Forums >Running 101>How to keep the fitness level after a marathon?
The obvious answer would be to keep running a lot. However, I don't feel running 40 or 50 miles every week. Then I don't want my fitness to drop too much. If some day I feel to race a half or a full again, I can build from it. Would running something like 20 mi/week maintain my fitness level?
5k - 20:56 (09/12), 7k - 28:40 (11/12), 10k trial - 43:08 (03/13), 42:05 (05/13), FM - 3:09:28 (05/13), HM - 1:28:20 (05/14), Failed 10K trial - 6:10/mi for 4mi (08/14), FM - 3:03 (09/14)
Not for long. If someone has the secret to maintaining say 100 mpw fitness while only actually running 50 mpw please share.
Early this year I was putting in 25 mile weeks. Hardly anything was "easy".
A typical week:
One or two 20-30 min tempo at 10k-HM pace
Two 2.5 mile sessions of mile pace
Easy pace was about 60-75 seconds lower than what it was in the past.
I was much faster after going through this. But, I was pretty beat-up. I guess my point is that low mileage is possible and it depends on what you want to get out of it. Another way to stay in shape would be to run and take up another sport (ie swimming / biking).
And we run because we like itThrough the broad bright land
My current plan is to reduce running to save time for strength and flexibility workout. I lost quite a lot of my strength and flexibility after focusing on the endurance for some months. 6 months ago I followed 50pullups.com program for 4 months starting from 5 and reached 30 pull-ups, now I can hardly manage 10. The yoga routine was used to be quite easy for me, now it is rather difficult. I guess I have to compromise my endurance to strength and flexibility if I don't want to spend extra time on running.
My experience has been that you can scrape through extended periods (2 or 3 months) of 20 to 30 mpw running and keep a reasonable running fitness for distances up to the half-marathon IF you can get some intensity in that running and, ideally, if you do aerobic cross training too. I have found that a 50 minute indoor spinning session couples very well with lower running mileage. I have also found it best to still run at least 3 times per week, no less than that, even if 1 of those sessions ends up being pretty short. Even say 30 minute negative split runs, for instance, will help. Just my 2 cents.
Of course, you will still lose running fitness, but not as much as you might fear and it shouldn't be difficult to build up again to the longer distances as you suggest. Proper marathon fitness though is another story, you will lose a lot more of it simply because... you will have detrained from it.
Feeling the growl again
This. Intensity will hold the fitness better than easy running, volume being equal. But over time the lack of volume will start to show.
At the end of my peak fitness I had been running 3500-4100 miles per year for several years and doing long cycles of 80-120 mpw. Then in short order I started my career, had a kid, and bought a house. A few months into it I was still running 60-80mpw but performances were already dropping. It's very demotivating to be doing 70ish mpw with regular workouts and do nothing but slow down the rate at which you get slower.
Maintaining some base fitness will make your ramp back up to top shape quicker. But don't think you are going to run less and stay close to the same fitness.
"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand
I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills
Interval Junkie --Nobby
I guy I met here in Chicago only runs about 30-35mpw and is a 2:59marathon 42yo. He says all his workouts are hard. He doesn't do any easy runs. I think he's a odd-ball. But, there it is.
2021 Goals: 50mpw 'cause there's nothing else to do
not bad for mile 25
I think he's gonna hurt himself, or at least I would hurt myself running like that.
Its important to remember that everybody is different. But, running a marathon at a slower pace than your easy / warm-up pace is likely not the hardest thing. Especially if you have a long history of running.
Maybe he's very talented! I'll go out on a limb and say he could go much faster if he ran more miles! Maybe not that much of a limb though.
1. Give yourself permission to recover. Say 1 - 3 weeks very easy, even with several days off. 2. Then begin a training cycle for a new, presumably shorter, target. If you just drop back to running 20 mpw easy you definitely will not hold onto your marathon fitness level.
In the long run, spaniel is right, as he usually is. Lack of miles will start to show. That's inevitable. Put another way, miles don't lie.
- Joe
We are fragile creatures on collision with our judgment day.
I know a guy who was about 40-41 years old, typically did not much more than 3 15min treadmill runs over lunch at work per week, and was still able to break 15min for 5K. Of course he ran 3 miles in those 15min, had several decades of 4000-5000 mile years in his past, and once beat Bill Rogers in a marathon.
Moral? Yup, there are some very talented people who can do a lot off not much. Especially if they have a history of doing a lot of training in the past.