . there were quite a few times were I got nowhere near the splits . i think it takes a bit more mental strength than other plans that I've seen.
I ran all my long runs at the long run pace (an admin error copying to excel) - rather than alternating between long run and easy . And I missed a lot of the MP runs as I was messing around with too many Sunday Races. The science detailed in the book I think is spot on and there is a great deal of flexibility in it too.
Muss - awesome time btw. Plan is here: http://hansonscoachingservices.com/coaching-items/marathon-training-program/
They cost $20. They plans include about 20 pages of training discussion so not just a schedule.
The biggest difference in the 60 - 80 plan is the long runs. They are every week and go up to 20 miles. The speed work and strength work is interspersed together rather than in separate blocks.
I am on week 13 out of 20 now. Obviously I will have to wait to see the result of my marathon before drawing a firm conclusion but my training paces are all going in the right direction.
Ramjet - Thanks I'm really happy with how it went for a first marathon. I'm going to check that plan out as it sounds similar to the changes I had made anyway. Sounds like you're making great progress. Please keep me updated.
I'm running the 60-80 for London, chasing 2:44
*. To fit in better with my work shifts I'm running an 8 day cycle, adding an easy day after the long run, so getting two days before the Tuesday speedy session. To keep to the weekly mileage, I run eight sevenths of the plan's mileage, but over the 8 days..if that makes sense!
Plan's week 13:
Monday Easy 8mi, 8x10secs strides
Tuesday 13mi with 3x2mi at HMP, 800m recoveries
Wednesday Recovery 8mi
Thursday 14mi with 10mi progression
Friday Recovery 8mi
Saturday Easy 8mi with 6x30secs build ups
Sunday 20mi, middle 10mi at MP
My 8 day version has an easy 8mi as the first day, an easy 10mi with 8x10secs as the second, then follows the rest of the week as normal.
Yes Muss. I was as worried that by having a longer period between long runs that it might not work as well, but in the Hansons' book they have an example from their elite program that works on a 9 day rotation, which a 20miler every 9th day, so that is reassuring.
Andrews - Sounds spot on. How are the paces and races going in the build up?
I'm following the recommended training paces for 2:45, though running the threshold interval sessions a little quicker than the HMP that the plan stipulates. I'm running them at between HMP and 15k pace (which Pfitzinger recommends for LT workouts)
I've managed to complete all the workouts so far, though it's been tough and my lower legs are feeling pretty sore and "twangy".
I won't do any races in the build up.
You ran 2:53 in your first marathon
? Fair play!
Andrews - Yeah started running last April . I missed some key ones towards the end but otherwise was on track for 2:45:00. I think the fact that I've not been running long contributed to me burning out a bit after 21 miles
Just wandering how all this weekend's marathoners got on after following this plan. After a terrible experience at Stratford this weekend following a traditional plan I am looking at this to see if it may be better.
Chomski, I see you had good success with it this weekend at Stratford - well done you must be delighted.
I ran 2:44:11 in London off the 60-80mpw plan.
I did extend some of the long runs though, doing a 22mi, 2 x 21mi and 4 x 20mi.
Yes Liz, very pleased with the results. It was my sixth marathon and I've never felt stronger in the last six miles and didn't come close to hitting the wall. Highly recommend it.
I'm planning on running Chester in October but will follow a P+D 12 week plan for that due to time constraints. But for next year's spring marathon I will definitely use Hanson again and try to get a BQ.
congrats andrews!!
Chomski, was your longest run 16 miles for Stratford?
andrews148, I need to look into it a bit further as i thought the idea was that you only went up to 16. What made you do the 20+ miles runs?
Thanks, Liz
Yes, 16 miles was the longest run. But I will say that it's not an easy training schedule at all as you run 6 days a week. Also, I ran more in training for this marathon than I've ever done on the P+D or RW schedules despite "only" running a maximum of 16 miles.
Hi Liz, I bought a 60-80mi/week plan from the Hansons website, as I wanted more mileage than the plans in the book offered. The 60-80 plan has 6x20mi runs, but I extended some of them to bring myself closer to running for 2.5 hours, as my long runs were at around 6:45 pace.
The Hansons advocate long runs of a distance around 25-30% of weekly mileage, and of a time between 2 to 3 hours, hence the 16mi long run of the lower-mileage plans.
Thanks all. I obviously need to look into this in more detail and have a think about how it fits into family and working life.
I haven't ran since last week. Planning to get back to it soon. Hope you are all recovered nicely from your fantastic marathons.