I am training for my first marathon. I'm doing it alone (no club) and I am finding the amount of somewhat contradictory advice online a little difficult to sift through and sort!
I have a rough plan which has been drawn up to fit around family / work etc and has been loosely based on Paula Radcliffe / Hal higdon plans. I am aiming for a sub-4 marathon. I have run 4 halfs. all sub 2 with the best at 1:40
I know I am likely to get a load moire conflicting advice from you chaps but am interested to get some feedback nevertheless! I sometimes worry that I'm just chasing my tail! Thanks
My current plan
Mon - Rest (Sometimes Crosstrain/ Spinning / Gym)
Tues - 8 - 10 Mile (Tempo - Hilly)
Weds - 7 Miles Race pace (8:30 min Miles)
Thurs - 7 Miles (1 mile warm-up, 2 miles flat out, 1 steady, 2 flat out. 1 cool down)
Fri - Spinning and weights
Saturday - 3 - 5 miles off road with dog! Steady
Sunday - Long slow run (Currently running 16.5 miles. Building to 20 within next 5 weeks, a mile a week extra or so)
Comments
to me ( no expert)..but there doesn't seem to be many easy runs there
You say race pace at 8:30 but for a sub 4 marathon race pace is 9:00.........are there any runs where you run 10 min miling and slower
Seren, thanks for your reply. No! I get all caught up with time and always end up trying to beat last weeks effort! I guess I'm just a bit too competitive....even with myself! I know know 9:00 should be race pace but when I say sub 4 I mean 3:45.
Should I really be running 10 min miles? After reading this I've always just gone all out!
"I've always felt that long, slow distance produces long, slow runners." - Sebastian Coe
Marv you could do worse than introduce yourself on the sub 4 thread and just join in, especially if you're training alone, it is good to communicate with people looking at the same goals.
I couldn't do that mileage myself at this point in the plan, I do wonder how far you can go and not get injured. The Tempo run looks a bit long to me, and I would want to do a longer easy run midweek rather than that "race pace run".
But for all I know you're 25 and strong as ox, if you can keep it up till Marathon Day you'll be fine.
The long slow thing Marv is very true, but it refers to people who don't balance the long runs with faster sessions. You seem to have a good balance overall, it just looks punishing rather than constuctive.
Thanks Mr P. I am fairly new to this forum and wasnt aware of the sub 4 thread, expect to see me there shortly. Cheers
"25 and strong as ox"......No! 37 and stubborn as a donkey!
But chances are you'll be knackered after running too fast in training.
It's a classic beginners mistake.
Hmm, a bit of rverse psychology....that kinda 'hit home'. Maybe I need to draw it back in a little. So what to reduce? effort, speed or mileage...arrghh the conundrum.
reduce some of the speed on a few of the runs...
Maybe I'll start leaving the watch at home twice a week and ignoring "the time"
Ok Cougie, thanks for that.