Marathon training review

[Haynes Heaton]

This is my blog post for yesterday and I discuss how I plan to move forward with my preparation for the cape cod marathon and running in general.  I wanted to get some feedback from more experienced people.  I have been doing 70mpw for a while now with no variation and it is wearing on me a bit.  I get through my workouts alright, but I never feel very fresh.  Background: I have been running seriously for just under 2 years now.  My 5k PR is 17:29 which I could destroy now in cold weather and my marathon PR is 3:15 which I could totally blow out of the water now.  I would say that I am in 17:00 5k shape and sub 3 marathon shape now.  As you can see I am a better short distance runner but I attribute that to youth/lack of experience/lack of very high mileage which I cannot handle yet due to the two previous things.  Ok, here is the post.

First day off since flying home for spring break.  This was on purpose.  I have been at 70mpw for 6-7 weeks now and I am taking a cut back week.  I am also changing my training strategy a bit.  I am going to start doing a 3 week high mileage 1 week cut back schedule.  My high weeks will be 70-80 and my low weeks will be 40-50.  I think that it will be better both physically and mentally.  I have 15 weeks including this one until my fall marathon (cape cod) and here is what I plan mileage wise.

40

70 70 70 40-50

80 70 70 40-50

80 70 80 40-50

70 30

And then the marathon is on the sunday after that week.  It is a bit more than a 1 week taper because I will have taken a cut back week 3 weeks before the marathon.  But I hate tapering.  I am going to be trail racing or racing long on the road most weeks so that will count as 1 workout.  I want to continue going to the thursday night 5 mile races to do as tempos.  So my VO2max work should be tuesday.  My long run is a tough one for weeks that I will be racing.  I am torn between saying that a half marathon race is worth an 18-20 mile easy run and doing the long run anyway.  I could try to take long cool downs for my races but that would be difficult but probably good for me.  With a 2 mile warmup and 3 mile cooldown a 13 mile race turns into an 18 mile long run with a fair amount of sub marathon pace effort.  On weekends that I don't race I will definitely do a long trail run of 18-22 miles.  Another question is should Ido workouts on my cutback weeks?  I will definitely at least do some striders during my easy runs those weeks.

[Sasha Pachev]

One thing to consider when running higher mileage is that you will need more sleep. So suppose you can do 50 miles a week off 7 hours of sleep and feel fresh. Then you move up to 70, and continue to sleep 7 hours. This would be like running 50 with only 6 hours of sleep. You will never feel fresh.

Being a medical student finding time to sleep could be a challenge. If your sleep is truly honestly maxed out and you cannot steal any more of it, then a workaround could be cut down on the frequency/intensity of your speed workouts and especially on the pace of your base/recovery runs. Particularly in your situation. Your performance patterns suggest that due to the lack of aerobic base you have not been able to use your speed in long races anyway, so why bother improving it at this time? With your focus being the marathon, aerobic base becomes even more important, so you really do not want to sacrifice it for a speed workout. Of all things, mileage should be the last thing to go when you have to give something up.

Another "cheat" to get more miles in with less sleep is to eat better. Going to bed early (after training your body to do it) can help get more quality out of the same amount of sleep as well.

[Haynes Heaton]

I sleep 8-9 hours a night and go to bed fairly early (11pm).

I am not planning on doing any "speed workouts".  That is, workouts in which the goal is to improve speed.  I will be doing VO2max workouts and threshold workouts which I believe help substantially with training for almost any distance.  And as your guide says, once you are doing 6+ miles 6+ days/week you can start doing some faster running.  I am doing more than that much distance.

I believe that 70mpw consistently and 80 occasionally is what my body can deal with at this point.  I am not going to do more than that yet.  I have not been running for nearly as many years as you have.  So having said that, my questions are
1. Will cutback weeks help/hurt/not affect my running
2. When and how much (concerning cutback weeks)
3. Workouts on cutback weeks.  Yes/no/other (you may have answered this, I gather you say no if it means I can do more mileage)
4. Long runs on weeks of trail races of 12+ miles (keep in mind that it is a race, and trails are much tougher than roads)?  Should I add some warmup/warmdown or find another day that week when I can do a true long run?

[Jon Allen]

Here is my opinion:
1+2.  Cutback weeks are good, in general.  They help avoid burnout and injury.  Rule of thumb is 3-4 weeks hard, 1 week easy.  That being said, I think cutting back from 70-80 mpw to 40-50 is a bit drastic.  20% cutback would probably be better, unless you are real worn down or fighting injury.  So more on the order of 50-65 for your easy week. 
3. Yes, still do some form of up-tempo workouts on your easy weeks.  Your week should be shorter mileage-wise, but intensity of easy and hard runs should be roughly the same.  Maybe 1 tempo run.
4. If you do a trail run of 12+ miles, I would try to make that day your long run.  Do a long warmup and long cool down.  It is true that trails are tougher (slower), but they are actually easier on your body in terms of pounding and recovery.  But if you want a different long run, treat the trail race as your hard workout for the week and do an easy, slow long run on another day.  Whichever seems best to you is fine.  I am doing a 16 mile trail run in a few weeks, and will just add a few miles to get me in the 18-20 range.

[Haynes Heaton]

Thanks, that sounds reasonable.  Its just gonna be tough to make myself do 3+ miles warm down after a half marathon trail race.  It'll just have to be darn slow.  Only thing that would really make it not doable would be stomach problems.  And the cutback week advice sounds good as well.

[Jon Allen]

I sometimes do 1-2 miles right when I get up the day of races to warm up the body, before heading to the race.  Or don't stop for more than 5 minutes after the race before starting the cool down- makes it easier than waiting a while then going.

[Haynes Heaton]

True.  I did a trail marathon on June 1st and because I wasn't too well prepared and it was on trails I took it fairly easy.  I ended up finishing really strong and when I got to the finish line, I was like, why should I stop running now?  But after 10 minutes of sitting around waiting for the post race pizza to arrive I could hardly walk, lol.

[Sasha Pachev]

My favorite workout for the marathon is to warm-up 2 miles, then race a half, then cool down 3. This is the most pleasant way to get in 20 miles. During the race you do not care how bad it hurts because it is a race and it goes by fast. The cool down  is a nice contemplation time, so it goes by fast as well. And it is also a very effective way to build glycogen storage. I've heard of studies that demonstrated that running a hard 10-12 mile tempo was more effective for your glycogen storage than many other forms of training. And based on experience I am willing to believe it.

[Jeff Linger]

Is there a good rule of thumb for miles per week in relationship to sleep?