Marathon training plan inputs please.

dutchk

Hello all,

I just completed my first marathon (actually my second but the first was 25 years ago). I survived, had fun, but certainly had tons of room for improvement. I've decided to take some time to work on my running form so my long runs are a mere 5 miles for now. I've got some target races for next year with perhaps another marathon at the end of 2014. I picked up a copy of "Run Less Run Faster" and and the training regimen looks appealing. I'm wondering if anyone here has used it or can comment on it. I used Jeff Galloway's training plans before but they always prescribed working up to a training long run that matched the marathon distance. The FIRST program described in RLRF has up to four long runs maxing out at 20 miles. I'm not sure what to make of the lighter endurance run load but the authors are, of course, very supportive of each approach. Thoughts?

ATT949

Hello all,

I just completed my first marathon (actually my second but the first was 25 years ago). I survived, had fun, but certainly had tons of room for improvement. I've decided to take some time to work on my running form so my long runs are a mere 5 miles for now. I've got some target races for next year with perhaps another marathon at the end of 2014. I picked up a copy of "Run Less Run Faster" and and the training regimen looks appealing. I'm wondering if anyone here has used it or can comment on it. I used Jeff Galloway's training plans before but they always prescribed working up to a training long run that matched the marathon distance. The FIRST program described in RLRF has up to four long runs maxing out at 20 miles. I'm not sure what to make of the lighter endurance run load but the authors are, of course, very supportive of each approach. Thoughts?

Dutch:

I wish I could share my experience with a marathon training plan but I've only trained for the Half…so far.

FIRST is interesting, especially for folks our age, since the program is focused on giving more time for "skeletal recovery" (new expression) vs "muscular recovery" (new, too). My decision not to use FIRST was based on comments from folks on runnersworld.com fora (a large percentage of that crowd has moved over to runningahead.com, BTW). Perhaps that crowd was a bit stuck in their ways but, based on the results of a lot of the posters both young and old, I decided to give them the nod. On that basis, I've stayed with a more traditional "run X days a week, LR on Sunday, and build in recovery time".

The free training plans at http://smartcoach.runnersworld.com get a lot of flack and I don't understand why. The price is right, they and they cover the basics. Perhaps it's because there are other sources of training plans that are very inexpensive and more in depth but the thing that attracted me to Runners World was that you can tweak the free plan and it generates a calendar-like schedule for you.

In addition to the RW website, you can download an app (iOS) and it will generate a plan for you. Just input the standard values and it generates a schedule for varying durations, varying levels of intensity, and, of course, the training times vary with the pace value that you input. I've found it to be very handy.

In May of this year, I attended the McMillan running camp and part of the classroom portion of the camp was to review the how Greg McMillan, and the coaches who work for him, construct a training plan. Greg recently published his book "You…Only Faster" and I've adopted his approach.

Unlike texts such as "Daniels Running Formula" and Fitzgerald's books (http://www.amazon.com/The-Rules-Marathon-Half-Marathon-Nutrition/dp/0738216453 and http://mattfitzgerald.org/books/) , YOF doesn't dive deeply into the science of running. The best way I'd put it is that he "dips his toe" into that pool of knowledge with his aptly-named "nerdy notes" that are used to explain some of the finer points of a training plan.

The real value, to me, of YOF is that by going through the book and using one of the different plans as a starting point, I've been able to "fine tune" a training plan that suits what I perceive as my strengths and weaknesses.

Am I a better runner today using Greg's training plan and his approach to modifying them? Frankly, I can't answer that because I'm such a new runner that I haven't had time to "test" other training plans. The best feedback I can give is that I like the variety of runs, I like having the understanding of why I should be doing those runs, and there's no question that I'm running faster and more comfortably than I was before I started using Greg's book.

CarsonRuns

I am not a fan of the FIRST program for beginning runners. I think it works well for older runners with years of aerobic base under their belts that just can't put in the miles any longer. For them, it's a good way to maintain the level of fitness they have gained over time. New runners benefit greatly from time on their feet, running miles at easy, aerobic effort. You don't get this with the FIRST program as every run is a hard workout of some kind and those recovery days on the bike are not helping to build your aerobic base the way a nice, easy hour long run would. Not to mention, your body isn't getting accustomed to the rigors of running, putting you at greater risk of injury when you do those hard workouts.

The principle of Arthur Lydiard are the foundation of every modern distance coaching philosophy used by the coaches of the elite, sub-elite and high performing regional and local runners (Daniels, McMillan, Hansons, Canova, Salazar, etc). I know there are going to be critics that say "but I'm not an elite runner, so why bother mentioning it?" Well that's because we can emulate the philosophy of these runners and coaches to maximize our results. I've been training under a coach who prescribes to this philosophy for the last 5 years and the results speak for themselves.