Hey, it's me again! Writing another post only a few days after my last one! I should get a medal and free t-shirt for *that* accomplishment.
I thought it'd be a good idea, now that the Atlantic City Marathon is a happy memory and I am in the middle of planning for my training for the Cape May marathon (they're calling it the "Ocean Drive Marathon" now, I see, but I'll keep calling it Cape May because I am a stubborn curmudgeon), I thought it'd be a good idea to talk about how I'm going to approach this marathon. What I'm using is the basic template I've used for my other marathons, with a few new wrinkles thrown in to keep the likelihood of injury lower this time. This is going to be a three part post - today, Part 1 is going to delve into my actual running schedule. Here it is in the frame below:
(If your browser has trouble with the iframe or if you don't like that much scrolling to the right, you can open the sheet in a separate tab here.)
Since I'm 22 weeks away from Cape May on March 29, 2015, this is a schedule I've divided up into five phases, with each phase lasting 4-6 weeks. It's loosely based on a system called the Pfitzinger (or just "Pfitz") system, with my own tweaks thrown in based on what works for me and what doesn't. Phase 1 is basically a buffer filled with soft runs designed to get my base mileage back up. (Despite the fact I just ran 26.2, my week-to-week mileage has been very inconsistent the last two months and needs to be built back up before I start any serious training). Phase 2 is about building physical endurance for the rest of the training ahead. Phase 3 focuses on building my lactate threshold (more on that later). Phase 4 is race preparation, gauging how far I've come in the other phases to help determine my goals and strategy for the race. And Phase 5 is my taper, where I strike a balance between letting my body heal enough to have my best chance on Race Day, versus staying sharp and not losing any of the fitness gains I've achieved.
Got it? OK, let me explain each phase in a bit more detail:
Phase 1: Base Building - if I were better trained from before, I would skip this phase and jump right into Phase 2. On the other hand, if I were training for my first marathon, this phase might be even longer than 6 weeks. This is all about acclimating my body to run the long distances day after day in training without killing myself for the rest of my training (or the rest of my work day!) This is *not* about setting PR's - if I'm running fast enough to even threaten a PR, then I'm doing it wrong. Easy runs, lots of stretching, lots of stops to take pictures. I'm just getting my body used to going out there 5 days a week and putting forth an exerting effort. I don't ramp up by mileage by more than 20% week to week - any sharper of an increase is asking for an overuse injury.
The types of runs you see here are:
Recovery - these are short runs done at a relaxed pace. Don't try to adhere to a given pace when doing these runs. What I read from Pfitz is to go no higher than 75% of your maximum heart rate, but since I don't like to wear a heart rate monitor, I keep things at a really slow run (a jog, basically).
General Aerobic - These are slightly faster than recovery runs, but still shorter than long runs and slower than other efforts. These will be run 15% - 25% slower than my goal marathon pace (for Cape May, a 4:00 marathon is 9:10/mile, so this works out to 10:33 - 11:23 pace for me. If you want to figure out your own target paces, you can use an online calculator like this one.) Again, this isn't a time for PR's - if I'm debating on whether to speed up my pace on one of these runs or slow down, I'll lean towards slowing down.
Medium Long - these are run at my long run pace (10% - 20% slower than MP), but over a shorter distance (11-15 miles). I try to use these runs to do mini-simulations of my race, doing things like practicing hydration and fueling, simulating bathroom breaks, and so forth. I take them more seriously than recovery or GA runs, but I still listen to my body and don't press myself if I don't need to. I don't do these runs too hard, even when I'm feeling fresh, because the effort could easily drain me for the rest of the week's training. And yeah, I may still stop for the occasional nature pic to put on Instagram. I'm a sucker for that stuff.
Phase 2: Endurance - this phase is a bit more intense than Phase 1. Now this is less about increasing my mileage and more about making myself stronger through my training, both mentally and physically. I have a lot more runs that are targeted for specific purposes, and this is the part of the training where I try to improve myself in my training every day in some way.
Long Run - these are run at the same pace as the medium long runs (10% - 20% of marathon pace), but over a longer distance (15+ miles). I focus on hydration, fueling, etc. here too, but I also pay more attention to warming up, starting out the run at recovery pace. These are run on Sunday so I usually have stiff and tired muscles, and these runs teach me how to run at a focused pace even when I'm tired.
Speed (w/strides) - this is the first type of run where I try to vary my speed within the run. The goal is to make myself faster by running faster. The more I do these, the better of a "kick" I'll have on race day (which means my burst of speed over the last few miles of the race). What I do is start with a few miles of warmup (which is just an easy run, not unlike the general aerobic pace), and then for intervals of 50 to 150 feet, I'll do an all-out sprint as fast as I possibly can - some folks call these "intervals" or "fartleks". (Insert your favorite "fartlek" joke here.)
I'll give myself something like a count of 10 or 12 (depending on the length of the stride) before stopping to cool down. I try to let myself rest fully with a slow jog between each run so I can keep good form when I do each stride. (I'll talk about form in another post.)
Phase 3: Lactate Threshold - Lactate (or lactic acid) is what your muscles produce during a hard workout that generally gets metabolized by your muscles. When you produce lactate faster than your body can process it, you've reached your lactate threshold, and the lactate begins to turn off the enzymes in your muscles that produce energy. In a marathon, that means you start to slow down and hit The Dreaded Runners Wall. What I'm doing in this phase is mixing in targeted runs that are near that threshold pace in order to train my body to raise that threshold. A raised threshold means being able to run for longer without hitting The Wall at the end.
Lactate Threshold - On these runs, I want to run for at least 20 minutes at my lactate threshold pace (which is roughly my 15K to half marathon pace - around 8:45/mile). The threshold run is sandwiched by a warm up and cool down that gets run at an easy pace.
Phase 4: Race Tuning - What I want to do here is solidify the gains I've made in training so far and give myself confidence. I want to come away with a good mental idea of what I'm capable of in the upcoming race by simulating the race as closely as I can.
Marathon Specific - these races are direct simulations where I run at my marathon target pace (9:10/mile) for a set number of miles. I try to take these just as seriously as I do my race. If the race is going to be on a hilly course, for example, I try to find a hilly region to run this one. If it's at a early or late start, I want to start my runs around the same time. I'll put on the music that pumps me up and get on my bad-ass running clothes - the whole thing. I don't stop my Garmin if I have to take a bathroom break, for example, because the clock on race day won't stop for me that day either. The main goal is to prove to myself that I can do the time I targeted in a month or two, which is HUGE to mentally know on Race Day. I do still sandwich the MP run between a slower warmup/cooldown period though, to keep some freshness in my legs for the rest of the week's workouts.
VO2 Max - VO2 capacity means your body's capacity to transport and use large amounts of oxygen during a run. When you pick up your speed drastically, after a minute or two your body responds by picking up its VO2 capacity, and this is the sweet spot where you can train your body to increase this capacity more. It's a secondary factor to the other things I've trained on, so I usually save this work for near the end of my training cycle. These runs are a lot like my lactate threshold runs, except the intervals are shorter (but longer than the intervals in my speed training), in order to target my VO2 capacity. The intervals in these runs range from 1/2 mile - 1 mile each and are run at my 5K pace (around 8:00/mile). I usually take about 3 minutes between each of these intervals to cool down with a jog, just long enough for my heart rate to come down, before starting the next one.
Phase 5: Taper - A taper is a chance for your body to respond to all the training you've done by making itself stronger and well rested so it's ready to perform at its best on Race Day. A good taper cuts back on the mileage starting at three weeks before the marathon, all the way down to less than half of what it was doing the week before the race. There's no new training ground broken here - you've more or less trained yourself as much as you can up to this point. You want to do just enough to keep yourself physically sharp while resting your body as much as you're allowed to. What you DON'T want to do is skip this phase and leave yourself well-trained for the race, but too tired to actually run it.
So that's how my running training works. Thanks for sticking with me this far! In Part 2, I'll talk about my stretching regimen, and in Part 3 I'll go to my nutrition plan. Hope to see you then!
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