fake it till you make it
I love to read about running and training just as much as I like the running itself. Gives the Type A part of me joy to plan/tweak/re-plan marathon training.
I've only run three marathons. First one used a beginner program from our local track club and got to the finish uninjured and relatively happy with my time. 2nd used Pfitz 18/55 and a huge PR (probably mostly from more years running and more overall mileage). 3rd marathon no plan, training put on the back burner, and slogged through an incredibly painful race.
For Boston 2013 I'm planning to do Pftiz 18/70. I think. Probably. But then last night I picked up a copy of Hansons Marathon Method and well, its giving me some food for thought on tweaking some things wtih Pfitz, except I'm not an experienced enough runner to know what the heck I'm doing yet with changing things in plans.
So, what plans have you used? What's been your favorite? What's been your worst? Or if you're a do-it-yourself planner, how's that working for you and at what point did you get confident enough to do that successfully?
#dowork
Jen - I kinda like to do something different every cycle. My first marathon I used Higdon Int II. My next 2 I developed myself with a crunning coach friend's stamp on it. My fourth I did Hudson #2 and felt that had me prepared well. My last one I hired a coach and probably best cycle to date even if I did not get result i wanted. 90% sure I'll use Hanson for my next one this fall. Santa bringing me book and can't wait to read it. Really like the philosophies they preach and really make sense to me. Never did Pfitz but have book and read it more for reference than anything else.
PR's - 5K - 20:15 (2013) | 10K - 45:14 (2011) | 13.1 - 1:34:40 (2013) | 26.2 - 3:40:40 (2014)
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I've only got three FMs under my belt, and I have to say my plans have simplified radically each time. I was trying to follow Pfitz on the first one, but blew it after a tune up HM when I got really aggressive with a bunch of 1200 meter, or maybe 2,000 meter intervals.
I finished, but it wasn't pretty and I had to take some time off (exactly a year ago).
At that point, for my second cycle I decided to do basically no speed runs for a while, and only did a couple tempo runs pre-HM tune-up race (10 second PR at 1:32) and before the actual marathon.
Since I finished that race without pain (3:27), but feeling like I was on the edge, I continued with the no-speed routine. Again, with just a bit of tempo work in the few pre-taper weeks. Other than that, just a lot of running at and around 8:30 - 8:50. Often a bit faster, sometimes slower. A bit of short tempo work in the taper put me in the mood for a 6 minute PR.
The thing is, I'll still pore over the sheets in Pfitz, but it's the Hudson charts in the back I really want to try. I really like the Hudson approach in Run Faster and it's my goal to do my own plan based loosely on one of them. I especially like the idea of multi-speed workouts he promotes.
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