Marathon Runner Training Question

rybo

Do any of you substitute hiking into your workouts when the weather is too bad to run?
I hate the treadmill, I live outside of town and during times of moderate snowfall, the sides of the road aren’t runner friendly. BUT I have access to woods that I can hike endlessly. I’m thinking a fast paced 2 hour hike, in boots, thru 4-6” of snow, up & down hills has to count for something. Is this enough of a workout to even consider it as helping towards my marathon preparation? I’m not looking at this as a total replacement to running, I will still hold to my long run days and another run or 2 during the week. But if I can also get in a hike or 2 as well, to balance the run days I miss, and know it will be helping, that would be nice.

bikegeorge

You did not mention when your Marathon was! If you are doing a long run now and some faster paced short ones you can definitely substitute hikes for 2 workouts and use those days as active recovery days. I would not make them hard efforts so you will still be fresh for your faster paced run and your long run. I have done 9 Marathons over the years and it is almost like going to school. You do the homework, you pass the course. In Marathon training, you must do the work. Build to a long run of 3 to 4 hours, 18 - 20 miles, but not at race pace. The shorter runs can be at or faster than Marathon Race pace. Anything between 5 to 8 miles with cool downs can be considered.
The Hiking you mentioned, can be counted as active recovery so don't make them too stressful or hard. You need to keep those legs fresh. Good luck
George

rybo

Sorry, the race is mid May. I have been running consistently for about 2 years now. I ran the half marathon last may and now want to do the full. I planned on using Hal higdons plan(roughly) With keeping the important days for the long runs, and the mid-week pace runs no matter what, but was just wondering how much I might be able to get out of my hikes, if its a snowy winter. Thanks for the help

Concordborn

I love the Hal Higdon training schedules and always use them for my half and whole marathons. I agree that you can definitely substitute some hiking in for runs, walking it great cross-training. The long runs are definitely the key, just getting your body used to running that far is an effort. (I actually ran a marathon once when I had shirked my training and only did the long runs. It wasn't a fun marathon but I still finished.) There's some good gear you can get for rain running, but going out in a downpour is never fun (or totally safe). Best of luck on the training, keep your eye on the goal!