Question:I'm beginning to spool up for my third marathon. I'm looking at probably
April (St. Louis looks good to me for personal reasons). I may be able to
make an assault on the 4 hour mark. (my PR is 4:34).
I'm wondering about the wisdom of finding a Dec/Jan marathon to participate
in as a training run, assuming I can get back up to that mileage by then.
By that I mean having expecting to finish in 5 to 5:30 hours, taking lots of
breaks, maybe taking along a camera and just having fun.
This appeals to me because I really have enjoyed the pagentry of being in a
marathon, the travel, the people, and I wonder what it would be like to run
one without really challenging myself - run for the fun of it.
On the downside, maybe it's too much to put myself through - maybe the
time/effort would be better spent in some other training mode.
Any comments?
Answer:
In fact, give the 4 hour mark a go at that race as well. Why "waste" a marathon like that?
As long as you do not jack the mileage up too fast to get ready for Dec/Jan,
then I see no problem with this.
I think that sounds like a good idea. I'm training for the Imogene Pass
Run (IPR). The course is 17.1 miles, starts at 7810 ft altitude, run
to 8820 ft via Imogene Pass at 13120 ft. The run is Sept 7. I live and
run at 8400', but am heading down to sea level to visit Alaska. I'm
planning on running Humpy's marathon in Anchorage August 18, to stay in
shape, have fun, maybe do a little speed work, etc. I'm definitely
treating the marathon as part of my IPR training, and you are planning
much more time--sounds like fun to me.
That's plenty of recovery time, but if you are trying to drop more than
half an hour from your PR wouldn't you be wiser to use that time to gain
training rather than use it up recovering?? IMHO, if you really want to use
one as a training run, make sure you stop A LOT, keep hydrated and fed, and
finish in 5:30 or so. That many miles will still damage you (I never do
more than 23 miles in one run, the last 3 cause a lot of extra damage).
Don't try to race both or you are asking to waste both rather than
just one.
Look into a Galloway schedule. He advocates (or used to) running beyond
marathon distance during training. Therefore, running a marathon as a
training long run should be fine. I agree that it would be a waste of a
marathon. From what I've experienced and read (I'm about to do my 3rd
myself) physically you need about a week off from running then about 2-3
weeks of base training at max then you should be up for anything. I've
frequently heard of people getting PRs a month after a marathon.
I don't know the exact sources, but several people on here and letsrun.com
have quoted him as saying things like "if he were still training on the elite
level he'd use walk breaks" and comparing slight slow-down be elites at
water stops as being equivalent to walk breaks.
I'm saying is don't sell yourself short because of your"perceived"
limitations. If someone had told me as a freshman in high school (PR 21:50)
that I was going to be MVP by senior year, I would have laughed. If
someone had told me senior year (PR 17:01) that I was going to run in college,
I would have had a better laugh. If someone had told me in college (junior
year 5k PR 16:16, 10k 34:18) that I was going to be running mid to low 15s and
32 for 10k and 2:30 marathons I would have gotten the best laugh of all. Very
few of us ever reach anything near our potential, usually because we refuse
to giev ourselves credit for how high that talent really is. I'm not
saying everybody has these kinds of times in them, but almost everyone could
surprise themselves.
I get shot quads after marathons too, I
think that is an unavoidable part of a marathon if you push yourself (unless
you're one of the lucky few who seem almost immune to it). I must have
missed the thread on the 40 min 10k, if whoever posted that still would like
help they can email me directly (a...@umich.edu).
I wouldn't say you've got no stuff, sounds like you've shown quite a
bit of guts and resilience lately!
Or because we keep "reaching," we over-reach, injure ourselves, and waste 3
months recovering, all the while thinking: "I really should have stuck to
them walking breaks."
True, those interested in pushing to the Nth degree will
not walk a step or hardly slow at a water stop. Others
will take breaks and possibly have a slower time. Whether
one is less competitive is your personal definition and
not mine but we could discuss this ad nauseam.
My point for replying is Galloway is often labeled
a manticore because of the his walks breaks for beginners.
He has lots more to offer than a beginners program which
advocates a much tougher walk less program. Some fairness
is necessary here and if he has a fault, it trying to offer
too many marathon schedules at once.
Those people that refer to his program as Gallowalker
show a large blind spot in their gray matter(not aimed at you).
