Rosswog Running Blog

Hey man. you are looking strong lately! I am trying to get in shape, lose some weight and hopefully PR in the marathon in the fall. Call me dumb but I registered for a marathon 10-10-10, 6 days before my wedding haha. I want to do my best. What has worked for you and what do you suggest I do? Before my first two, (4:26 and 4:32 ) my longest run was maybe 15 miles. I can do that fairly easily now on trails. It is a flat course so I am going to try to go out on the bike trails and run many of my miles now. This year I've been between 30-35 mpw with a few 40 mile weeks. Any help you can offer would be really great!

Thanks Benn! Wow, six days before your Big Day, but you cannot turn down the opportunity to run a marathon on 10-10-10. By the way, which marathon are you running (I’m running the DC one on the 31st)? My advice would be to the increase your mpw to at least 42. For quite awhile I was aiming to run 42 miles per week (i.e., nicely averages to six miles per day) and it seemed to work well for me in my initial marathons. Accomplishing this will probably allow you to run a sub-4:00-hour marathon because your biggest constraint for improving your marathon time is (like everyone else that is not a world-class runner) running that last 10k of the race strong (or at least not letting your pace fall by that much). As a result, I would absolutely do long runs over speed work outs. It looks like you are doing this already since 15 miles is relatively easy for you (I would get in a couple of runs at least 22 miles in distance). If you think you have the distance down, I would recommend doing the speed workout of a 13.1-mile tempo run in the morning and another 13.1 in the evening. I have only done this workout 5 times, but each time it’s absolutely brutal; however, it does prepare you for running on tired legs. Good luck Benn and I’ll keep up on your progress!

Thanks man! I am nervous.

so should I do 7 x 6 miles a day ? what about the long run? It is brutal right now in the summer heat.. do you think that splitting a long run into two chunks once early a.m. and once pm. is bad? i know it won't be the same benefits as a single. I want to get in shape to set a nice PR!!

Hi Benn! 6-7 miles per day is a perfect target. Also, splitting up your running between morning and evening runs is great (especially since you have been getting in some long runs); that is, a good way to get use to running on tired legs. Keep it up!

I'm running the Mohawk Hudson River Marathon because it's in my backyard. I ran there in 2006 and ran a 4:26. I want to knock that out of the park. Sorry for all the questions, Rossy but what do I do once I get to 6-7 miles per day? I was confused because not sure how the long run worked in there. Is it ~6 miles on every day PLUS one long run day? I know I need to do 20+ milers because I have never done them before and my longest run before each of my other marathons was a scan 14 miles haha!

Hey Benn! 6-7 is just a daily average; that is, when I was running a 3:30 marathon, I was averaging a little over 42 per week (so 6 per day). As a result, be flexible with it and do a few long runs over 20 miles (22-23 mile long run distance is good to shoot for) then reward yourself with a few days of jogging a couple of miles. I have actually just kept up with this simple training schedule, but I'm now aiming for 67 per week (and my minimum mileage days are now 4 miles). I have found this provides some pretty good flexibility, because if I do not feel up to doing a long run on the day I was planning on, I just save it for the next day. Lastly, nice 6-miler today and I also want to see Contador go down (Go Schleck)!