Marathon Recovery and starting new training for Marathon 12 Weeks away.

[Nate]

Trained to run a 3:15 PR in June, but failed due to heat of the day.  Want to try again in 12 weeks from now. Hamstring and achilles area pain required very limited miles in the past month since marathon.  I trained 45-50 miles per week for last marathon.  Wondering how many miles I should realisiticly plan for in these first few weeks since I have ran no more than 10/week this past month.  Definitely do not want to overtrain and have those pains re-surface to prevent from even being able to race, let alone try for a PR.  Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.

[ChromeDome Steve]

I'm not experienced by any means, but I would think that if you're not able to get up to 35 miles/week in the next 8 weeks, you'll probably not be able to finish a marathon in a healthy way, let alone PR?

My wife has done many marathons and she tells me her minimum is a 15mi long run + your usual weekly runs (30-40 miles total) before you consider trying a marathon, and that's if you've *already* got an aerobic base or prior marathons in the recent past -- which it sounds like you might.

I guess you just have to keep adding miles over the next month and see how it goes? Interested to hear how it comes out for you.

(I'm targeting my first marathon in Dec. and am just now getting to 30mi+ per week. And Dec. is starting to seem like barely enough time for me. Yikes.)

[Sasha Pachev]

Nate - first, not a whole lot of ideas because I cannot see the specifics of your training or the details of your race. The difference between our blog and other running message boards is that we make comments with the specifics of your training in mind. When those specifics are not available our advice is not very meaningful, we can only share general principles.

But I'll do what I can. Most of what you will do in the next 12 weeks will bear fruit 6 months from now or later. In 12 weeks you will harvest the fruit of your training in the preceding 6 months, 12 months, 2-3 years. Is it yet worth harvesting?

Regardless, you should continue to build your base. So there will be something to harvest in a year, two years, three years. Do not make race plans 3 months from now that will negatively alter your preparation for a race a year or two away. That does not mean you could not race sooner. Just do not think about it. Train through it, do a minimal taper, treat it as a hard training run. Do not change your natural flow of training because you have signed up for a marathon 12 weeks away.