Marathon Training Question-Hal Higdon Intermediate Plans (Read 653 times)

Hello All... I am in week 4 of a slightly modified Hal Higdon Intermediate training program. I call it the Hal Higdon Intermediate 1.5. I follow his mid-week mileage from the Intermediate 2 plan, but my long runs follow the Intermediate 1 plan. I did this becaue of one of the criticisms Ive heard of his plans are low mid-week mileage in relation to the long runs..so I wanted to bridge the gap a bit. The other change I have made was I split up the long runs. I had thought in the past that I have read that Hal put the pace runs and the long run on Sat/Sun for convenience.Ive been doing these runs Thurs/Sat. But read back through on his website that they are back to back to tire you on the first run so you run the second run slowly as intended. I'm interested in the group's thoughts on the benefits of the back to back runs--and whether I may be better served sticking to that daily schedule. One other note--Ive run 6 marathons. 2 in 2006 and 4 in 2007. But my training was poor in 2007--and Im dedicated to do my next marathon to the fullest of my current potential (My pr was my 2nd in 2007--a month and 1/2 after my first--and was over 5 hours). I know I can beat 4:30 in The Flying Pig..and so far--even though its early--my training has been going better than ever--havent missed a run. Thanks

those back to back runs were hard but they do the trick. I think the back to back runs serve the purpose...it's getting a lot of marathon distant comparable mileage in a 24hr period and prepares your body for the stress of the day. I'm just a rookie, but that's my opinion. I did Hal's Int I my first time out and came a little less than 3 min from a BQ. The next time I did his Int II and BQ'd. I think once I hit those 5-10-5-10-20 weeks, I was so ramped up that it excited me more than discouraged me. Good luck! I really liked following Hal's plans...they were easy to follow and predictable. I'm doing pfitz 18/55 now and I have to recheck the schedule every day because I never know what it's going to be.