Help on BQ-ing in 2014 with triathlon

A couple thoughts:

1. Get in touch with a coach that is comfortable with your goals.

2. If you fear injury / your body "isn't cooperating", maybe the low volume, high intensity FIRST plan isn't the best idea. It sounds like it has already caused some injury, and is likely to lead to more.

3. If you really want to BQ, but you can really only dedicate 7 hrs per week consistently, you might have to reduce or drop the bike and swim for a while. Triathlon will always be there after you BQ. 

Run less, Run fast = injuries.

Speed kills.  

Time to get with the real program.  Most Easy, sometimes hard, lots and lots of miles. build slowly.  I'd say that if you can work your way up to 60-75mpw- that's about what it takes.  Not too many people running 3 days a week and BQing.

I think pretty much anyone can get to BQ if they have the tenacity.  It's easier for some than others- but I'll bet that 85+ percent of the population, if given 5 years and a real drive and passion- can BQ.  

It took me 3 years.  Lot's of injuries along the way- mostly all my own fault.  But I'm learning.

I like most of your planned activities.  Especially the last one.  Yes-  Get Pfitzinger's Advanced Marathoning book.  And read up on anything Jack Daniels has written.  You've posted times, but we don't know your age, gender and BQ time goal.  Yes- slow down, go long.  Marathon training requires surprisingly little speed work.  

if DonSkiMan or Scout7 chime in here- read what they say very carefully.

But they do exist...I'm one example (actually, for my BQ training period, I admit I did get up to running 4 times a week, but never more than 51 mpw and I raced two tri's--an Oly and a long sprint--in the six weeks before my mary).

To the OP:  Your post shows a lot of self-awareness and sense of priorities and it shows you listen to your body.  Sounds like you have a good handle on what might work for you based on what maybe hasn't been working previously.

One big caveat to what advice you might get, given your desire to maintain cycling and swimming fitness:  Some of the frequent posters in threads like this don't do triathlons, only running events.  They aren't juggling the cross training you'd like to keep doing.  Be aware that even though cycling and swimming don't directly improve running speed, they do positively contribute to aerobic conditioning.  A lot of comments about necessary mileage for marathon training are based on dedicating your training regimen to running and don't account for that.  Will tri training limit your marathon performance?  Very likely...I'm sure it does mine.  Does it increase the possibility of injury when you get up to very long runs?  Yeah, also likely.  But there's no law of physics that says you can't BQ while maintaining some cross training.

Good luck.

The "run a lot, mostly easy, sometimes hard" mantra is the best way to go in my opinion.  I am in the 40-44 AG and I qualified for Boston last year at my third marathon.  I bit on the mantra and trained that way throughout tweo marathon training cycles.  My first marathon was 3:26:06 in 2010, narrowly missing the BQ but that wasn't my goal.  Last year I wanted to go for the BQ and ran a similar plan of higher mileage and low intensity.  It took 2 marathons 3 weeks apart but I made it.  My peak week training was 58 miles about 3 week out from my first try last year but I carried a fair amount of milage for a few months as a base leading up to these races.

It is really going to come down to what is more important to you.  If a BQ is more important then go forward with more running, more frequent with lower intensity.  I would argue that you aren't profoundly in touch with your body if you are frequently injured.  If you are frequent;y injured your not listening and trying to push through things that are causing problems.  Most of the time you can avoid injuries that will prevent taking time away from running by dropping volume or intensity and recovering properly.

Thanks for the advice, guys.

Just finished my marathon today at 3:58. It was a flat course, but still pretty tough. It was way less than the 3:34 I'd been aiming for through the FIRST program, but still a PR. Legs weren't feeling 100% going in, and I was afraid of reinjuring myself, so I held back quite a bit in the beginning.

What I've learned so far:

I think the FIRST plan was useful in getting me to used to holding a certain pace. I was able to deal better with pain at the end of the race, because I was used to sitting at threshold on my speed workouts.

I was also in pretty good cardiovascular shape from the FIRST workouts and the cross-training. No real strain on that system from the race.

However: I think I do need more miles. Most of my pain from not being experienced enough with distance past 16 miles. My feet hurt, and some of the smaller muscles weren't used to the increased demand.

And thanks for articulating the dilemma here -- I think lots of people hit the nail on the head. I have to put more time in to running if I want to BQ. I can either lessen the triathlon -- or find more time.