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Abingdon Marathon
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Seriously though, I hope to do a 16 week training plan and include runs up to at least 26 miles or maybe more. I'm going to catch up on some much needed speedwork between now and June/July. I actually did a speed session today and was disappointed to see how much speed I have lost. It felt good afterwards though.
At this stage I'm going to aim for a sub 3:30 time and hope that the training is much better than for my last marathon.
have you looked at the beginners training plans?
Fr- sounds good, you know yourself how quickly speed sessions will increase your speed.
I am now running about 20 miles a week as I'm coming back from injury (normally I would run about 35 x week).
I have ordered the book 'Marathon!' by jeff Galloway, as I have his book on running and like it a lot.
I am now following his plan for hm at the moment, as i have one in 16 weeks, and then will take his marathon plan from there (end of July).
Jeff galloway advocates lots of long runs before the even, about 18 for hm and about 30 for marathon.
The most I have run so far is 21 miles, it took me 3 hours and a half! I think Paula should not worry about me just yet.
It's my first marathon, so I do not want to pressurise myself with a time, my 'natural plodding time' seems to be around 9.30 per mile so I shall be aiming
something around that figure.
This IF not injured, fingers crossed. toes too.
30 = 30 miles
Elite athletes and ultra runners will run over marathon distance in training but most peeps will only train to 20/22 miles beforehand.
I run ultras and never train over 24 miles and don't do that very often.
My friend is brand new to running and has entered Abingdon, giving herself just six months to get from "0" to "26.2".
As a relatively seasoned runner, I think that an October marathon is too ambitious a target - but respect to her for setting her sights high.
What level of support can my friend expect on race-day, especially if she's towards the back of the field ?
And what are the facilities like ? Are there regular 'quality' feeding stations ?
Any information would be useful. Many thanks.
and I'll be at the back even though I have been running for 3 years
I expected there to be a flurry of enquiries after someone suggested that Katie was going to run it naked (that was on the fetcheveryone thread) but Katie quickly put a stop to that one.
Shades, can I ask you why you would not do 30 miles in training? The rationale behind JG's training plan is that, after having done 30 VERY SLOW miles in training, you are mentally ready to take up the full distance and will even find a bounce in your step. I value your comments.
I, for one, agree with doing the distance beforehand. I fully intended to before the Bungay Marathon the weekend before last, but I had to miss almost six weeks training through injury and illness. I still had done three lots of 20 miles, and that's exactly the point I started feeling it during the marathon.
If you're running slowly and very long, you're getting plenty of time on your feet without feeling it too much and it does give you a boost in confidence.
If I ran 30 miles in training I'd need a packed lunch cos I'd be out so long and my body would probably pack up after one of those. It might be alright if you can fly round the whole thing 'slowy' in 7 min/miles but that's the only way I can see it as valuable. IMHO.
so Keith Anderson recommends slow peeps like me do not do a longer run than 3 hours in traing - even though that does not get me anywhere near 20 miles
I like the schedules from Mike Gratton on the 2:09 site that work in time on feet - make much more sense for me.
Just ask around the threads on this forum as to how long it takes to recover from a marathon and you will get a variety of answers from one week to two months or even more.
I've been running marathons since 1995 and my recovery is very swift now and am quite comfortable running marathons very close together,but I still wouldn't run 30 miles in training. I might run 15 one day and 20 the next but would not recommend that either unless you are training for an ultra.
I coach my marathon runners up to 20 miles and if they want (and if I think they are experienced enough, one run of 22 miles) so far they have all completed their marathons without hitting the wall and all achieved their target marathon times. The key to a successful marathon is running your long runs at the correct pace and on race day running the first half at the correct pace. Most runners suffer in a marathon because they started to fast.
The human body adapts to training levels and I wouldn't be so specific as to say the body can cope with up to 20 miles. For a non-runner, they would not be able to get anywhere near 20 miles before being exhausted, but for an experienced runner, it would be a different story.
To run more than 20 miles in training, I believe it is important to run at a much slower pace than race pace and therefore the after effects of the training run are not as great as running a marathon itself. Obviously it is important to refuel properly on the training run as well.
The main benefit of these extra long runs, I believe, is psychological and some people, may not need the pshycological benefit whereas others, myself included, would find a lot of benefit from them.
last time I did up to 18 miles in training, but struggled on the day
this time my longest run was 3 hours - plus some walking at either end
let's see what happens .......
Thanks for your advise they both sound good. So I will be thinking about both when I start to up the miles soon.
Just overdone it last week and am now injured, not a great start!! Did the Totton 10k in Southampton in 42:15 which was a P.B :-). But then run on the following day.
Better to get injured now than later on this year.
Manty
So much of running a marathon is due to mental strength on the day and I think it's important to have that confidence of knowing that you've trained up to 20 miles (if possible) and therefore 'only a 10k left' - although we know that 10k will be the toughest one yet.
Totally agree about pace of long runs, I advise 90secs to 2mins per mile slower than marathon pace ,otherwise as you say they won't recover.
I've met so many people that have ended up running their marathon race at a slower pace than they did their long run training and can't understand why.
beanz - you will be fine as you've done a marathon (or two?) before so you will have no doubts in your head that you can't do the distance
FR - going for sub 3:30 eh? Interesting. Hope you get a better chance to train for this than you did for Bungay.
Again it's a confidence thing. To me, 7:30 minute miling is not that fast and in the four years up to last year, I did that very comfortably at the Bramley 20. Last year was something like 7:22 minute miling. Even though the hard work for a marathon starts at 20 miles, I don't see any reason that I shouldn't be able to manage the 8 minute miles required for a 3:30 marathon.
You can point me back to this entry in October, but if I don't have any injury problems like earlier this year, I feel quite confident.
I've been struggling for a long time to reach sub 90 minutes for a half, but when (not if) I do it, I'll change the target to a tougher one.
'Maybe pleased with a pb for a few hours after a race, but then I believe I should have run better.' - I can really relate to this, I am a bl**dy perfectionist too, however when I run 7.30 min miles I am going to be thrilled! Good luck for your sub 3.30, from what you say it sounds really well achievable.
Thank you for your opinion Shades, it's really helpful.