Marathon Training and Discussions

1

How many times have you answered this before? (Read 703 times)

    My plan is to do a marathon in Sept. '11.  I know I'll need plenty of long runs, but how many twenty-milers do I need leading up to it?  Actually, scratch that.  How many have you done?  How did it work out for you?

     

    Thanks.

    There was a point in my life when I ran. Now, I just run.

     

    We are always running for the thrill of it

    Always pushing up the hill, searching for the thrill of it

      It's definitely a common question.

       

      If it were me, and I'm guessing it's your first. I would find a training plan and follow it - at least loosely. This will take some of the guesswork out of the first marathon.

       

      To answer your question, I think I ran 2 20-22 milers in preparation for my last marathon. If you open up your definition of long run to be 15+ then I ran more like 6 or 7. This was over a 12 week plan.

      When it’s all said and done, will you have said more than you’ve done?


      Queen of 3rd Place

        Disclaimer: Sort of a newbie with only 6 under my belt and a nonimpressive PR of 4:21. I have yet to put it out there and actually race one of these things.

         

        I've done 1 or 2 final runs in the 20 - 22 mi range which has worked well for me in that I have not done the death march and am generally not that sore afterwards. I've done this even when I didn't really have the weekly mileage to support such long runs.Tried 2 and 3 week tapers which seemed pretty equivalent.

         

        I've done a full marathon at easy pace as a final long run, this worked fine, too.

         

        In countries where metric is used they'll go 30 K, which is only around 18.6. Seems like it works for them.

         

        This time I'm using Daniels' Marathon A plan as a loose guide and there are no long runs over 2.5 hrs. At my training pace that's only 15 mi. That will probably work, too, although I admit it's making me nervous.

         

        So I guess it's up to you. Every training cycle is an experiment.

         

        Arla

        Ex runner

          Thank you both for your input.

          There was a point in my life when I ran. Now, I just run.

           

          We are always running for the thrill of it

          Always pushing up the hill, searching for the thrill of it

            FWIW, I've only run one marathon before, although I did reasonably serious training for other distances back in the day.

             

            I'm following Pfitzinger's 18/55 plan, which calls for 3 20-mile long runs.  But I've been trying to slow my easy/recovery run paces down to what my HR says is truly easy/recovery.  Right now, in this heat/humidity, that's about 9:00/mi, which means 20 miles takes 3 hours.  That's a long time to be running, and I'm a little afraid of the increase in injury risk v. the aerobic benefit for that last 30 minutes of running.  So ... I've decided to do them as (a) a double of 2hrs and 1hr; (b) a double of 2.5hrs and 0.5hrs; and (c) a single run of three hours (more for confidence reasons than anything else).

             

            Not sure if that answered your question, but hopefully it gave you something useful.

            "I want you to pray as if everything depends on it, but I want you to prepare yourself as if everything depends on you."

            -- Dick LeBeau

            stfuandrun


            Lush Extraordinaire

              I just did my first marathon in May but I'm training for my second.  This is just my experience.

               

              With my first marathon, I did 4 20(+) milers. My first two 20 milers were good, not great but not terrible. The last two sucked. I felt prepared to do the distance but I was pretty tired at the end of training (I followed an intermediate Higdon plan, but altered some of it, mainly I stuck to the midweek longish run and the Sunday long run).  I finished with a less than impressive time.  There were many variables that led to that less than impressive time, the biggest being that it was my first marathon and I didn't know what to expect.

              This time, I will do 3 20 milers.  I feel AWESOME this time around. I had a fantastic first 20 miler a couple weeks ago and this last Sunday I did the fastest 20 miler I've ever done and felt great after. I could have run the whole marathon on Sunday with no problem.  I'm a little more relaxed this time around since I know what to expect. I don't feel as tired and I'm not pushing myself to adhere to the training plan like I did the first time around. If that makes sense.  I make sure to stick to the long runs on Sunday but the rest of the week varies with how I feel (between 4-7 miles depending on the day, with some speedwork thrown in lately)

               

              I'm sure my post was worthless but I thought I would throw in my experience.   Good luck!

              5k - 23:30

              10k - 49:00

              Half - 1:48:34

              Full - 4:01:28

               

              Working toward hip nirvana.

              double live


                I just did my first marathon in May but I'm training for my second.  This is just my experience.

                 

                With my first marathon, I did 4 20(+) milers. My first two 20 milers were good, not great but not terrible. The last two sucked. I felt prepared to do the distance but I was pretty tired at the end of training (I followed an intermediate Higdon plan, but altered some of it, mainly I stuck to the midweek longish run and the Sunday long run).  I finished with a less than impressive time.  There were many variables that led to that less than impressive time, the biggest being that it was my first marathon and I didn't know what to expect.

                This time, I will do 3 20 milers.  I feel AWESOME this time around. I had a fantastic first 20 miler a couple weeks ago and this last Sunday I did the fastest 20 miler I've ever done and felt great after. I could have run the whole marathon on Sunday with no problem.  I'm a little more relaxed this time around since I know what to expect. I don't feel as tired and I'm not pushing myself to adhere to the training plan like I did the first time around. If that makes sense.  I make sure to stick to the long runs on Sunday but the rest of the week varies with how I feel (between 4-7 miles depending on the day, with some speedwork thrown in lately)

                 

                I'm sure my post was worthless but I thought I would throw in my experience.   Good luck!

                 

                Hardly worthless.  I'm running my first marathon in October & found your post very encouraging.  Thanks!! Smile

                I'm compulsively sticking to a training schedule so it's good to know that it's probably best that I ease up a little mentally & enjoy the running!