Full Marathon training plan

girlcalledryan

Hey all,

I am running my first full this fall! 10/19/14, and today I reviewed Hal Higdon's Novice 1 and 2 plans. I was inputting Novice 2 into my google calendar, and adjusted around some already planned events (a 10k, 5miler, and oh, my wedding day) just fine without any real adjustment to weekly mileage.

Until I got to the end. I am already registered for a 1/2 marathon 9/27/14, and that is the 20miler week. I had to change alot about the long runs that last week.

week 12: 20 miles (orig 13)
week13:14 miles (orig 19)
week14: 20 miles (orig 12)
week 15: 13miles (orig 20)
week 16:12miles no change
week17:8 miles no change
week 18 Full Marathon

I know a few women who do a 19 week adjustment to the Higdon plan to get 2 20 milers in. What do you think?

kristinegift

That looks perfectly fine to me! I switched a lot of runs around with the Higdon plan too. I think as long as you give yourself enough rest-time in between the long runs, you can move things around to accomodate your own schedule. I'm using the Novice 2 plan also and looking at a 10/18 marathon, but I move during late August/early Sept across the country, so I made it so the 20 miler happened while I'm at home/pre-move.

Also: Can I friend-add you? Since we're running the same HH plan and running races the same weekend?

greypilgrimess

In for the advice. I was looking for how to tweak the HH Novice 2 plan to add an extra 20 miler in, since I'll be using this plan for my first marathon in January. I already added an extra week to fit in a local half marathon.

Good luck with your training both of you, if either of you wants to add me, please do, even though I'll be 2 months behind you in the plan!

kristinegift

Also: looking at my Google calendar, I made the 19 miler in week 13 a 20 miler (because 19 just seems weird) and then I'll do 20 or 22 on the 20 mile day on week 15. I think doing more than one 20 mile run will make me feel a bit more confident on race day. I also made a few of the 12 and 14 mile runs into 14 and 16 milers (respectively) because I'm starting the plan June 1 and want to get more longer runs under my belt as I'm already running 8-10 miles for long runs. So I'm following the plan about 80%.

DavidMartinez2

week 12: 20 miles (orig 13)
week13:14 miles (orig 19)
week14: 20 miles (orig 12)
week 15: 13miles (orig 20)
week 16:12miles no change
week17:8 miles no change
week 18 Full Marathon

So is Week 15 your Half Marathon?

girlcalledryan

week 12: 20 miles (orig 13)
week13:14 miles (orig 19)
week14: 20 miles (orig 12)
week 15: 13miles (orig 20)
week 16:12miles no change
week17:8 miles no change
week 18 Full Marathon

So is Week 15 your Half Marathon?

Yes it is. And anyone can feel free to add me. Thanks for the input!

CarsonRuns

What are weeks 9, 10 and 11?

girlcalledryan

week 9 is 13 mi, 10 is 17, and 11 is 10 miles. The big middle chunk of the Novice 2 plan works with my schedule, so I only adjusted those 4 weeks about 1month out.

DavidMartinez2

I'd almost want to bump week 9 to 14 and week 10 to 18 just so your first 20 miler isn't such a big jump from your previous longest run but I think what you have will work fine.

girlcalledryan

I am sorry week 11 is 18 miles, typo. So it's a 2 mile increase and only 1 mile morethan scheudled.

DavidMartinez2

I would dial it back on week 11 in that case. You will have 17/18/20 three weeks in a row, that is no bueno for a first time marathoner.

CarsonRuns

I would dial it back on week 11 in that case. You will have 17/18/20 three weeks in a row, that is no bueno for a first time marathoner.

I concur.

JTick

I see you're in Ohio...Columbus Marathon, 10/19/14?

That will be my first full too. :drinker:

girlcalledryan

JTick, Columbus indeed. It was highly recommended by the frequent marathoners in my running club. I booked my hotel earlier this week. Yay! I am running the Akron half in September.

Thanks for the input everyone, super helpful!

aswearingen22

I would dial it back on week 11 in that case. You will have 17/18/20 three weeks in a row, that is no bueno for a first time marathoner.

Agreed. Also, I'd be careful about just adding mileage here and there to all the weeks. There's a reason Hal has written the plans the way they're written, he's trying to get a first time marathoner to the start line, uninjured. The first marathon training cycle is going to beat you up, you likely won't need to add extra miles on. I'm also of the belief a first time marathoner has no reason to do more than one 20 miler, you're just asking for injury pushing your body to the brink of injury more than once before race day.

True story, my DH's boss was planning to run his first marathon with us in February, we were following Hansons and only trained up to 16 miles (but it's a different training philosophy than Higdon, we would have run temp runs on Thursday, easy run on Friday, another easy 8-10 on Saturday before those Sunday long runs thus running them on fatigued legs and simulating the last 16 miles of the marathon instead of the first 16 like Higdon does with the rest day the day before long runs, but Hansons). Anyway, his boss found some training plan online and in it was at least one 20 miler and a 22 miler. He never finished training and didn't make it to the start line, those really long runs on first time marathoner legs just couldn't take the abuse. Hal has written the plans to get you to the start line and through the race. You're going to get a PR no matter what, after #1, you can start adding in extra 20 milers if you think you need them. Just my advice so you can get to the start line!:)