Marathon. Training. Plans.
As I sit here with a glass of wine, I’m having a hard time keeping my eyes open. I think I’d forgotten how much marathon training really does take out of you.
As my first week back in Vancouver, I ended up running 4 times this week - 10 miles on Monday (my long run from week 1 was postponed one day due to the holiday), speed work on Thursday night (6 X 800m), an easy 5 miles Friday (easy for Troy..) and 13 miles this morning. Total mileage: 47k.
I often get the question - so where do you get your running plans? Easy. I make them. Here are the main guidelines I use:
- Knowing your own body and its limits is crucial. I know that if I run more than 4 days per week, I don’t recover well and I put myself at risk for injury. When making your running plans, ensure that you have enough rest days to recover - this is the only way to progress in your training.
- Incorporate a mix of speed, hills, LSD (long, slow, distance) and tempo/race pace as well as recovery runs. Typically, no more than two per week of the higher intensity runs (speed/hills/race pace).
- Your week’s total volume should increase by no more than 10-15% per week. Anything more than this and you will be putting yourself at risk for injury. Nobody likes to be injured…
- Every 3rd or 4th week should be a recovery week ie. diminish your total volume by 15%.
With only 98 days to go, my plan is already in action. This week, I will be joining a group on Granville Island on Tuesday evening for a 8-10k Tempo, Wednesday night we have a 6k recovery with lululemon Run Club, Thursday is my night for Speedwork, perhaps some hills on Friday evening and a 16k recovery snowshoe run in Whister on Sunday. Total mileage: 44k.
Happy Running!
