My training schedule for the Columbus Marathon - Thoughts? (Read 1465 times)

EditGrid Spreadsheet by user/flfmmqp.

I don't see much value in running the 15-19 mile runs.

As you prepare for a marathon, it is also important to avoid the common tendency to carry out a long run each weekend. There is little value in such repeated efforts, and in fact such incessant hammering at the door of prolonged running usually heightens injury risk and lowers the quality of the training which is carried out during the week, in between the long runs. The general belief is that such long running is needed to prepare for the rigors of the marathon, but the truth is that there is nothing about the marathon per se which requires a weekly leg-pounder. Implicit in the philosophy of the necessity of the long weekender is the suggestion that the human body will somehow forget how to go long, will forget how to have enough endurance to run a marathon, unless a weekly pounding is administered to the leg muscles. Nothing could be further from the truth! While it is important to gradually work up to a 20- to 22-mile training run in preparation for a marathon, it is not necessary to turn your legs into chalk dust during training. As is the case with all of the distances we have studied so far, high fitness – not high training volume or a high frequency of long runs – is the factor which will produce the best-possible marathon performances. High fitness, as you have already learned, is fostered more effectively by a scorching vVO2max workout, a lactate-stacker session, some 2400-meter intervals at 10-K pace, or a sizzling fartlek effort on wooded trails, compared with inching along for 13 to 20 miles at mediocre paces. It is far better to reserve the long run for every other weekend, or even every third weekend, and to carry out high-quality efforts on days which used to be designated for the long slogs. If you have completed a 20- to 22-mile training run as part of your marathon preparations, with a good chunk of this run completed at goal pace, and if you have also optimized your vVO2max, lactate- threshold speed, running economy, running-specific strength, and max running speed during your premarathon build-up, then you will be totally prepared for your big race. ... Many marathon trainees believe that 18- to 20- mile long runs prepare their bodies to handle the rigors of a full marathon, forgetting that all they have really learned to do is run a partial marathon at slower-than-goal pace. To make your long training runs (the ones you carry out every other week or every third week during your training) relevant to the race, it is important to make such efforts race-specific. This simply means including a significant chunk of miles at goal marathon pace within the overall run. You can be very progressive in this regard: If your current long run is six miles, for example, you can include three miles at goal marathon tempo (warm up with two easy miles, cruise for three miles at goal speed, and then cool down with one light mile). Over time, you can increase the length of the long run by a mile or two per workout, until you reach 22 miles – with about 10 of those miles at goal marathon speed. ... It makes sense, in fact, to complete one race simulator about four to five weeks before your marathon date. To complete the simulator, simply run 10 miles fairly easily, at a pace about 45 seconds per mile slower than goal marathon tempo, and then – without stopping – click off 10 more miles at goal marathon speed, before cooling down with two miles at 45 seconds off marathon pace. This great workout, which involves running close to half a marathon at goal race velocity while already tired, is a diagnostic one; it will reveal whether your chosen goal is too lofty or too humble. It is also great preparation for the marathon itself, since it forces you to reel off 10 goalspeed miles when your leg muscles are already in a fatigued state. Finally, the simulator improves confidence and efficiency at hoped-for marathon intensity. Don’t forget, however, that you must build up gradually to simulator status, starting with about six total miles (with three at goal pace). Bear in mind, too, that you will need ample recovery after the simulator, completing only light training during the following week and tapering your training steadily and progressively between the date of the simulator and your big meeting with “m.” As mentioned, the simulator should be completed four to five weeks before your marathon; if you squeeze the two together, you won’t be fully recovered on race day, and you will not be able to achieve your best-possible performance.

If you want to get faster the only way to increase that time is to run faster longer.