I am currently training for my fourth marathon. I will be running the 116th Boston Marathon on April 16, 2012. I ran Boston last year and finished with a new personal record of 2:54:26. My experience from last year will undoubtedly help me this year. I thought about doing a different spring marathon but Boston is too hard to pass up. The atmosphere and the crowd support is amazing.
In the past I've made up my own training plan based on what worked an didn't work for me while also taking input from some friends that are faster marathon runners. This year I am following a plan that several friends have used to drop minutes off their personal records. I just finished week 9 of the Pete Pfitzinger 18 weeks, 55-70 miles a week plan from his book Advanced Marathoning. I thought about doing the 18/70-85 plan but I think the 55-70 will be enough. I am doing some workouts from the 70-85 plan and will peak closer to 80. My goal is to run a 2:50-2:52 marathon in Boston in April. I loved the weather last year and hope it's like that again or even a little bit colder.
I thought slowing down enough to do the recovery runs at the pace the plan calls for would be the hardest part but they're not. Recovery runs are at least 2:00 min per mile slower than half marathon pace so mine are around 8:10. The hard part of the plan has been the medium long runs on Wednesday and sometimes Friday during the week. Medium long runs are 10-15 miles. The only hard part is finding different places to run so I don't get bored running in the same places.
In the past I've made up my own training plan based on what worked an didn't work for me while also taking input from some friends that are faster marathon runners. This year I am following a plan that several friends have used to drop minutes off their personal records. I just finished week 9 of the Pete Pfitzinger 18 weeks, 55-70 miles a week plan from his book Advanced Marathoning. I thought about doing the 18/70-85 plan but I think the 55-70 will be enough. I am doing some workouts from the 70-85 plan and will peak closer to 80. My goal is to run a 2:50-2:52 marathon in Boston in April. I loved the weather last year and hope it's like that again or even a little bit colder.
I thought slowing down enough to do the recovery runs at the pace the plan calls for would be the hardest part but they're not. Recovery runs are at least 2:00 min per mile slower than half marathon pace so mine are around 8:10. The hard part of the plan has been the medium long runs on Wednesday and sometimes Friday during the week. Medium long runs are 10-15 miles. The only hard part is finding different places to run so I don't get bored running in the same places.
The Pfitzinger plan stresses Lactate Threshold/tempo runs and marathon pace miles at the end of long runs. I've always done tempos and I like them. Tempos are done at current half marathon race pace after warming up for 2-3 miles and then cooling down for 2-3 after. I do as many as I can on courses with rolling hills to simulate Boston. I've done marathon pace miles in the past but never as many as this plan calls for so that should be a big help. You can't expect your body to run a certain pace on race day for 26.2 miles unless you have ran a lot of miles at that pace during training. I had a great long run this morning with the final 12 at goal marathon pace in brutal conditions; 23 degrees at the start and a wind chill of 11 degrees. I was able to do most of them faster than goal pace but the hills weren't as tough as the ones in Newton.
William B. Umstead State Park I am liking the plan so far. I ran 265.4 miles in January, more than I ran in January last year. I've already done one 20 mile run and a 22. I've also done close to 19 in William B. Umstead State Park in Raleigh, NC. Umstead is a great place to train and I love it there. The hills are really tough but they prepare you for anything. The hills in Umstead along with the high rise bridge going from Morehead City to Atlantic Beach, NC got me ready for the Newton Hills in Boston last year. This plan is hard but I believe I will improve just like my friends have by using the Pfitzinger plans.
William B. Umstead State Park I am liking the plan so far. I ran 265.4 miles in January, more than I ran in January last year. I've already done one 20 mile run and a 22. I've also done close to 19 in William B. Umstead State Park in Raleigh, NC. Umstead is a great place to train and I love it there. The hills are really tough but they prepare you for anything. The hills in Umstead along with the high rise bridge going from Morehead City to Atlantic Beach, NC got me ready for the Newton Hills in Boston last year. This plan is hard but I believe I will improve just like my friends have by using the Pfitzinger plans.
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