The marathon plan said 90 minutes running, the club run ended up being about 70 minutes but a good bit of hill training, so what do I do about the missing minutes? Should I add them on to tomorrows run? I'm not sure how flexible to be with the schedule? And, I've got a dilemma about this coming weekend, the "plan" has me easing back a bit, it says 120 minutes running on Saturday, but Saturday is the last cross country of the season (it will be nothing like 120 minutes long, but I'll run faster than I would otherwise) and Sunday is Winter Hill Fell race (more than 120 minutes but hilly, and mentally a good challenge). I'd like to do one or the other or both?! Do I do what the plan says or one of the races. The "plan" is good because I know it'll get me to the finish line on race day, the plan is bad because it's removing spontaneity from my running (as of yet I don't feel like it's removing the fun). As a marathon first timer I don't really have any feel for how much leeway there is and I'm scared of deviating too much from the training schedule, that somehow it'll all go wrong if I do. I want to do the right thing, but I don't know what that is. Advice from more seasoned runners appreciated, before the grins are replaced by tears.
Wednesday 10 February 2010
The grin factor
Run club tonight for the first time in ages, a great run up the road to the mast on Winter Hill and back down. The run up was hard but steady, down was really wooshy. Cold and windy and snow flurries. Great to be running with other people. Massive grin factor. But.....
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8 comments:
Never having "trained" properly for an event I am not really qualified to comment. But I think flexibility in the plan is a good idea, otherwise you may come to resent it and then not follow it. The important thing about a marathon training plan is your long runs, as long as you get them you will be fine! (you doing a good job of that so no worries!).
Don't worry too much about deviating from the plan. Either use the cross country to replace a short fast run, or winter hill to replace this weeks long one. It's not like the plan was made exactly for you, so it's ok to tweak it. The main thing is that you are enjoying the running.
The Mara is ages away yet. Personally I'd do whatever you think you'd enjoy the most and do the ease back next weekend.
Winter Hill is probably closer to the kind of effort your marathon requires but I did enjoy XC at the beginning of my marathon buildup as it was so different to the training.
For my marathon I moved things around a lot particularly at the end when I was tired. For example I found doing the longest runs on back to back weekends too much so I had a shorter week in between. 18 then 9, 20 then 10 etc, the shorter ones done at actual marathon pace. I would also swap out hard interval sessions for less intense but marathon paced runs.
don't worry about yesterdays few minutes. most plans don't even include any off road, which is way harder ;)
i'd give the xcountry a miss in favour of winter hill. use this as your long run. even though it's longer than you should be doing, it will be really good to 'get it under your belt'. and then you'll still have some energy for pedaling on monday ;)
like everyone else is saying, it's ok to be a bit flexible.
I've no idea what the correct answer but I wouldn't worry about adding on the extra minutes to your next run.
It sounds like you're doing brilliantly to me!
I'm with Redbike - no clue.
Here's hoping I'll be out next week. I di dthink of you when I walked the dog it was freezing.
When is the marathon?
There are a lot of marathon plans out there. They all are good. I follow a new ebook marathon plan. It's described on my site. What plan are you following?
David - I'm following an asics plan. I'll take a look at you site. Thanks.
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