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Marathon training with Mike Gratton
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i fast/tempo club run 1hour-90 mins
1 interval session of 4-5 mile repeats
Would love to eventually go sub 45 10 k and sub 20 for 5 k any advice would be appreciated.
Proculus
It does depend a bit on how many years you have been training and at what level. A new runner can continue to improve cardio efficiency for many years - maybe 5 to 8 - if the training load is gradually increasing year on year and cheat the aging process.
If you have been running for many years and have already reached what could be a high level of training volume then you are likely to plateau and then start to loose pace with age.
To complicate things, some loss of pace could be due to loss of power in the muscles which happens with age and you may get some gains by doing a little less volume and picking up quality and by doing some work with weights.
EC, well done for getting on with the hill session - it's a tough session, but then sub-3 marathon won't happen by accident.
First appologies for mis spelling your name on the other forum. I have asked fellow runners advice on this and had some good feed back. I wondered what your opinion is. I am running the Anglesey marathon in September (my first), but I am on holiday in Egypt weeks 2 & 3 before the marathon. Although I will be tapering, I should still run 18 & 10 miles on the Sundays I am away. The general feeling is that its not a good idea to run alone out there (no partner), but i will have access to a treadmill. Is there a way of incorporating the longs runs somehow into the other days? Do you have any suggestions for my training schedule weeks 2 & 3 prior to the race please?
When it comes to nearer the time, please could you recommend when I should taper my long runs and what training if any I should do in the last week?
I currently run 55-60 miles a week with my long run on a Sunday being up to 18 miles at the moment. I also 2 RPM classes at the gym in the week, the only day I take off is a Saturday.
Do u think going back to schedule next week is too soon? Am going insane not being able to run and can feel 3.30 target slipping away....
I had a similar problem before the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane in 1982. I had to travel with the England team a couple of weeks before the games and 3 before the marathon and it was time when I would normally be doing the last hard speed work. So I raced 5 times in the three weeks before travelling and crashed some extra work in just before travel. I then backed off once we got to Brisbane and spent time getting over jetlag and climatising.
I came away with a PB 2.12.06 and the bronze medal.
I don't believe in too long a taper - most schedules talk about 3 weeks. Instead I believe in a shift in the training from long steady runs to short faster runs so that you fine tune.
If your long run is usually 18 miles do the last one 3 weeks before FLM, reduce it to 12/13 miles two weeks out and around 8 on the last Sunday before. Reduce the volume of your other training and concentrate more on running at 10km pace and even up to 3km into the last week (not every session, make sure you have easy days for recovery). In the last week train fairly normally until Wed. then reduce training to 20mins a day, maybe take Friday off when you kick in the carbohydrate loading (more on that closer to the time) and finish with a 15 min jog on Sat. so you can visualise running and finishing the race.
Thanks for the advice that's really helpful. I think I will do the Stafford Half Marathon on the 25th March, 1 week after the Ashby 20.
I wasn't going to train after Wednesday though!?
I think closer to the marathon you will probably find that you can go further in your 3hrs and will probably get up to around 20 miles or so....that's plenty.
You should play it by ear after the half marathon. You should have 3 or 4 easy days then try one of the 10 milers that you planned, if it goes OK and theres no residual soreness from the race then you will be OK for your long run the following Sunday. If you still feel a bit sore or generally tired cut back to 2hrs - it's still a long run and will still build up your endurance.
1) In a couple of weeks time I'm doing a 10k on a Sunday morning, but want to make the distance up to at least 18ml. I'll probably count a 2-3ml warm-up, then do the extra miles afterwards. Should I try to keep on running straight after the race for it to count as one run ? If I changed/went to the race HQ/faffed for a while when does it cease to be one run ?
2) My legs, quads, psoas etc all feel much stronger for my recent weight training. Should I be consciously thinking about using them harder when I run, or will the benefit come automatically ?
Thanks
I have run 5 marathons in all but this is the first time I have got in the FLM. My previous times are 3:31.57, 3:35.35, 3:22.23, 3:16.46, 3:19.04, the last of these was last October. All of these races I entered by training without following a schedule.I just ran one long and one tempo a week with the occasion interval.All of these I did when I felt fit and able, I decided more or less what I would do(except for the long runs)just before I left the house. The last three marathon I have aimed for a sub3.15 so this year I thought that I would follow a schedule-Pete Pfitzinger and Scott Douglas 70 miles a week which I have cut to 60 miles, which makes it about 15 miles a week more than I trained last year.
My probles is:-I am running slower than I did this time last year, my tempo runs are about 15 secs a mile slower and they are run hard,not "comfortably hard". I have just started the speed pase of the schedule and my intervals are also about 15 sec a mile slower. I am doing longer midweek runs than I did last year. I averaged 7 miles midweek but now it is between 11 and 15 miles. I think I read somewhere that the extra miles would start to show the benfits by now. I also read that miles make champions, that doesn't seem to be the case at the moment.
I am tempted to revert to one of the RW schedules that have speed work almost from the word go. Or do you thnk that I should persevere and that eventually it will all come together?
I know that you would need more details to give the correct answers but any help would be much appreciated-after 10 weeks I thought that I would start to feel strong, but the opposite seem to be the case.
Many thanks
John.
It is better to plan them than to be forced to take them. From experience work out which sessions take longest to recover from and build in rest or easy days around them.
They would have been more used to the conditions of course.