Marathon Training Begins

Ideally my marathon training block would be a solid 10 weeks of training with a 3 week taper, but after some rough weather, a bout of what might have been the flu, and a generally busy life, I have modified my plan.  The new plan is 9 weeks of solid training followed by a 2 week taper before I race the Flying Pig Marathon on May 4th.

That doesn’t seem like much of a change, and the coach half of my “self-coached-athlete” self tells me that it’s not a big change at all. In fact, throughout 9 weeks of specific marathon training I will be able to train more intensely.

Over these nine weeks one of my goals is to experiment with my approach by pushing the limits a little bit more than I have in the past. This is of course risky, but I think that I can learn a lot from mixing things up a little bit this time around.

Week One

I had two workouts planned, and I executed both of them successfully (never a guarantee with marathon training).  One of those workouts was what ended up being a 23 mile long run at 6:25 pace.

When people asked me about my training, and I told them about that long run, I received some very skeptical looks. However, I chose this workout with a great deal of care and purpose.  I also chose it realizing that every great training block requires a little bit of risk and this was a risk I was willing to take.

WO#1: 10 x 1km @ marathon pace or slightly faster + 1km @ moderate tempo pace

WO #2: 2:30 long run with the last 15 minutes steady

Week Two

Week Two was possibly even more successful than week one. I had two more solid workouts and kept my mileage over 80 despite feeling a little bit run down at the beginning of the week. (see 23 miler is a calculated risk).

WO #3: 16 X 400 meters @ 74 seconds w/ 1 minute rest @ 6:15 pace

WO #4: 17 miles w/ 10 miles in 55 minutes on the Pig Course

Up next I start my next two week cycle, which will include some 2 kilometer reps, a moderate 25 mile long run, and two races (Pleasant Ridge 3 miler and Heart Mini 15k).