Fast Running Blog

I just finished my first marathon (st george).  I ran it in 3:35.  I ran in college, but have just recently become serious about running again, after having my 4th child.  My training was okay.  I began training in mid May, about 6 weeks after having #4. I ran about 40 miles a week, and I did work my way up to doing a 20 miler about a month before.
I guess my major questions would be, how early should I begin training, and how many miles at the first?

Hey this is Greg Harris.  I just noticed that Adam is on the blog as well.  Congrats on the marathon!  That is a great time.  Glad to hear that you guys are running again.  I would just tell you the same thing that I told Adam.  Increasing your mileage is the key.  You just have to find out how much works for you and how much time you want to spend training.  I found success increasing my mileage very gradually.  I took about 6 months to increase from 50 mpw to 80-90 mpw.  Good luck and keep blogging.

Arianne:

Looking at your PR's in different distances, I think you have the ability to run a low-2:30. You may say, well, those PRs were before the kids, but what we've seen is that it is realistic for a mother of several children to regain her collegiate speed when she trains and eats properly. Michelle Lowry is a good example, and you can see how she did day day by day at http://michellel.fastrunningblog.com/ . 

However, it will take training, not Runner's World/Jeff Galloway/Hal Higdon training to get ready for a race, but real training, training as a life style vs training for an event.

The time to start real training is now, and you train for several years. The key element is base mileage. You should probably start with 6 miles a day 6 days a week at a comfortable pace. Maybe 10 on Saturday. Keep adding a mile to each day as you feel your body is adapting to the training load. Work on your base mileage until you get up to 50-60 a week. Then start adding tempo runs, and make your long runs fast running the last 70% or so at a marathon pace effort.

Consistency is absolutely critical. The biggest enemy of marathon training is skipped days, which explain how the blog helps people get 30 minute marathon PRs - when you have to write about it, you hardly ever skip. Do not skip days unless you feel there are health issues such as injury or sickness. When you do not have the time, a 10 minute run is better than no run.

Generally, 6 months of steady running is sufficient for marathon training base, but the more, the better.  Keep running 40 mpw this winter and slowly build following the 10% rule (i.e. don't increase more than 10% per week, and only do that every 2-3 weeks).

Sasha- on what do you base your 2:30?  5k PR indicates 2:50-3:00, which is about 40 minutes off her marathon time (still a darn good improvement, but very doable for you, Arianne- sub-3:00 would be a good stretch goal for your next marathon if you train properly).

Jon - 2:17 800 meters with the 400 PR of only 57.6. From that it is obvious that Ari is not a natural sprinter and has some slow twitch/midgrade fibers. I would discount her 5 K PR as an underpeformance due the the lack of proper training.

Even if she is a natural 800 meter specialist, we are still looking at around 2:45.