Fall Marathon Club, Pt. 2: What Plan?

Higdon's Novie 2 plan.  This will be my first stand alone marathon so I'm hoping it'll work for my goals. So far it's been good. I've had to move some days around but I've done all the miles per week give or take a fraction.  I'm fairly confident if I can make it through this week feeling good everything will work out. 

Off to do my 8 mile pace run now!

This is my 4th marathon (4:30, 4:00, 3:47).  My goal for this one is a 3:25; which seems ambitious, but this is BY FAR the best and most consistently I ever trained. 

Self-created HIM to Marathon bridge....  My "plan" has a long run each week in addition to one hard day which usually is a tempo run of 3-6mi.  A couple of those hard days are VO2-max sessions like today was 4x1000m with 3min rests preceded by and followed with 30 minutes of easy running.  80%+ of my miles are Z1/Z2.  Two of my long runs; the 17-miler on week 6 and the 20-miler this week have 7 and 10 "race pace" miles worked in the later part of those sessions.  Note that there are drop-back weeks as well.

It seems to be working fine.  It was a bit agressive coming off the HIM (~25 mi/week of running) to 35+ miles per week.  The long runs seem much easier this year as I've become better conditioned over the years.

I am following the last 12 weeks of the Pfitz 18/70 (18 Week, 70 Miles Per Week) plan with a few modifications. (Pete Pfitzinger, Scott Douglas from the book, "Advanced Marathoning" ) Because my base mileage is already consistent with the peak mileage of the plan, I skipped the build phase and and just dove directly into the last 12 weeks just as I have done with my previous marathons.

I also susbstituted much of the speedwork in the plan with progression runs. This workout is sort of a hybrid because I typically get more time at 5k Pace then the planned V02Max Interval workout, and way more time "At Threshold" then the "LT" Runs.

In the end, I find that for me, the progression run is way more race specific while still providing the sam benefits of the canned speedwork. A typical progression run is usually done on the track or maybe on the treadie and looks like this:

1200 Meter Warmup
6400 Meters @ Marathon Pace
6400 Meters @ Half Marathon Pace
4800 Meters @ 10k Race Pace
3200 Meters @ 5k Pace
400 Meter Cooldown

This workout is pretty flexible and can be shortened or lengthened to suit where I am in the plan. It is primarily intended to prepare the body to deal with the increased effort necessary to hold an even pace, especially late in the marathon.

My plan is to run the Long Beach Marathon this weekend, (As a Tuneup), then go into a "Pfitz Tweener Plan" for the month of November and and start tapering for Tucson in the later part of the month. (Tucson is my Goal Race) I have a couple of tuneup races planned for November to help gauge my fitness; Half Marathon in Mid-November and a 4 Miler on Thanksgiving Day.

My primary goal for my December race is to run a Sub-3 marathon. (IE, Run the race in under 3 hours) I may or may not make my goal but I am in for the long haul. I will get there sooner or later

My plan then calls for another 12 week Pfitz plan to prepare for Boston in April after a short rest/down period.

Something else I started doing with my current training cycle: I mapped out a course that is Point to Point with a net downhill, some rather steep hills early and then very late in the course with a big downhill finish. (This is designed to mimic the course profile at Boston) I did all of my long runs on this course and will continue to do so right up until I start tapering in April.

This will be my 9th one started (2 DNF's, 6 finishes).

No plan followed at all, haven't run longer than 12 since Boston in April.

Realistic goal is to finish.  But everyone who knows me knows I go out like a rabbit and crawl in like a slug when I'm not prepped for a race.  This one will probably be no different .......

Sometimes even the ones you are prepped for. 

Run focused plan for Oceanside Marathon Jan 25 with swim and bike maintenance.

With exception of pace runs and TT, all running and biking done in Z2/3.  Tues beginning week 7 are bricks. First 6 weeks of swim is 0-1650 plan.  Run training from Hal Higdon intermediate 2 plan.     

I'm using a Hansons brothers Marathon plan.  right now in week 5, going well. 

Here is the article that sold me on the plan.  I like it since it is simple.

http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=4447&CategoryID=&PageNum=1

I'm following the Nike Women's plan. This is my first attempt but it seems do-able

I will be following Jorge’s super special plan  inspired by Jack Daniels running philosophy. I am planning to train by pace and RPE (no HRM for me) and let my body dictate how much load I can handle. To set up my training paces I will run a 10K on week 3 or 4 of my plan and plan based on my current fitness level. After that I’ll try to run one 10K every 4 weeks to re-test and adjust paces accordingly.

The plan will follow a typical periodization progression (general to specific training) and I’ll have 21 weeks until the race (training kicked off 10-06-08). 4 weeks we’ll be just preparation in which I’ll run up to 4x 30-45 min (all easy pace) and build up frequency to 6 runs x week speed won't be important, the focus is going to be let my body adapt to load and set it up to handle greater loads in coming weeks.

Using Pfitz 18/55 plan.  Loosly followed for the first half of the plan, but following it more closely over the second half.  I would say it's working well and I'm getting more confident in my chances at a 3:15 for Philly.  The plan is probably a touch aggressive given my mileage coming into it (high 20s-mid 30s mpw), but my goals were aggressive and I was willing to take some added risk.  So far, so good.

Philly will only be my second stand-alone marathon (1st was Philly 3 yrs ago in 3:31 and my only other was IMLP last year in 4:09) and will be my first attempt at actually 'racing'.  So even though I have growing confidence in my ability, still know that execution--physical & mental--is going to be a deciding factor ('ability' alone won't give me much cushion over the needed pace).

Training for my first marathon.  Plan is to finish.

I'm using Hal Higdon's Novice 1 marathon plan.  I've been doing ok.  I had some shorter mid-week runs and a few shorter long runs (because of tris).  I think it's working ok.  I think a big part is that I was not prepared for how my body would react and how tired I would be with all the running.  It's been kind of a shock to my system.

I started the Higdon plan. I got a new coach because I was not happy with where I was so we started over.  It’s a “from scratch” plan.

This will be marathon #5 for me

My goal is 3:10.59 or faster.

I'm using the Higdon Intermediate II plan for my 12/7 Las Vegas Marathon.  I jumped into the plan at week 7 after an early Sept HIM.  I also did a standalone half-mary in mid Aug.  3 sprints and 3 olys over the summer.  So far I am following the plan almost exact and feeling good.  I do not follow a plan for my tri training and have found I like the specifics of the marathon plan.  I did my first marathon back in 1998 (4:30) but have done a spring half every year since, except this year.  This was my 3rd year of tris and I only started training smart the last 2 years.  Based on race calculators off of my standalone or HIM half-mary times I should be able to BQ - sub 3:36 for my AG.  I am targeting 3:25- 3:30.   

Good luck to all in their chosen races!   

That looks *impossible*.  Theres no way you're running 3200 meters at 5k race pace after all that.  The 4800 Meters at 10k race pace probably wouldn't happen either.  I don't get it.

Difficult yes, but certainly not impossible.

I did not make this up; this was a workout that some of my marathoner friends suggested and they do this very same workout as part of their training. (One of them just won his AG at the USATF Masters Championships at TCM last weekend)

I started doing this workout back in January and have completed it quite a few times since then with what I think are great results. The key is to "Scale" the workout shorter or longer depending on where you are in the training cycle.

I did one last week that was 8 miles total (Week 1 of my marathon taper in place of a V02Max Workout) and several of them back in June that were quite a bit longer.

The distances are not nearly as important as actually hitting your proper paces.