I do less and less track work these days since my focus is the marathon and too much interval work on the track has left me injured and no faster----in fact my fastest half-marathons and marathons were faster after training cycles with mostly tempo running and some striders in runs every now and then.
I haven't done intervals since last December when I was training for the Disney half. My question is, will fartleks or intervals help me with my marathon training? At my age (and this being my first marathon), my goal is just to finish - and not die in the process. I know that speed training will help me become faster, but should that be my goal at this point? I do worry about the injury aspects, as I've been having some problems with my left foot.
At my age (and this being my first marathon), my goal is just to finish - and not die in the process. I know that speed training will help me become faster, but should that be my goal at this point? I do worry about the injury aspects, as I've been having some problems with my left foot.
If your goal is to finish a marathon and enjoy every step of the way my suggestions would be just to find a simple training plan, run your miles, do a faster 2-5 minutes run once a week and you will be ready to cover the distance. Please don't mix speed with miles the first time around...they don't mix well together.
For speed, listen to jdmom and Karin...they know what they are talking about.
Great thread, btw.
"Champions are everywhere; all you need is to train them properly..." ~Arthur Lydiard
Marathon Maniac #957
Please don't mix speed with miles the first time around...they don't mix well together.
I agree with this. Ramping up your miles is enough for your body to deal with this cycle. I agree with the others that tempo and fartlek should be plenty.
Life is a headlong rush into the unknown. We can hunker down and hope nothing hits us or we can stand tall, lean into the wind and say, "Bring it on, darlin', and don't be stingy with the jalapenos."
I meant to mention in my earlier post ... "speedwork" means different things to different people. You kinda see some sense of this in the wide variety of posts on the subject.
Some lump in continous tempo runs and hillwork as "speedwork". (Like me.) Others don't consider it speedwork till you are running repeats and intervals on a track at paces faster than tempo pace (apporx. 5K or faster).
But really, if you're running at a harder pace with an elevated heartrate for a good period of time, it's all good!
Bill
"Some are the strong, silent type. You can't put your finger on exactly what it is they bring to the table until you run without them and then you realize that their steadiness fills a hole that leaks energy in their absence." - Kristin Armstrong
Prince of Fatness
It's enjoyable for me when it's not work and instead it's about switching up paces to avoid a rut and strengthening other muscles
This is the key for me. I have found too much of anything to be no good, even easy running. Sometimes I have fallen into the trap of having some aches and pains, and therefore run everything slow, but it doesn't help. I go out and run some strides or a few tempo miles and, walla, no more aches and pains.
Variety is the spice of life when it comes to pacing for me. I just make sure that I am sufficiently recovered before going into a speed session.
Not at it at all.
Go out and run fairly steep trails for 3 hours, in which half the hills you might need to hike. Seriously. You get the aerobic side of LSD, and the power build up in your legs all in one workout. Do that just twice and I bet you will be a faster runner, sans speedwork.
FWIW, those 800's never made me faster. But mileage and hills did.
"During a marathon, I run about two-thirds of the time. That's plenty." - Margaret Davis, 85 Ed Whitlock regarding his 2:54:48 marathon at age 73, "That was a good day. It was never a struggle."
Options,Account, Forums
Along the lines of play and having fun, here's a couple group speedwork things I've enjoyed.
* "Indian Running" -- run in a pace line -- well, not really, but run in a line. Person at the back speeds up and runs fast to get to the front. After that the next person at the back does the same thing. Etc. No clock or fixed speed goals, so it is (or can be) more about fun.
* Relay -- Last time we did this, we had three people, so I put one at each side of the track, then I started -- ran a fast 200, then tagged the person waiting to take off, and I rested until they got to the other side, tagged that person, and that person raced around and tagged me. We went until we'd finished 5K, to see how fast we could run 5K as a relay -- we were fast It was fun.
Another way to use relaying is when one person is faster -- a couple other people can try to keep up or beat the faster person by working as a relay. Some competitive thrill can be fun.
Oh, another one I've done is fartlek where you take turns calling the next interval. Whosever turn it is, gets to pick the next speed interval and how far it will be ("to the first cow"). After a while I like to throw in funny stuff -- "run backward to the end of the stands" -- or "skip sideways to the barrel".
It's a 5k. It hurt like hell...then I tried to pick it up. The end.
I love it when amores perros post around here.
Queen of 3rd Place
Lots of good ideas around here, I like making it fun!
I am new to harder workouts (after a couple of unsuccessful previous attempts), and am really enjoying hitting the hills right now (trail runs or doing the XC course + hill repeats) - doing the hills seems to be making me feel stronger and less achy, go figure.
Once in awhile I throw in an unplanned faster mile or two (when it feels good), with the idea of making this habit more regular, but again, only when I feel good. I can't imagine trying to schedule this kind of workout.
Ex runner