How to increase speed while training for first marathon

[Aimee]

I am frustrated by marathon training schedules that are widely available. They seem to either be too easy (i.e. 3-4 days of running per week) or involve a volume of speed work my body is not prepared for. I would love some guidance on how to train for a marathon while moderately increasing my speed.
Currently I am nursing a sore achilles, which was brought on, I think, by beginning speedwork to abruptly. Once I return to my previous level of training (30-35 mi./week 6,5,off,6,4,12, off) what would be a reasonable regimen to prepare to run a sub 4:00 marathon? My training pace for easy runs is about 9:30/mi. long runs are about 10:30/mi. TOU 1/2 Marathon last weekend average pace was about 8:45/mi. I think.
I have been running for about 1 year, and have only done 2 races - the Speedy Spaniard 10k in July, and the 1/2 marathon I mentioned

[Jon Allen]

Aimee

The general philosophy on the blog is that the best way to train for a marathon is primarily by base training 6 days a week.  As you increase your weekly mileage, you will naturally get faster.  3-4 days a week may help you finish a marathon, but will not give the same results as daily running.  And speedwork can help somewhat once you have a solid aerobic base (at least 40 miles/week, preferrably 60+ miles/week).  But simply running every day and building weekly mileage will help the most.  Long runs can be added as part of this normal mileage.

There have been previous posts on the forum you can read about this.  Here is an example: http://fastrunningblog.com/forum/index.php/topic,1051.0.html

Hope this helps.

[Eric Day]

Almee, well maybe I can help a little, specially on the achilles part.
Last year I hurt myself quite badly, both achilles. I suffered the problem for most of last year, even after going to doctors & therapies which seemed to do nothing.
Then I decided to help my achilles heal, by, believe it or not, running ! yes, against the suggestion of my doctor. What I did was change to a very simple program. Start running small. I re-began running with only 3 miles (I was doing almost 9 miles by then); and running these at an easy pace six days a week. After the run, applied ice for about 20-30 minutes. At night, applied ice again for another 30-40 minutes. And I did this religiously every day. Also, I used some gel heel pads on my shoes  and running shoes for the first couple of months. Every two weeks, I would increment the daily mileage by one kilometer. No speed running, no hills, no tempos, no fartlek, nothing. Just easy good running.
With this therapy, I am now preparing myself for my first marathon, doing 9 (and soon to be 10) miles per day; just this sunday pulled off a 17.5 miles long run. I'll probably start doing some simple speed work this month, but maybe.
To be able to pull of a sub 4:00 marathon, I think the best guide would be Sasha's advise. Words of wisdom there. I hope to do a sub 4:00 in my December marathon.
Maybe to much info, but wish you the best. If you need more input, please don't hesitate to ask.

[Sasha Pachev]

Good thoughts from Jon and Eric. Some additional thoughts since we are on the subject of speed.

The term "Speed" as used by many runners is rather misleading. Here is why. Your typical recreational runner (less than 30 miles a week average throughout the year, hardly any winter running) tries to run a long distance (5 K - marathon, does not matter) and finds his pace too slow. So he says he lacks speed.

But that is more often than not very far away from the truth. His muscle strength is OK. His nervous system is perfectly capable of running much faster for that distance. What he lacks terribly is the aerobic support. So he is only able to run at a very small fraction of his power capacity. Increasing the power capacity will do him little good. The only good that will come from it is that he will get slightly more efficient. But that does not fix the root of the problem. Problem number one is that the muscles are not capable of using the oxygen. Sometimes the heart and the lungs are not capable of delivering enough oxygen to the muscle as well. So, the oxygen is not there or cannot be used to support the muscular power and the neural drive. Thus he can go fast only for 200 meters, sometimes not even that.

The fix, as Jon already explained is building aerobic base with consistent mileage. That does not happen overnight. It takes 3-5 years to get close to your full aerobic potential. You cannot take long breaks (more than one week every 6 months). You cannot slack off during the week and skip runs. The runs need to be fairly long - 8-10 miles, and frequent - 6 times a week. The pace can be quick, but slowing it down helps prevent injuries, nervous system fatigue, and other negatives. How far is more important for aerobic base than how fast, as long as you are faster than a very slow threshold (I estimate it to be around 10:00 mile).

Due to our culture of a fun shortcut and the popularity of training plans that encourage the fun shortcut mentality most recreational runners will not have anywhere near fully developed aerobic potential, not to the point of it not being the limiting factor any longer. Thus we end up sounding like a broken record. Almost without exception we tell everybody to up their mileage, back off on the pace,  and eliminate speedwork until the neural drive and muscle power start being the limit, which takes a while to become an issue.  And it does work wonders. Not really, to me it is not any more a wonder than the fact that if you fuel up a car it will drive, but people do improve their marathon times by 30 minutes or more on a regular basis.  What I am amazed at is how so many popular running authors who I would expect to know better fail to communicate this idea with enough clarity. Probably because those who tell you to do boring work cannot be popular in our culture, so the only ones who are "fun" have a shot at being popular regardless of effectiveness, thus we have a natural selection.

[Aimee]

Thanks Jon, Eric, and Sasha. I think I knew intuitively that building base miles would be the answer. What is the best/wisest way to do this? Should I:

A) Keep my current training routine, say 6,5,off,6,4,12, off, for example, and replace the mid-week off day with a short run that I gradually increase.
B) Keep my weekly mileage the same but spread it out more evenly, say 6,6,6,6,6,6,off, gradually increasing one or two of these days into a "long run".
C) Something else?

Thanks for the reminder that this is a long term project. At age 37 I feel I am getting a late start, but I really want to see what I am capable of.
 

[Eric Day]

Aimee, I started "jogging" at 38, but started running until 39, so age does not matter. Don't worry about it. 

It would be B, but only do one long run once you hit 9-10 daily miles. But if your achilles are still sore, start at a lower mileage and slower pace.  => LISTEN TO YOUR BODY <=. These are wise words that I have learned here.

[Jon Allen]

Aimee- some people can do the same mileage every day.  I get bored with it and like some variety, plus I like some days to be a bit longer and some shorter.  So there is nothing wrong with doing something like 5-7-4-6-5-12 or whatever you want.  As long as you run at least 30-45 minutes per day and gradually increase your miles, you are fine.  It is probably easiest on your body to divide it evenly, though.  But keeping a long run (12 miles or so) is perfectly fine.

Plenty of runners start "late".  Just think of it as having preserved your body and reduced your odometer mileage   Jeff Shadley, on of the fastest FRB-ers, started in his late 30's.

[Aimee]

Ok. So what's a reasonable number of miles to add per week? Is it a percentage of current mileage or more along the lines of 1-2 miles per week?

[Jon Allen]

The most accepted rule of thumb is no more than 10% increase per week, and actually best to do 10% once every three weeks (10% increase, then maintain at that level for 2 weeks before the next increase).  Or, no more than 1 mile/week for each day you run (i.e. 6 miles/week if you run 6 days/week).  But really, you just need to listen to your body.  I think if you increase 3-5 miles, maintain for a few weeks, and feel ok, then you can increase more.  If you are feeling really beat up or tired, don't increase as much or take an easy week.  Just pay attention to your body and how you feel- your brain can do a remarkable job telling you what you can and cannot do.

[jtshad]

Awesome advice so far, so no need to add much to it.  But getting a "late" start as you say is by no means a limiting factor.  You can still reach you maximum potential for you by training smartly.  It does take some time to build your mileage but once you find the balance for what your body can handle without driving towards injury and what life will allow you to put in on running, you will see the rewards.  My first year of "marathon" training back in 2005 when I was 37 in logged about 1555 miles, last year at age 40 I logged 3700 and am on pace this year to exceed that total.   

What also helped me in my mileage increase was transitioning to 2-a-days.  This fit my schedule better, allowed me to run more "recovery" and base miles and increase some "quality" or fast paced miles in a way that did not lead to injury.

[Sasha Pachev]

Aimee:

I like B and do not like A because of two days off. Also, do not get too worked up about the number of miles. Just make sure to get out 6 days a week and run a reasonable distance - not too short and not too long.  As Eric said, LISTEN TO YOUR BODY.

Also, B can be modified to go 10-12 before your day off.

[Aimee]

Thanks everyone. I think I'm getting it.
Sasha, I guess what I was asking is this:
Assuming I am running 6 days per week, is there any inherent value in running about the same number of miles per day as opposed to varying the distance from day to day?

Since I am coming off an injury, my plan is to cut back my mileage to 4 easy miles per day, then increase by about 10% every 3 weeks. This sounds tedious, but I figure I can adjust as I go along, maybe start increasing every 2 weeks if my achilles feels good.

I will spend the next 4-6 months building my base, then I will decide what races I might do next summer. A marathon might be farther down the road than I thought, but as I like to tell my children, "Just because you CAN do something doesn't mean you SHOULD."

[Sasha Pachev]

The reason for running the same number of miles every day would be to maximize the mileage with the minimum risk of overtraining. The logic is like this. Let us assign a numeric value to fatigue by saying that the fatigue level is measured in the number of hours it takes to bring your body to the pre-run condition after the run. Then we are going to plot a graph - fatigue on the Y axis as a function of the length of your run on the X.

If the graph were a straight line (y = x), it would not matter how much you ran each day - you could go 2 miles one day and 20 the next day with the same results as 11 + 11. But it is not the case. The graph is going to look more like y = x^2 with the fatigue level/needed recovery time increasing quicker and quicker with each additional mile of the run.

So following the assumptions in this model, and also assuming your runs cannot happen more frequently than once every 24 hours, the way to run the highest number of miles without going into fatigue debt overtime is to run the number of miles that it takes you 24 hours minus run time to recover from once every 24 hours. This will give you the same number of miles every day for a fixed level of fitness.

Now this model, while being a decent model, just like every other model must be taken with a grain of salt. Here are the caveats:

- While the number of miles you run is a key factor in your aerobic development, it is not the only factor. The pace also has some influence.
- Your fitness level fluctuates from day to day, so the same number of miles may not always produce the same amount of stress.
- Recovery does make a difference. If you are going to have a leisurely afternoon with a nap in the middle you will recover a whole lot quicker than if you are shopping or are at work. Same goes for diet. Natural nutrition filled foods help you recover much faster than a staple American diet.
- Aerobic fitness is not the only factor that determines your marathon performance. You need to be good with fuel. Thus the need for a long run, which we recover from with a day of complete rest. This ties in nicely into the Biblical "Six days shalt thou labor, and on the seventh shalt thou rest". Also, at some point you will start to hit neuromuscular limits. Those would need to be addressed with strength and speed work. Once the aerobic capacity is no longer the limit we can sacrifice some of its development/maintenance to address other issues.
- Mental aspects are also important. If running the same distance on the same course every day wears you out mentally, it may do the harm  that will not be compensated by increases in aerobic fitness.

So we follow the idea of running the same number of miles every day more or less, but adjust as needed based on the feedback from the body and the mind.

[Aimee]

Thanks Sasha. That makes a lot of sense.
I eat a pretty healthy diet 80% of the time - whole wheat breat, fresh fruits & vegetables, not much meat - when I do it's chicken or fish for the most part, skim milk, lots of water, no deep fried foods, no soda. There's room for improvement, I like to bake and I eat the cookies I make with my kids, occasionally we order pizza, stuff like that. So I can be more diligent in that area with a little effort.
As far as sleep and stress, I could probably do a lot better.
Sunday is always my rest day (if you call going to church with 5 kids a rest, ha ha), sometimes with a nap, or a leisurely walk.
If I didn't have pain in my achilles, I could run six miles at a 9:30 pace and feel fresh the next morning. 4 miles at 8:45 would have a similar effect on my body, I think.
Probably too much information, but the feedback I am getting on this blog makes so much more sense than a lot of other advice I have read or received.

[Sasha Pachev]

I would choose 6 at 9:30 over 4 at 8:45. For cookies, check the Healthy Recipes link on the blog.