Pfitzinger Question (Read 137 times)

I am not a training expert, I can just tell you what I did. I used the 70mpw plan 3 times. The tough part for me in some cases was finding races on Saturdays - a Sunday race will definitely screw up that schedule, because he likes to give you an LR the day after the race. At various times I did 5k, 10k, and HM, because I wanted to race different distances. When I made it an HM, I did add a mini-taper/recovery. In which case it was OK for the race to be on Sunday. If you can't find a race, I would certainly just sub a time trial, or LT run of comparable distance.

This is going to be a pretty big jump from no speed work to a Pfitz plan. His plans are pretty tough (although I'm not as familiar with the 55mpw plan). I think speed work is harder on the body than higher mileage; increasing both at the same time is risky. But you do have plenty of running history so you might be OK.

I did two half marathons when I first did the 18/70 plan. I didn't really taper, but did an easy pace on the runs leading up to it. I got PRs in both of those races. The high mileage I was doing helped me to recover pretty quickly and I was still able to handle the long run the day after the race. I may have done a time trial or tempo for one of them, or just not worried about it.

I say do the half and taper a bit if you feel you need it. Otherwise do a LT or time trial on your own. These training plans from any coach are never set in stone. You are allowed to mold them to your needs. I rarely have a full week of doing exactly what the plan says to do.

I am now on week 5 of the 18/70 plan for a March marathon. I've already shifted some miles from one run to another and moved a MP run so I could run long with some running buddies on that Sunday.

two options for the 1/2 marathon

Run 10 miles at marathon pace and then run the last 5k hard.

Or

Run the 1st 5-7 miles at easy pace and then race it in.

 

But then I don't get to use the race to determine race pace for the marathon.

Yeah, I would vote to race your half all-out. You have 6 weeks to recover for the marathon which is plenty. And a mini-taper/recovery is not going to set back your training. I would generally cut out the last hard workout before the race and the first one after, and consider the race (plus warmup/cooldown) to be your LR for the weekend. Just be cautious on the recovery side; racing a half is serious business.

I've generally not had my best HM races during marathon training, presumably due to not being very fresh. Other people have different experiences.

Personally I would go with the half to get a good predictor for Boston. But people are different with recovery. You would have to tweak the schedule a bit, but that's fine.

The races serve a few purposes.  They help get you mentally prepared.  They make for a good workout.  And most importantly, they give you some good feedback on pacing.  I'm very analytical, and I have used the results of my 10ks and all of my training notes,  to correctly peg my marathon finishing time within a 3 minute window for my last 4 marathons.

My suggestion would be to try and do 5ks then if possible.  If you keep good enough notes, you should still be able to make some prediction for your marathon pace based on it.  I also think the half marathon might be a reasonable compromise.  I would definitely race it full out.  You'll want to make the week of the race an easy one, as well as the week afterward... I believe pfitz even talks about half marathons in Advanced Marathoning and isn't negative about it.  If you have bad luck on the weather though, then you've lost your data.

A 10K time trial is only useful if you have the personality that you will really be able to race it legitimately.  That's hard to do.

Transitioning from Higdon to Pfitz, in general expect that you may need to slow down the pace on your recovery ones if you are doing more speed work than you are used to.  Also do your best with the speed work, but don't panic if you struggle with the long marathon runs or the long tempo runs.  During my last training cycle, I failed at nearly every important long run, and my paces were slower than before, but I wound up with an 8 minute PR.  The interval work later on in the program will tell you if your goal is really too hard.  My failures were always weather related, and though heat won't be a factor, the weather will be in PA now (on that note, fellow Pennsylvanian about to hop on the treadmill, because no way I'm running outside right now after 14 miles there yesterday in the dark wind)!