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Spring and Autumn marathon advice
Hi,
I recently ran my first marathon (Brighton), didn't achieve what I had hoped for and am now considering training for an Autumn marathon - fingers crossed for a GFA for London. Someone very kindly recommended the P&D method for next time, so am armed with the book and looking at marathons online. So far I have shortlisted Abingdon and Yorkshire, can anyone recommend any others and is there anything I need to pay particular attention to inbetween now and starting another training cycle to give myself a good solid chance. Thanks!
I recently ran my first marathon (Brighton), didn't achieve what I had hoped for and am now considering training for an Autumn marathon - fingers crossed for a GFA for London. Someone very kindly recommended the P&D method for next time, so am armed with the book and looking at marathons online. So far I have shortlisted Abingdon and Yorkshire, can anyone recommend any others and is there anything I need to pay particular attention to inbetween now and starting another training cycle to give myself a good solid chance. Thanks!
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Comments
In terms of training I guess an 18 week schedule would mean you'd start in early to mid June, depending on which race you choose. First of all, make sure you give yourself enough recovery, take it easy for at least another couple of weeks. If you've decided on which program you want to follow I think the main thing is to get to the start of the program comfortable running the required first week mileage but you also want to be feeling pretty fresh when you start the schedule as the 18 week programs are pretty long and tough. Up until June I'd be doing just doing whatever sort of running you enjoy the most. I'd be trying to make it mostly easy running with strides a couple of times a week. Might be good also to do a few shorter races or go to the occasional parkrun for a bit of a tempo session if that's what you like.
There's a P&D spring marathon thread that will probably be winding up soon but there will be an autumn one starting up soon enough. We're pretty friendly, so jump onto the spring one if you want some P&D advice and get onto the autumn thread when it starts up.
I'd also add that all reports indicate that Brighton was particularly difficult this year. Depending on how far you were from your target/GFA then take that into consideration. There was some discussion of Brighton on the P&D thread and elsewhere here.
The great thing about the P&D book is that you understand why you do the training sessions. So many times people train at overly fast paces for their long runs and get a) injured or b) too tired. The MacMillan website also has a useful training pace calculator.