Marathon in less than 2 weeks

MeanderingMammal

dee_thurman wrote: »

I agree that I need to train over 20 miles.

Niovice plans generally don't go beyond 20 miles for the long run, the main issue is getting the miles in your legs, and consistency. It's worth noting that the longs are generally back to back with another run, whether that's also a long or not.

I'd also add that ultra plans generally don't go beyond 20 for most sessions either, albeit with back to back 20s being standard. Experienced marathon plans generally ma out the longs at 16 or 18 miles, as the 20 mile run and the history of having completed deal with the phsycological aspect of completion.

The main reason is that there is no physiological benefit from going that extra 6 miles, and the added recovery time becomes quite disruptive in your plan. Essentially you go further for no benefit, but damage your training in the longer term.

My body felt great for 23 miles. After the race I was really dehydrated. I think that had an effect on me as well.

So one of the main things with longs is rehearsing your fuelling and hydration strategies, although dehydration is pretty normal after a marathon.

I'd suggest looking to your fueling strategy, rather than running longer.

dee_thurman

When I ran 20 miles, I practiced when I would drink water and eat gu. I actually drank more often and and consumed 2 more gu's during the marathon than I did when I ran 20 miles. When running 20 I felt great. When running my marathon, I felt great up until about 22/23 miles. Then it happened. It was the hottest day of the year during the marathon, but I didn't feel that hot. I didn't feel that I was sweating a lot. I was obviously overly dehydrated by the end of the race. Walking back to my car I had to stop multiple times because my legs locked up because of cramping. Part of my thought about running the extra mileage isn't just to get cardio benefit but I would have the benefit of practicing what it is like to eat and drink the amounts, hopefully that I would need. However, I understand that I wouldn't be running as fast during training. You bring up a very good point on how it would effect the days afterwards. My legs are pretty sore from running and cramping after the race on Saturday. I do believe that having the experience of running a marathon, I have more information that I can adjust accordingly about fueling during the race.

californiagirl2012

All good advice on here so far. I agree that now is the taper. I've run many 26.2 mile marathons and only 18 miles 3 weeks before each marathon and did just fine. It worked great for me as I put in the miles all the months prior and just enough to not create overuse injuries and burn out.

Have fun!!!!

hill8570

Really, really nice steady pace (well, at least until the cramping). Obviously, you need to calibrate your hydration / electrolyte strategy a bit better, but still a damn fine first effort. There are sweat loss calculators out there that you can use to estimate what you'll need to take in when race conditions deviate a lot from your training conditions (which sounds like what happened this time). Obviously, too much can be as bad as too little -- nothing like a sudden attack of the hershey squirts to put a damper on your pace. Best of luck on the next one!