So, I've been following the Runners World Sub 3:15 Marathon Training Plan for a number of years now with varying degrees of success. This year whilst following the plan I posted one of my quickest 5k times ever as well as one of my quickest ever half marathons. Roll on The Yorkshire Marathon last week and the legs decided that they had almost had enough at around mile 22. So through a combination of walking and running, managed to cross the line in 3:13. Not ideal.
The plan worked in a roundabout way (not how I wanted to complete the race) but I feel it's time for a change of marathon plan.
So I'm looking for recommendations and experiences of what training plans my fellow runners have used and are still using. I like the idea of the Hansons Running Method, however there are no tune up races in the plan, which is something I enjoy doing.
Over to you and thanks in advance
Comments
I know some people prefer to follow a plan to the letter, but I think allowing a degree of flexibility is generally encouraged by most coaches, and swapping a training session to a race a has several positives.
I've been looking at Greg McMillan's stuff online recently, and one of his books, and found them useful. He's pretty keen to avoid a generic plan for everyone, and has a fair bit of info about building your own plan or altering a pre-built one, taking your strengths and weaknesses in to account, and adding in tune up races. Might be worth a look, even if just to give you the confidence to amend a different training plan slightly
Don't be fooled by the Run Less, Run Faster title - it doesn't mean train less. The plans require the same hours of training as P&D, but you can still do your other sports, if that's your bag.
RLRF also gives very precise training paces - but you need the book, not the inferior online or RW versions.
- Smart Marathon Training by Jeff Horowitz
- Run Less, Run Faster by Bill Pierce and Scott Murr