A few ??? for seasoned marathoners

rybo

If I am averaging maintenance weeks of 23-28 miles and long runs at 13+, is 10 weeks enough time to ramp up and get in 3-20 mile runs? A ramp up I was thinking looks like this:
15
16
18
20
15
22
15
22
10
Race

Would I be better off ramping slower but running my 20's on back to back weekends? Or cutting down to only two 20's?

Lastly how do you feel about a 2 week taper instead of 3?

psychokitten9

Wow. Running as always been a struggle for me. I admire runners!

NikkisNewStart

What are your goals... to qualify for Boston, to PR... ?? What are you trying to accomplish... then we can offer better suggestions to help get you there!

arc918

My $.02, you can write out the schedule but you have to be flexible based on how you are feeling during your long runs. There are days I'm planning to go 20-21, but I'm just not feeling it so I shut it down at 16 or 17. It is a little hard to quantify, but I can jsut sort of tell that slogging out the extra miles would do me more harm than good.

There may be other days where I'm planning to do 17 or 18 and I'm feeling good so I do 20 instead.

As far as back to back 20s, I'm a fan.

I also like your two week taper as well (I find that 3 weeks leaves me a bit flat, but YMMV).

rybo

What are your goals... to qualify for Boston, to PR... ?? What are you trying to accomplish... then we can offer better suggestions to help get you there!

To redeem myself for what I felt was a bad race for my 1st marathon. So yes it would be to PR, from a 4:01 time. I just know I had better in me, than how things went my first time around.

I had runs of 20 & 22 the 1st time around, was wondering if I should squeeze another 20 in this time.

arc918

What are your goals... to qualify for Boston, to PR... ?? What are you trying to accomplish... then we can offer better suggestions to help get you there!

To redeem myself for what I felt was a bad race for my 1st marathon. So yes it would be to PR, from a 4:01 time. I just know I had better in me, than how things went my first time around.

I had runs of 20 & 22 the 1st time around, was wondering if I should squeeze another 20 in this time.

You certainly have the wheels. The McMillan calculator shows a marathon time of 3:24 based on your 5K (ASSUMING you are properly trained). Assuming your training supports it, I'd suggest a 3:40ish pace. You just don't want to go out too fast...

Once you have a couple more marathons under your belt, then you can chase the 3:25 or 3:20.

rybo

Oh I'm not gonna get too crazy with the pace. A 3:40 would be more than fine, had I pulled that or even a 3:45 in May I wouldn't even be thinking of a fall race.

sdereski

Your schedule looks good to me. The general rule for increasing your long run miles is 10%.
I have to agree with Arc - leave room for those days when you may have to change things up - which it looks like you did.

The other caution is ....don't leave your best run in training, which may have happened to you in your first marathon. A couple more marathons and you will figure out what works best for you.

Happy running my friend~it can become an addiction, but I prefer to call it my passion.

arc918

The other caution is ....don't leave your best run in training, which may have happened to you in your first marathon. A couple more marathons and you will figure out what works best for you.

Big time. My training partner had an awesome 23 mile training run a few weeks before a goal race. It turned out that was exactly enough miles to totally mess him up (IT band trouble). You need to know when to shut it down for sure.