Boston Training
MobyCarp
Posts: 2,927 Member
This week I started my structured program to train for Boston 2016. I expect it to be a learning experience, so I'm starting a thread here to ramble about my thoughts as I go through the program.
The program I'm following has weekly mileages starting from a base of 50 miles. I only got my base up to 46 miles before starting. No problem, the coach says treat all the changes as percentages up and down. I can do that. While the program has a few (very few!) days listed as "off", it has many days listed as "easy." The general structure is that there are 3 quality days (generally 2 speed workouts and one long run) and the runner makes up the rest of the weekly mileage as easy runs that fit his schedule. A day listed as "easy" may be used as a rest day, but should not be used for a fast run.
Took a look at the initial shorter long runs and the probable length of the speed work days (remembering to add 4 miles for a 2 mile warm up and a 2 mile cool down), and came to the conclusion that I would need to run 6 days to hit the mileage targets, at least for the first few weeks. When the long runs stretch out and the speed work gets to more intervals stated in miles instead of hundreds of meters, I may be able to go to a 5 day a week schedule with 2 rest days.
One of my initial thoughts is that it will be very important for me to keep the easy days strictly easy. In my case, that means between 8:00 and 8:30 per mile. Depending on which race I believe and which calculation method I use, my E pace might allow me to be as fast as 7:45; but the preponderance of results come in somewhere between 8:00 and 8:30.
Pace discipline on easy days will be my first mental challenge in training. In the base building phase, I was accustomed to letting myself unconsciously accelerate to 7:45 or even 7:30 on weekday runs of 8 miles or less. I'm pretty sure that would be a Bad Idea given the amount of speed work that is in this program.
Results so far: I ran an easy 6 yesterday and an easy 5 today. Held firm to pace discipline both days, bringing all the mile splits in above 8:00.
Tomorrow will be the first speed workout. Given the weather forecast, I expect to do this on an indoor track. I'm not looking forward to running in circles on a 200 meter track, but realistically . . . last winter the weather was always an excuse to not do speed work at all. I shouldn't let that happen this time around. Boston is a bit higher profile than the half I was pointing at a year ago.
The program I'm following has weekly mileages starting from a base of 50 miles. I only got my base up to 46 miles before starting. No problem, the coach says treat all the changes as percentages up and down. I can do that. While the program has a few (very few!) days listed as "off", it has many days listed as "easy." The general structure is that there are 3 quality days (generally 2 speed workouts and one long run) and the runner makes up the rest of the weekly mileage as easy runs that fit his schedule. A day listed as "easy" may be used as a rest day, but should not be used for a fast run.
Took a look at the initial shorter long runs and the probable length of the speed work days (remembering to add 4 miles for a 2 mile warm up and a 2 mile cool down), and came to the conclusion that I would need to run 6 days to hit the mileage targets, at least for the first few weeks. When the long runs stretch out and the speed work gets to more intervals stated in miles instead of hundreds of meters, I may be able to go to a 5 day a week schedule with 2 rest days.
One of my initial thoughts is that it will be very important for me to keep the easy days strictly easy. In my case, that means between 8:00 and 8:30 per mile. Depending on which race I believe and which calculation method I use, my E pace might allow me to be as fast as 7:45; but the preponderance of results come in somewhere between 8:00 and 8:30.
Pace discipline on easy days will be my first mental challenge in training. In the base building phase, I was accustomed to letting myself unconsciously accelerate to 7:45 or even 7:30 on weekday runs of 8 miles or less. I'm pretty sure that would be a Bad Idea given the amount of speed work that is in this program.
Results so far: I ran an easy 6 yesterday and an easy 5 today. Held firm to pace discipline both days, bringing all the mile splits in above 8:00.
Tomorrow will be the first speed workout. Given the weather forecast, I expect to do this on an indoor track. I'm not looking forward to running in circles on a 200 meter track, but realistically . . . last winter the weather was always an excuse to not do speed work at all. I shouldn't let that happen this time around. Boston is a bit higher profile than the half I was pointing at a year ago.
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How exciting for you! Unless something crazy happens with the qualifying paces for 2017, I *should* be in the same boat next year, so I will be following your thread with interest.
Do you train with a heart rate monitor? I followed a similar plan (Matt Fitzgerald's 80/20) for my last two marathons and what really helped me was using a HRM to help keep my pace in check. I did not even set the pace on the screen of my Garmin. I used time, distance and HR. Of course, I was able to have a rough idea of my pace based on time and distance, but it really helped to keep me from obsessing about it as I ran. Keeping my HR in the intended zone was tough, and humbling, at first, but it really helped to slow me down. Plus, it was also cool to see my pace increase over time as my HR stayed the same. I definitely feel that using the HR training zones is what helped me get my BQ.0 -
@lporter229 - I wear a heart rate monitor, and look at the results afterward, but mostly don't look at it during a run. One of the problems with a heart rate monitor and particularly cooler weather is, these days it's taking me almost 3 miles to warm up. So I see a heart rate graph with crazy high heart rate from about 0.5 mile to 2.5 miles, then it comes back down and settles into zone 2 for the rest of a long run.
I got a Vivofit 2 for the step and sleep tracking, and found that it will pair with the same heart rate monitor that came with my Garmin 620. Before it got cool enough to need long sleeves, I could set the Vivofit to display heart rate without losing the data fields I want more on the 620. That was kind of educational, as I got an rough idea of where my heart rate should be for T pace; but mostly I judge what E, T, I, and R should be by the Jack Daniels calculator and my historical race results. MP will be slower than Jack wants me to use, because I'm a conservative old fart targeting a 3:15 Boston instead of the 3:05 Jack thinks I can do from shorter PR races.
FWIW, shortly after registration closed for Boston 2016, BAA announced that the qualifying standards for 2017 would be the same as for 2016. The cutoff for 2016 was a historically high 2:28, meaning you had to run 2:28 faster than your BQ target to get in. If you can beat your BQ target by 5 minutes, you're probably safe. If you can beat it by 10 minutes, you can sleep very well at night.0 -
FWIW, shortly after registration closed for Boston 2016, BAA announced that the qualifying standards for 2017 would be the same as for 2016. The cutoff for 2016 was a historically high 2:28, meaning you had to run 2:28 faster than your BQ target to get in. If you can beat your BQ target by 5 minutes, you're probably safe. If you can beat it by 10 minutes, you can sleep very well at night.
I am 16 minutes and 34 seconds under, so I feel pretty safe, but you never really know until it's a done deal!0 -
I'll be following with interest as well! If all goes well this winter/spring with my training, I should be in your boat this time next year for 2017 Boston ::fingers crossed::0
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There's really no need to do your easy runs any faster than 8:00 per mile. I know it's easy to let yourself speed up (though for me that only tends to happen on long runs, as it takes me a few miles to get going), but you might as well save yourself for the speedwork and just enjoy the effortless easy miles.
When I was training for my first sub 3 marathon I did a lot of long runs with a friend who would tell me off every time I drifted faster than 8:00/mile so I had to slow down! (On the day, she ran 2:58, I ran 2:56, so it worked). 0 -
in my experience getting some hill or trail terrain in at easy pace will help you put that need for speed in check and better prepare you for Boston and the final weeks of training.0
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Tuesday was scheduled as the first speed workout in the training plan. I woke up, and my weak left ankle was sore. It didn't let me walk normally first thing in the morning. The sore spot was on the inside, not the outside where it was sprained last July. I obviously wasn't running on that ankle first thing in the morning.
Tuesday was a very dark day for me mentally. I did what I knew to do for the ankle. Got my elastic ankle wrap. Remembered the podiatrist telling me to start wrapping from the side opposite the hurt. Worked through the topological puzzle to get that right for the other side of the ankle hurting. Got through breakfast. Put on my 3d ankle support that I wear to run, and wore it all day. By noon, the ankle was much better. I debated doing the speed workout anyway, but common sense prevailed.
Boston is important. Avoiding being banished to the couch is more important. Running at T pace didn't seem very smart yesterday. So, with the ankle feeling almost okay, I went out to the Tuesday evening Cobb's Hill run and ran up and down the hill several times. Paced myself to keep the ankle feeling okay, which meant I ran slower than I usually run that hill. That's okay.
I have the week off work, which gave me the luxury of letting my body soak up 9 hours of sleep last night. Woke up this morning, and the ankle was almost totally normal. Debated doing my customary Wednesday evening group run, which would be 6 easy miles. Debated doing the Tuesday speed workout on Wednesday instead. Thought about doing the speed workout in the afternoon, outside, before it started raining later on. Ended up deciding to go to the indoor track this evening, because a) the ankle seemed well enough to support T pace; b) the track is softer than asphalt if I'm mistaked about point a); and c) I'm going to need to learn to deal with that indoor track anyway, and now is a good enough time to start.
The assignment was 4 x 800m at T with 200m recovery, then 6 x 60m strides, jog between. Starndard instruction is a 2 mile warm up before and a 2 mile cool down after a quality workout. Ran my warm up as 16 laps of that 200m track, plus and extra distance estimated to be the 20m I'd need to round out 2 miles. Took a break for the rest room and water fountain, then came back and ran the speed intervals. After the last stride, I went into a cool down, but only put 10 laps into it. By that time, my heart rate was back down where it hangs out for a long run and I was thoroughly bored with the track.
Speed work on the track is okay. There is an attraction to watching the watch and trying to make the laps come in at the right pace. But the warm up and cool down are incredibly boring on an indoor 200 m track. I suppose I'll learn to deal with it; today's rationalization is that I got more distance in yesterday than my original plan was for today, so shorting the cool down will make it easier to hit the weekly target mileage.
Tomorrow was originally scheduled as the second speed work day of the training plan. I had already modified the plan to make tomorrow a rest day, because the rest day scheduled for Friday falls on New Year's Day, and I want to run a 7.5 mile race that day. I figure that will do in place of the speed work that was on Thursday in the original plan.0 -
Good for you for having flexibility with your training! Don't ignore your aches and pains just to get a run in. Many of my workouts are determined the day of, based on how I feel when I roll out of bed.
I will probably start my Boston training late Jan/early Feb. I am maintaining a strong base and taking things semi-easy--I had a stress fracture that finally seems to be better. I am still trying to figure out my Boston goal. This will be my 3rd time and I LOVE the entire experience.0 -
I can relate to how the first Boston training cycle can be stressful. It is important and the intensity can result in injuries.
It is so important to have a cross training back up plan to ferry you through those days. Deep water pool running and elliptical trainers can give you a few days to allow yourself to recover from a minor impact injury. I had a foot issue my first training cycle for Boston during weeks 6 and 7. I took a few days off and then used deep water running. It sucked but it did the trick and I had a great race.
Why are you racing on a potential injury? Not advised.0 -
Went to bed before 9 on New Year's Eve, and woke naturally a bit past 5 on New Year's Day. The ankle felt totally normal. The weather was not quite as forecast; the wind was less, and the 15% chance of precipitation turned into snow. Saw a few specks of graupel on my driveway at 8, and made the decision to wear trail shoes. Good call.
My warm up, an out and back reviewing the last section of the race course, was on slick snow covered roads, with the tire tracks being slicker than the fresh snow on the shoulders. By gun time, the snow was thicker and the footing was actually better. Under the conditions, I could not run at T pace by speed, but I maintained T pace effort for the bulk of the race, finishing in 53:58 for an average of 7:12 per mile. That was good for 28th of 310 overall, and 1st of 20 in the M 60-64 age group.
Warm up plus race came in at 10.17 miles per Garmin, compared to the 10 miles I estimated for training purposes. Close enough. Tomorrow I will pace 9 miles at 8:30 per mile for a training group; add 3 more solo, and my training week will come in right about where it should.0 -
The plan today was 12 miles. Got the first 9 with the 8:30 pace group, then the last 3 with a training buddy. We let the pace disicipline lapse after the pace group broke up at 9. Miles 10 and 11 weren't too bad, at 8:00 and 8:04 in hills; mile 12 was 7:28 but mostly downhill. Total run 12.29, at an average pace of 8:20, so I guess I wasn't too awful much faster than I should be.
The week came in at 47.8 miles compared to a target 46 miles. Part of this was the Tuesday/Wednesday rarrangement, and part was the odd fractional miles (e.g., running 5.18 of a target 5 miles Monday) adding up over the course of a week.
Target for next week is 51 miles. Planned distances add up to 50.5 miles, but I won't be surprised if the actual comes in over 51 due to those fractional miles.0 -
I'm reading (and lurking on this thread) with a fair amount of interest as I am going for qualification this year. I am using Pfitzinger's plan this time and had a long buildup prior to stepping into it. I noticed that there are lots of easy paced runs but I haven't had any really fast runs of any length until this past weekend when I took off on a 16 mile run w/12 at MP. I was really surprised how "easy" that was, in that at BQ pace-3:00, I was able to hold it while staying in the top of Zone 3 for nearly the entire distance.
There must be something to these long, slow runs and lots of base miles.0 -
This week it's getting challenging, because of the return of the 5 day work week. This evening was also the first serious speed workout: 2 miles at MP, 1 x 800 at T, 1 x 1600 at T, 1 x 800 at T, 2 miles at MP. Coach advised 2 minutes recovery between. Ran this on an indoor track, and had to pay attention in the last MP interval to keep the pace where it belonged; a couple of laps were 2 or 3 seconds slower (for 200 m) than the target.
Total run, including 2 miles warm up and 2 miles cool down, came in around 11 miles. I won't have any trouble hitting the mileage target for this week.0 -
I'm reading (and lurking on this thread) with a fair amount of interest as I am going for qualification this year. I am using Pfitzinger's plan this time and had a long buildup prior to stepping into it. I noticed that there are lots of easy paced runs but I haven't had any really fast runs of any length until this past weekend when I took off on a 16 mile run w/12 at MP. I was really surprised how "easy" that was, in that at BQ pace-3:00, I was able to hold it while staying in the top of Zone 3 for nearly the entire distance.
There must be something to these long, slow runs and lots of base miles.
I know a lot of people who have run multiple marathons, and several who have run Boston. They all affirm that having a strong base is even more important than the long run, and they mostly affirm that they want one or more 20 mile runs in training. One of them told me that you can get to a marathon by just putting in the miles, but if you want to run a marathon fast you need some longer speed work. The workout we were talking about is later on in my training schedule: 2 miles easy, 2 x (4 miles MP, 1 mile T), 2 miles easy. The amount of easy at the start and end changes by small amounts, but the core 10 miles of MP and T shows up 3 or 4 times on the schedule.
I expect that one will be pretty challenging.
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I made it through the first 5 day work week of the training cycle. Work has had its crazy spots, but I found time to run.
Today is a rest day. It feels pretty good after running 7 days in a row. That's the first time I've run 7 days in a row since I became a runner; but I'm on a 6 day schedule now, and it worked out that the rest day was Thursday last week and Friday this week.
The interesting thing was speed work yesterday evening. The assignment was 1 x 800 at T, 2 x 1600 at T, 1 x 800 at T, and 2 laps stride straights and jog curves. I would have just run that workout, trusting the schedule. Coach asked me what I was doing, and I showed him this one. Then he said, "You're running a half on Saturday, right? See how the first 800 feels at T, then maybe do the 1600s at half marathon pace. It's a way of backing off before a race."
I really appreciate having this coach. I didn't mention the half to him yesterday, but he remembered from when I mentioned it a couple months ago. I hadn't even thought of modifying the marathon plan for a race in the middle, but Coach was on top of things. I dutifully slowed down a tad for the 1600s, and we'll see how the half goes tomorrow.
Weekly mileage stands at 36 right now. Weekly target is 51. A two mile warmup plus a half marathon will bring me in right on target; I may go over by a mile by doing a 3 mile warmup. Winter Warrior is run as 4 loops, and I haven't seen the course in person. It would be nice to just do the loop once for my warmup, in the daylight. Gun time is 4 PM, and I'll be running during sunset, dusk, and full dark.0 -
I would have just run that workout, trusting the schedule.
I hadn't even thought of modifying the marathon plan for a race in the middle, but Coach was on top of things.
Quite right - it's funny how people often feel that making anything easier is deviating from the schedule (I'd do it too - it feels like slacking off even though it isn't!) but forget that adding hard stuff (like races) in also isn't sticking to the schedule! So it makes sense that you'd need to make adjustments. Good luck in the half!0 -
The half on Saturday was a looped course, 4 loops of about 3.25 miles. I overshot my training mileage for the week by about a mile and a half, because I ran a loop of the course as my preview. That worked out well for the half, as I turned in a respectable 1:30:59. I wonder whether I could have gone below 1:30 if I'd had this as a target race and done a real taper instead of running it as part of a mileage building week. Doesn't matter; Boston is the real target race.
Today's assignment was an hour at E. After yesterday's evening half marathon, it was no challenge to control the pace to my easy range. Actually ran 61 minutes, because it was mentally impossible to stop running short of my driveway; but all the splits were between 8:00 and 8:20 pace, right in my target easy range.
I had toyed with the idea of running longer today, because this looks like a challenging week to get all the miles in; but good sense and listening to my body during today's run put me back to the plan of following the training assignment for today. I'll find a way to get the miles in tomorrow and Wednesday, around the defined assignments for Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.0 -
Hoping to qualify for Boston this year. My husband ran it in 2011: very exciting to watch. He really wished he had done more downhill running.0
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It is 13 weeks to Boston from today. My training plan is labeled as a countdown, so yesterday I just started Week 13.
Week 14 was when things began to get serious. Tuesday's speed workout was a speed sandwich: 4 x 200 @R*, 2 x 1600 @T*, 4 x 200 @R. I ran the first set of 4 x 200 @R a little faster than target, but by the time I got to the second set I simply could not run 200 m faster than R. (For those who don't remember, R is approximately your 1 mile race pace. Running R is challenging.)
After Tuesday, I was not looking forward to Thursday's workout: 4 x 400 @R, 2 miles @T, 6 x 200 @I*. That turned out to be better. I ran the first set at R pretty accurately. I lost count of laps during the 2 miles @T, but Bill (who had been tagging along for some of my laps while doing 800's @T) told me I ran an extra lap. With that understanding, it turns out I ran the 2+ miles @T pretty accurately. Then it felt very natural to run the set of 600's @I accurately.
Friday was my rest day. By this time, I was really, really ready for a rest day. I not only didn't run, I let go of the 10K step streak, only getting between 6K and 7K steps on Friday. It was worth it. I couldn't believe how much better I felt Saturday morning.
The weekend ending Week 14 and starting Week 13 was another sort of challenge. Saturday's assignment was 10-13 miles with hills. Scheduling being what it was, I needed 13 miles. A friend offered to show me the route around Irondequoit Bay with "three and a half hills" in about 14 miles. I chopped a mile off my cool down Thursday to make room, and Bill chopped a junk distance loop off the route to cut it down closer to 13.
Saturday morning it was 39° and cloudy, threatening showers that never showed up. We started near shoreline level at the south end of Irondequoit Bay; call it the same level as Lake Ontario. The route took us to the top of the Niagara escarpment and back down close to shoreline level 4 times. The first time was a hill I'd driven many times, though not recently. It was longer, but no steeper than some of the bigger hills I routinely run. The second time it wasn't as steep, and the part that was steep enough to be considered a hill only went about halfway up. That was the half hill. After that, there was a long slow incline to get the rest of the elevation. Then there were two loops going down to shoreline leve, with steep and steeper hills gettin back to the top. The last one was at mile 12. I thought about Heartbreak Hill being at mile 16 all the way up that last hill.
The interesting thing about Saturday was that while I wanted to target an easy pace, somewhere between 8:00 and 8:30 per mile, one of Bill's goals is to run Around the Bay some time at an average pace faster than 8:00. So Bill was pushing the pace faster than I liked on some of the easier segments; but I was outrunning him on the steeper hills, because I'm naturally a bit faster and currently better conditioned for distance. So my mile splits were all over the map, from 7:39 to 8:53. The tag end of 0.64 miles came in at a 7:09 pace, but that was mostly on a major downhill to get back to the start. I ran that thinking about needing to train downhill running for Boston.
I felt pretty beat up from that one on Sunday morning, when I went out to run an easy 12. I think the idea is to accustom myself to running on tired legs. Certainly the tired legs meant it was no challenge to hold to an easy pace! I ran some familiar hills, though none as steep as the last two from Saturday and none as long as the half hill from Saturday. But I was alone, and in sole control of my pace. I brought the average in at 8:14, with mile splits ranging from 8:05 to 8:29. Since my easy pace target is a range from 8:00 to 8:30, I'll call that following the plan.
Today's assignment was easy + 4 strides. We have a Lake Effect Snow Warning in effect for Monroe County. There was snow on the roads from a burst between 5 and 6 last night, but it was sunny this morning; so I went for a run in the sunshine, at 14° F with WSW wind 14-20 mph. It was pretty cold westbound, okay running any other direction. I ran in the traffic lanes where I could, on the snowy shoulders when traffic forced me to. I had planned 8 miles today to get my weekly miles in, and I was really not looking forward to those strides on the bad footing. Got back to my own street, and there was a narrow band of clear pavement in the middle of the road. I managed to find enough intervals of no traffic to run my 4 strides on decent footing. The first one was ugly, the second okay, and the third and fourth were what strides ought to be like.
This is probably supposed to be teaching me to finish strong at the end when I'm tired. Four seemed daunting while I was running those 8 miles on snowy roads, but by the time I got the fourth stride done I was glad I had enough of them to end with doing one right instead of ending with a single lame stride.
Today is a work holiday, which gives me the luxury of thinking and writing about training in addition to running in the morning sunshine. Tomorrow it's back to work, and speed work indoors in the evening. It could be a while before I have time to organize my thoughts about training again.0 -
Finished Week 13 yesterday with a run around Irondequoit Bay plus some junk distance to make 18 miles. This time, I ran with a group that I knew would hold to an easy pace. And so we did, for the first 15 miles. Then I was on my own, and the records show I pushed a bit faster the last 2 miles. But today I felt better than a week ago; this is a testament to the value of running the long stuff easy, even if it has steep hills.
Week 13 also featured the beginning of serious speed work. Tuesday was intervals at R pace, which isn't my favorite; I was okay for 400 m at R, but had trouble holding the pace through 600 m. Then there was the lesson in humility, as I was running R and Omar blew past me like I was standing still. I think he was running at his I pace, which is what most the club was doing; but maybe it was only his T pace. I get around pretty good for an old fart, but I am not up there with the true elite runners! Then on Thursday it was my kind of speed work: 3 miles at MP, 2 miles at T, and 4 laps of stride the straights, all as a continual run. I like these continual run at moderately fast pace workouts; there are more of them coming up, and they will get longer as I get further into the plan.
Week 13 had a target mileage of 62. I came very close, at 62.19. Since that's the most miles I've ever run in a week, I deemed it important not to push past the plan.
Today was the start of Week 12. The plan called for an hour at E pace. It felt pretty good, but after sucking up 10 hours of sleep and feeling like a rest day in the morning, I didn't push for more miles. There's a reason the plan only has me running an hour, and it probably has to do with recovery from yesterday's 18 miles.
Week 12 is a cutback week, with the odd effect of requiring me to run more miles on Monday and Wednesday than week 13. This is because the specified days - Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday - are shorter than Week 13, by more than the amount of distance cut back for the week. So I'll be chopping some miles out of speed work, and some miles out of the long run, and adding miles to the free form easy runs.
Time crunch remains a serious issue. I work full time, and I spend an awful lot of time running, planning to run, recording my runs, and thinking about running. Finding time for sleep and grocery shopping is an ongoing challenge. I may take a pass on Boston 2017 (assuming I re-qualify at Boston 2016) just because of the time commitment; but that decision will wait until after I get through the total training and Boston experience. Then either there will be no decision to be made, or I'll have five months to think about it.0 -
Boston is now less than 4 weeks away. It turns out that I've done more musing/chattering about training on the running challenge monthly threads than here; that's kind of the way the training time crunch has worked out. Some of my online socialization gets cut out, and the running challenge thread is what has most consistently remained.
Some odd musings don't really fit in the challenge thread, so here are random things that have occurred to me in the past 8 weeks since I last posted:
We've had a spirited discussion of long run philosophy on the challenges threads. Jack Daniels wants to limit them the lesser of 20 miles or 2.5 miles, as well as to 25% of the weekly mileage. Other experts relax that standard to 3 hours and 35% of the weekly mileage. Many amateurs have issues with these limits. For example, a woman I sometimes run with, who prefers a long run pace of 9:00 per mile, points out that at a 9 minute pace 20 miles takes 3 hours. Simple math tells me that 20 miles in 2.5 hours implies a 7:30 pace per mile; that makes me think the Jack Daniels limit is designed for elites, and is tantamount to telling amateurs not to run a marathon.
But as I follow an aggressive training program and note how I react to various workouts, I have another thought. I think the 25% or 35% of the weekly mileage standard isn't intended to limit the distance of the long run. It's intended to expand the base of non-long run mileage. For running 6 days a week, with a long run of 20 miles being a third of the volume, I get a total of 60 miles a week. 40 miles spread over the other 5 days implies an average non-long run day of 8 miles. Since some days might be shorter, that pretty much means at least one other day is over 10 miles.
And there's the physiological benefit. Last Saturday, I ran 22 miles in a bit under 3 hours. Sunday I was able to run for an hour with no problem. The 22 mile run capped a 68 mile week, in comparison to a 22 mile run capping a 41 mile week at the peak of my not-so-good training for my first marathon. Guess what? Not only was last Saturday's 22 mile run faster than my first one, I was in better shape afterwards.
What the limitations aren't telling you is, the total mileage has forced me to develop to where 10 or 12 miles isn't a long run. 15 miles almost isn't a long run. 22 miles is much less of a stress on the body when 15 miles is routine and 8 miles is an easy run. So I think the idea of limiting the long run to X% of the week isn't really a limit on the long run; it's really a way to force the runner to develop a stronger base and a longer easy run capability.
Or, as my coach noted in passing, "People don't understand that when you train for a marathon, you get to a point where 8 miles is an easy run." Yep, I'm there. It will be interesting to see how much of that conditioning persists after Boston.
I banged up my ankle somehow, about a week and a half ago. This cut out speed work for a week, and cut back speed work yesterday. I've seen my podiatrist, I'm doing what I can to make it not get worse, and it is getting better under the regime of only running easy, wearing the prescription ankle support, ice after every run, and ibuprofen. I'm getting to the point where I don't consistently remember the ibuprofen, because the ankle doesn't hurt; but it is clear that it is not yet 100%.
The mind-blowing thing is that the banged up ankle improved during a peak mileage week, when I ran 68 miles in the week and 22 miles on the last day of the week. I'm still wrapping my head around what active recovery means and how much I can do; but that 22 mile run was a big confidence booster. If the ankle gets no worse, I can complete Boston. I might not run it as fast as planned, but even if I run it at my long run pace I will easily re-qualify for 2017. There are advantages to being an old fart, including a rather generous BQ target time.
Last week, BAA numbered the race and released corral assignments. I am in Wave 2 (of 4), corral 4 (of 8). That puts me in the middle of the pack among runners who time qualifies, assuming there are about 6000 charity runners. I am well ahead of median for 60 year old men; the bulk of that age is assigned to Wave 3. However, there are enough 60 year old guys seeded into Wave 1 that there is no chance I will be in the top 10 in my age group. There are just too many guys out there faster than me, and they aren't all going to have a bad day or get sick.
Between having a cold one week, and having the wonky ankle now, I'm having to adjust the training plan. Fortunately, the guy who wrote the plan is my coach. He helps me with the adjustments, and at a minimum having the coach tell me to back off eliminates a lot of second guessing. I suspect a lot of race-canceling injuries happen to people who are trying to follow a plan, and don't back off enough when something happens to them. I don't want that to be me. Coach's comment yesterday: "You have the conditioning. You'll be able to run Boston." This was in the context of the light speed work I did yesterday; I get the impression that Coach thought I might have overdone it. He may be right; this morning the ankle was ever so slightly less good than yesterday morning. Today I run easy; I'll see how it feels tomorrow before deciding whether to attempt tomorrow's long speed workout. [3 miles at E, 2 x (4 miles at MP, 1 mile at T), 2 miles at E] One idea would be to modify it to be 3 miles at E, 10 miles at MP, 2 miles at E. That would still be somewhat challenging, wouldn't simulate the tired legs late in a marathon as well, and wouldn't beat on the ankle as hard.
When I started the structured training program, Boston started feeling real. Now that I'm past the last peak mileage week, Boston is beginning to feel imminent.0 -
I totally agree about the long run % thing - a lot of people on here say they are 'marathon training' when they do a couple of short runs in the week and build up to a REALLY long one on the weekend, but to me that sounds much harder than what I do, which is 60+ mile weeks with lots of easy miles to support the long runs. Not sure I agree about the elitism thing though - surely the point of saying 'the lesser of' 20 miles or 2.5 hours is to acknowledge that not everyone gets to 20 miles in 2.5 hours? Also I am happy enough to run 7:30 pace and am not remotely elite. My coach does include a 3 hour run in his schedule though (I'll do 22 miles for that; for his runners who are better than me, they'll do more and I'm not complaining!).0
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@litsy3 - Certainly the point of the lesser of 20 miles or 2.5 hours is to recognize that not everyone gets to 20 miles in 2.5 hours; I just think it's unduly restrictive. I don't have a problem so much with the idea of a time limit, as where that limit is set. I could run a 7:30 pace and get to 20 miles in 2.5 hours; but that's faster than I should be running my longest training runs. If the limit goes up to 3 hours, I can easily get to 20 miles. I've only run over 3 hours twice in my life - one 22 mile training run, and the 2015 Buffalo Marathon. I expect Boston 2016 to be the third time I run for over 3 hours.
I don't honor the 20 mile limit either, but I know people who do. Why 22 miles? Because that showed up in some training plans I've used, getting close to the full marathon distance was psychologically important to me the first time past, and now I know that I can recover from a 22 mile easy run in a reasonable amount of time.
I know one other guy who runs the full marathon distance in training. It works for him; he will also be running Boston 2016. But I don't want to do that without understanding how it fits in, and I don't know what the rest of his training program looks like.0 -
Well, yeah, but if JD sets the limit there it's because he has reasons for thinking it's not a good idea/beneficial to do more. You and I and some other coaches not agreeing with him and thinking it can be useful to do more isn't him being elitist, it's just a difference of opinion.
I've peaked at 22 miles in the past because I've done the Pfitzinger 55-70mpw plan that has that as the longest run and I quite like long runs. My current coach writes his plans in minutes, so you have more leeway about how far you go, and that system clearly is designed for faster runners to do higher miles. He'd probably let me go to 23 but most likely he'd laugh if I asked and tell me to do whatever I felt comfortable with.
Incidentally, a lot of Europeans who work in km don't go over 30k, because it's a nice round number!0 -
Boston is 2 weeks from next Monday. I'm currently in a cut back or early taper week, with a target of 56 miles. The targets for the next 2 weeks are 50 and 45 miles, respectively. For reference, I entered the structured training program with a solid base of 46 miles per week.
This week, I'm feeling beat up. It really started with crapping out of a speed workout Thursday of last week. Then I ran a 15K on Saturday, taking the first 10K at MP -10 seconds, but neglecting to slow down for the last 5K. I won my age group, but I would have won it even if I'd run the last 5K at MP or MP +10 seconds as planned.
Tuesday this week I crapped out of another speed workout. The speed part of the assignment was 3 x 2 miles at T, with 2 minutes recovery. The second recovery period, I had to walk. The third T interval, I ran 400m and was done. My left calf had twinges of a mild cramp, the sore right ankle was worrying me, and I just felt beat. Then I ran Wednesday's easy miles on heavy legs.
Thursday was more speed work, with the core of the assignment being 20 minutes at T. Coach asked how I felt. I told him I was a bit beat up, and it should be about time for taper. He had me change the core of the workout to 3 x 5 minutes at T, with 2 minutes recovery. Damn, he's good. 3 x 5 minutes was about all I could handle. I got it done, and felt good for completing it instead of feeling bad for failing to run 20 minutes at T.
Saturday's assignment is 4 miles downhill at MP -10 seconds, 6 miles rolling at MP, and 3 miles uphill at MP +15 seconds. I asked Coach where that geography was, and he said wherever I could find it. So I had something similar in mind; but I mentioned to him I was dithering between running that as written or just doing 13 easy miles. With no hesitation, he told me to do 13 easy miles. Okay, I know where I'm doing that. I'll pace 13 miles at 8:00 or 8:30 per mile for a local training program, depending on whether they have anyone who wants 8:00. There will be some little hills, but nothing challenging.
The next two weeks are taper. There are defined assignments every day, and they might not add up to the nominal weekly mileage targets. I asked Coach about that, and he said sticking to the daily limits is more important than hitting the weekly targets, and tapering more is better than tapering less.
So where does this leave my thinking? I won't have final conclusions until after race day, but right now I'm thinking that Eisenhower's quote that "plans are useless, but planning is essential" applies to marathon training just as much as it does to battles.
If I had mindlessly tried to follow the plan as written, it is likely that I would have run myself into injury. Or worse injury than my currently sore ankle. My coach wrote a very good plan; but he is big on adjusting it for individual needs. It calls for a base of 50 miles per week and a peak of 75 miles; but if you don't achieve the desired base (and I didn't), you scale the miles down to be proportional to the base you start with. It also says to see coach if you need adjustments or more recovery. Adjustments, I understood; the most common thing is working a shorter race into the marathon training plan. More recovery, I understand better now than I did at the start of the plan. That's where I am right now.
Progress isn't made by working hard. Progress is made by recovering well after working hard. It's easy to describe working hard, and it's easy to tell when I am working hard. It's more challenging to describe how to recover, or to feel when the recovery is good or inadequate. I think I'm better at that now than when I started this training cycle, but I still have some learning to do in this area.
The big realization in this training cycle is that most runners are stupider for themselves than they are for other runners, and I am no exception. It has been a Very Good Thing for me to have a coach telling me to back off when I'm considering whether I need to do so. On my own, I would talk myself out of backing off enough most of the time. With a coach telling me which way to jump, a lot of self-doubt goes away.
Today is a rest day. The training plan calls for 30 minutes at E, but I'm ignoring that and taking today off from running. Assuming I run my 13 miles on Saturday, I'll come close enough to the weekly target. And from here to Patriot Day, getting the ankle healthy is a bigger priority than proving I can run X distance or Y pace for Z minutes.
The plan is good. Under the plan, my paces have become 10 to 15 seconds per mile faster than when I started this training cycle. But the plan cannot be followed mindlessly. Adjustments must be made for my individual needs. Figuring out what those adjustments should be is the challenging part.0 -
Great post @MobyCarp ! I completely agree that more tapering is better than less tapering, a lesson I learned through my own experience. If you trained correctly, the value of running on fresh legs trumps any added fitness you are going to gain by pushing yourself needlessly 3 weeks out from a race. Let that beat up body heal! Best of luck in Boston!0
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Yep, more tapering definitely better if you feel you need it. I think you are lucky to have a sensible coach because it means that you just have to make sure you're not too stubborn to ask your coach for help, and he can figure out what the adjustments should be. Some people find it really hard not to follow a plan to the letter because they think they're slacking, but if you've got a coach to tell you not to, you can just go with it and not feel guilty.0
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Yep, more tapering definitely better if you feel you need it. I think you are lucky to have a sensible coach because it means that you just have to make sure you're not too stubborn to ask your coach for help, and he can figure out what the adjustments should be. Some people find it really hard not to follow a plan to the letter because they think they're slacking, but if you've got a coach to tell you not to, you can just go with it and not feel guilty.
Yes, that is a *HUGE* benefit. More than once, I've dithered between backing off or pushing. When Coach tells me to back off, that ends the dithering.0 -
I have never had a running coach, but the people I have talked to that have seem to agree that the biggest benefit of having a coach is that they keep you from becoming your own worst enemy during training. It is so easy to give others advice and not follow it yourself!0
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7 days out from Boston, I'm into the taper. The weekly mileage target is 45 miles, but there is a specified assignment each day and they won't add up to that many miles. That's okay. I expect I will run 40 miles or less this week, which is less than I've run any week since November.
This is only the second time I've followed a specific plan's taper. My first half marathon, I about went nuts with nothing longer than 3 miles in the final taper week. The current plan isn't that stringent, but I do have a much higher peak that I'm tapering down from. Today, Wednesday, and Friday are limited to an easy 30 minutes each. Yesterday (Sunday) was an easy 90 minutes, which felt normal. Tuesday and Thursday are speed work. Tuesday will be 2 miles easy, 4 x 1000m at T, and 2 miles easy. That will feel like a normal if not terribly challenging speed workout. Thursday is 20 minutes easy, 10 minutes MP, 10 minutes easy. That will feel like a little bit of nothing, not much more than the easy 30 minutes.
I will honor the taper. Today felt like I was just past a warmup and had to quit, but that's how taper is. You do it because it works.1
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