Need advice for Overall Improvement...Marathon on Dec. 6th (Read 810 times)

Ben; My first thought is why are you doing 23-30 mile long runs this far in advance of your marathon? Typically your last long run should be 3 weeks before your marathon day. Since your marathon is on December 6th, your last long run should be on November15th, and should only be about 21-22 miles. The reason for this is because it takes (depending upon your base and physical make-up) about 1 day for every mile to fully recover. That's why you should do last long run of 21 miles, 21 days (3 weeks) prior to marathon. They way I see it, this should be your schedule for long runs... 9/20 = 14 miles 10/04 = 16 miles 10/18 = 18 miles 11/01 = 20 miles 11/15 = 22 miles You are increasing your long runs every other week...with a "down" week to recover. Your down weeks should be 10-12 miles. Also, you want to make sure that your long runs are between 33%-50% of your total mileage...preferably cloer to 33%. But you really don't want to exceed 50% You don't want to do too many long runs before your marathon & get burned out or get over-trained. I hope this helps. MTA: I just read your profile and I am a "Christain accountant" too

After a quick look at your log, I'd say that you should do way more non-long miles per week. Opinions differ, but I don't think anyone would recommend having your long runs being more than 50% of your total mileage. Maybe you could make those 27 & 30 milers into 20-22 milers and work on some supporting miles mid-week?

If you did 23 with no problems you should be able to finish a marathon. However, if your log is up-to date you've only been doing about 25 miles a week on 3-4 days running each week with a lot of weeks much less than, which may be enough to finish a marathon, but really doesn't seem like enough mileage to try to run a marathon for time on. Honestly I'm very surprised (impressed) that you could do a 23-miler with that level of mileage. To answer your question of how many days, how much mileage etc. only you can answer that, but you'll do better running more than you are now. Ultimately to run your best you need to run as much mileage as you can handle w/o feeling overly fatigued or getting hurt and this varies greatly from person to person. If you need to take a day or two off a week to recover that is okay, but you may recover just as well going out for a short run when you would otherwise rest. I would say not to worry about speed workouts for this marathon, again your mileage is so low that you'll reap more benefits just by running more than anything you'll get by running hard workouts, the story may be different if you were training for a mile race or even a 5K, but you're training for a marathon, just go run. I would also suggest not running the 27 or 30 mile run, the time it takes to recover from such an effort ends up wasting more training time than any benefits you get from going that long, in other words you end up leaving your best marathon on the training ground instead of in the race. You would probably be better off doing a weekly 15 miler every week from now until the marathon rather than trying to get in monster efforts that take 2-3 days to recover from, then you can run more mileage throughout the week. If you really feel you need another really long effort do another 20-23 miler at least three 3 (or even better 4) weeks prior to the race and compare to what you did this weekend. You'll still have enough time to recover from that effort before the marathon itself, but have the confidence that you could've gone a bit farther if you had to.

If you are aiming for a 4:30 marathon, especially being your first, quite frankly those 27-30 mile runs are going to do nothing positive for you. If you are already confident in finishing the marathon and want a faster time, what are they going to do for you?? You need to focus on developing the capacity to hold a faster speed longer, not build towards running ultras. This is ESPECIALLY true if what they are saying about your log is true and these long runs make up the big majority of your weekly volume. Run more days a week, and more total volume. Focus on 16-18 milers for the long runs (yes, hitting 20-23 a couple times is fine) but build in more speed. I suggest running the first 12-14 miles as usual, escalating to marathon pace, and running the last mile under marathon pace. Probably the most beneficial workout for someone in your position would be a second run during the week that is fairly long, where you build in some quality. Maybe 8-10 miles starting with like 1 mile fast, 1/2 mile easy (or by time is ok) building to where you warm up for 1-2 miles then do the balance of the run at marathon pace. I do not think you are running enough to support a third workout, which would be your interval workout, so I will leave that out. Alternatively alternate the second workout above one week with intervals the next, 800m-2 miles in length and 3 miles total volume of intervals with rest one-half to two-thirds the length of the interval and doing them in such a way that the last can be as fast or faster than the first. I am not a fan of those super long runs. Now if you ran 2:20 I could see some rationale but you are spending way too long on your feet and I bet that long run is really the only one you do during the week that is truly useful at addressing the race. FYI I've done pretty decent at the marathon and have never run more than 23 miles outside of an actual race.

Ya know what? I just had to comment, I am amazed that you can run 23 miles on the low total mileage you run per week. Do you run it all at a steady pace? Good for you man. I agree with the others that you will benefit from running more days per week at shorter distances. I'm sol surprised that you can run that far. Do you crosscountry ski or something? Do you do any other aerobic activity? You'll no doubt finish a Marathon, and 4.5 hrs seems about right, but you are capable of MUCH faster times. Just run more days of the week. If you don't have time, oh well don't worry about it. You're going to accomplish your goal anyway.

LOL...Before I packed on 40 extra lbs, I was in great shape. 20 years ago I routinely ran sub 4:45 mile.

Well that explains alot of it. I'm guessing less than 1% of the population can run a mile 4:45 or faster. A bit of a hijack but how did your sons team makeout. Playing baseball for a state championship, he must have inherited dad's genes. Unless mom was an olympic athlete or something

You're an ultra guy. You just haven't realized it yet.