Pre-marathon mileage
MeanderingMammal
Posts: 7,866 Member
So my plan for my first marathon in March rather fell apart when I picked up an overuse injury in January which knocked me out for a month. The RD downgraded me from the marathon to the half, which was about right given the gap in training.
Anyway, I'm now looking at my first being in June, it's trail so the distance is about 28 miles. Anyway, I could use some thoughts about the longs on the run up to it. My plan has me on 35-50 mile weeks, with back to back longs pretty much every weekend at the moment, so I'm generally doing between 20 and 30 miles each weekend.
My current plan has me doing two 20 milers and an 18 miler The sequence is the 18 miler, then four weeks later the first 20 miler, two weeks after that, the final 20.
The weekend of the first 20 miler, with a 7 miler on the Saturday, is coincident with a race weekend where I'm doing a daylight 10k, a night 10k and a half the following morning. Also all trail races so probably an extra 6-7k over the three races, last year I clocked the half at 14.5 miles.
I'd appreciate thoughts on whether to bring the 20 miler forward by a week. Can't push it back as that would put me on a race weekend, followed by two 20 milers over three weekends. The prior week is a 10 miler followed by a 13 miler at marathon pace.
Options appear to be:
Any thoughts on the best option?
Anyway, I'm now looking at my first being in June, it's trail so the distance is about 28 miles. Anyway, I could use some thoughts about the longs on the run up to it. My plan has me on 35-50 mile weeks, with back to back longs pretty much every weekend at the moment, so I'm generally doing between 20 and 30 miles each weekend.
My current plan has me doing two 20 milers and an 18 miler The sequence is the 18 miler, then four weeks later the first 20 miler, two weeks after that, the final 20.
The weekend of the first 20 miler, with a 7 miler on the Saturday, is coincident with a race weekend where I'm doing a daylight 10k, a night 10k and a half the following morning. Also all trail races so probably an extra 6-7k over the three races, last year I clocked the half at 14.5 miles.
I'd appreciate thoughts on whether to bring the 20 miler forward by a week. Can't push it back as that would put me on a race weekend, followed by two 20 milers over three weekends. The prior week is a 10 miler followed by a 13 miler at marathon pace.
Options appear to be:
- Do the race weekend and not worry about modifying the plan
- Bring the 20 miler forward by a week
- Bring the 20 miler forward by a couple of weeks, making it two weeks after the 18
Any thoughts on the best option?
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Replies
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Clarifying question: will the 10k/10k/13.1 weekend be a "for fun" weekend or a "race hard" weekend?
If it will be "for fun," do the 20 miler the weekend before (moving forward by a week). Your legs may be a bit fatigued for the race weekend, but if you aren't racing hard, it'll be fine. And who knows: maybe 20 won't be all that bad with a week of recovery. (I have no real way to judge this anymore because, apparently, I am a robot: me and a friend of mine (she is training for her first 26.2) ran 22 yesterday and today I felt fine and she felt halfway crippled.)
If it will be to race, move it up 2 weeks. You'll still be able to do a cutback LR between the 18 and 20, and then you can have fresher legs for the race weekend. Then you'll have 3-4 weeks til your next 20 miler, and that's plenty of time to recover from a hard weekend of trail races.0
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