2014 Marathon Training

I'll keep this one fairly dry. With the first lot of training already under way, I've noticed I've got some significant gaps to address. Having run a 100km last September and covering a 56km race earlier this month just do not translate anywhere near to the level I wanted. Time for some honest training.

I'm aiming to the Traralgon Marathon in mid-June. On the way I'll have a good crack at the Australasian Police & Emergency Services Games in April where I'll race the 5000m, 10km cross country and half marathon in quick succession. I'll throw in a handful of other races along the way. My training will be geared towards developing the speed endurance required to perform well at the Games with the background of developing marathon specific endurance alongside this preparation. Beyond the games will then become completely directed at the marathon, depending on my strengths and weaknesses as they develop. So the following guidelines will take me into April.



I'll aim to keep volume at an average of about 15km/day (minimum 100km/wk). I'll fill out the with easy mileage as required. While not completely dictated by weekly totals, I have slacked off in this over the year and the problems are really showing their heads at this time. Key runs to have extended warm ups and cool downs, which is not about volume, but have always been a feature of when I have raced well in the past. Frequency is important and I prefer to run every day. However things do happen so I will only allow one day off per 7-9 day week.

I don't follow a typical Monday to Sunday calendar and as part of that I don't put exact starts and ends to weeks. Instead I will follow the pattern of key session below, that can loosely be put across to kind of weeks.

Alternate weekly (7-9 day week) with below key runs:
Week 1

  1. 1000m reps @ current 5000m pace
  2. 2000m reps @ current 10km pace
  3. 30km Long @ pace
Week 2
  1. 400m reps @ goal 5000m pace -> 200m faster
  2. Hill reps
  3. 10-15km @ goal hm pace
  4. Long 3hr trail, easy
Non key runs: easy aerobic for 15km if possible 1 or 2 per week to include speed sets.
Key weights session 3/wk (minimum 2/wk) preference to have as 2nd session on key run day.
Additional strength, core, unilateral work, extra remedial if able to fit in on day after key weights.
Limit strength work to 30min (max 40min), 20min for extra.
 
Run Descriptions
 
5000m Current Pace
Start w/ 3x1000m@3:36, 600m easy,(lane 3 1045m@3:45)
Progress by adding reps up to at least 6x1000m, then reduce rest to 200m float
 
10km Current Pace
Start w/ 3x2000m@3:50 (7:40), 400m float. (lane 3 2090m in 8:00)
Progress by adding reps to at least 6x2000m, aim for 10x2000m
 
Long Paced
Use a fixed 30km loop aiming for a steady pace (terrain permitting) looking to progress to 4:00-4:10/km on flat. If achieving above then push the final hills. Always start relaxed and gradually build to pace in opening kilometres.
 
5000m Goal Pace
Start w/ 2x400m in 81s (3:24/km) w/ 400m @AT -> 200m sprint (95%).   (lane 3 415m 84s)
Progress by adding 400m reps and with up to 3x200m sprints to total of 3200m of all 'on' reps.
Further progress by changing to 800m reps.
 
Hill Reps
Uphill approx 3:00, with relaxed/high cadence down hill, aim to achieve >30min of uphill running. Effort >10km race.
 
HM Goal Pace
Start with 10km@4:00/km progress to 15km then work pace down to 3:45/km.
 
Long Trail
Relaxed run in the trails with plenty of hills for 3 hours.


All the above looks good on paper. Of course it isn't as easy to produce day in, day out. Yet that is exactly what is needed if I am seriously chasing a time well below 3 hours at the marathon. I expect a mixture of some spectacular key runs and some dismal failures. The key for me is that I keep coming back and progressing along the way. I have some good records of what I have done to achieve my better race results in the past. At the moment I am a good distance away from that level of training. I have my pathway, now I just have to go out and blue collar it.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sandy Point Half Marathon

Image
Any race that uses a picture of myself as promotion makes me think I should compete in it. Wouldn't want to disappoint the masses. Last year my race slow and cold over the same course. A time of 1:30:20, was disappointing and a kick up the backside to get to what really works in training. Since then I have put in a lot of consistent kilometres and have seen some improvement. I was definitely going to race faster this year. Based on my race results over the last few months the hope was to see if I could get down to near 1:24:xx. The weather was very different this year. Far from cold, in fact I think it was our warmest night in a few months. However, there was a Damaging Winds warning issued, with predictions of 65km/hr gales to slow things downs a bit. The winds hit, according to the weather sites: NNE averaging around 50km/hr with gusts of 76km/hr. That made for some interesting race tactics. Luckily the rain held off until after the race. For some reason I felt ready with only 1...
Read more

Fitting Together

It's interesting how easy it suddenly becomes to prioritise aspects of life. I have missed plenty of training in the last week, but for the first time in my life, it really, and I mean really doesn't matter. That's not to say I am throwing training on the back burner. Far from it. Of course I am finding it hard working out how life now all fits together, but I am thoroughly enjoying the process. Training is now just part of the puzzle. What was a very easy load a couple of weeks ago, is now just manageable. This is what I anticipated. As things settle down and I work out of few things the training load should again become much easier. At the moment it looks like I will be able to get in all the key sessions, so in reality it is going fine.
Read more

The Gorge

For work I am currently stationed away from my normal branch. This is a recent roster change that I am not too happy about due to a number of reasons that I won't go into here. The good thing is that it gives me different roads to ride on when commuting. Nothing like a bit of variety to break things up. One particular bit of terrain that I now get to cover is known as the Gorge. It is exactly as the name suggests. The road that takes you into the Gorge is simple. One side is a very wide bend, that could almost be thought of as a straight road. The other side involves a couple of reasonable bends, which wouldn't normally be an issue, but can be when hitting speeds of 60km/hr on the descent. I want to make it clear that the Gorge is far from the toughest of climbs, while quite steep on both sides it is relatively short. So what is it about the Gorge. For me it has provided a good bench mark for my cycling fitness. Back when I first started on the bike it took all my ef...
Read more