Monday 10 January 2011

Sub 2.45 London Marathon Training Week Two


Like A Pyramid

I asked Marius last year If I could replace one of his sessions each week with the club session [its quite soul destroying training on your own all the time and I feel training in a group brings the best out of you as well as being FUN :]


Is it ok to replace some of the hard
trainings each week in the 100 day plan with shorter type speed
sessions ?
I asked Marius;
"Is it possible to replace one of your hard weekly sessions
with a club speed sessions (ie 400 to 800 m efforts)each week?
Many runners find training with a group helps push them to a higher level
yet at the same time being fun! Rick"

Answer : Hi Rick and thanks for
the question. Yes, you can certainly do this but let me give you some
advice on the way to make those sessions more effective and comply
better with the rest of the 100 day marathon plan :

1. Aim for a
progressive approach to these. Meaning, you want to run each of your
400s / 800s faster and faster. Ideally you want to have about 3-4
seconds difference in time from the first to the last 400 - gradually
getting faster and faster. This makes the sessions stay less time in
the legs.

2. After each of these, always do the 5 x 20/20 runs that I
talk about in the 100 day marathon plan.

3. In the marathon specific
phase of the plan, make sure that the really long sessions (type 40 min
+ 40 min + 40 min) are placed as far away as possible from these speed
sessions. Otherwise you may risk getting injuries.

4. In the tapering
period, I suggest to stick with what is outlined there or be really,
really careful on those speed sessions. The increased rest in the
tapering period makes it possible to go much faster on the speed
sessions - and it is very easy to "over-run" these then and lose some
of the marathon specific "low" muscular tension you'll need going into
the marathon.

Wish you all the best with your marathon training and
club sessions !

regards,
Marius

I followed this in my build up to London last year with good results.
Tonight there was a good group out and we did a pyramid session starting out running a block of about 500m and increasing the distance on each effort upto about 1000m before coming back down.
At last I felt really strong, I've been through a lot of stress over the last few months which has affected my running.
Started to cut down on drinking and eat more healthy.
Total time inc running down and back from club session and 6 x smart strides = 1 hour 51 mins

5 comments:

Samurai Running said...

On to my 2nd week of MB training too Rick. It's going well but for some reason finding it hard to hit the right times within the heart rates required, going over 10 to 15bpm to get the paces. Maybe I'm just off the last week.

I'm doing the 2:45 plan but as I want to run under 2:40 I'm going to have to bump up the mileage and run the fast sessions a little faster.

The hard part is keeping the slow days easy and slow. Think this is the key and I'll do as MB says but to allow for more Ks I'll do doubles at the effort 1 level. Say 40mins in the morning and 60mins in the evening on my "easy" effort 1 days. How does that sound to you?

Good to hear you are cutting back on the dodgy food and booze, that is the plan here as well.

I also hope you can go into London with less worries, if you do it has to help your performance.

Rick said...

Hi Scott,
I recommend you go on Marius's Q&A page and ask these questions yourself, he's a far better man than me to get advice from :]
http://www.marathon-training-schedule.com/marathon-coach.html#INV
But first check out his answers to the questions runners on the 100 day plan have asked.
I do my fast days by pace not heart rate , but I do my long runs off road so use my heart rate monitor or go by feel on the level one sessions.
Yes Scott the key is to go real easy on the level one runs, I'd recommend sticking to the lower limit so you get max recovery, if possible run some of them on soft surfaces.
Marius did answer this question about adding extra running;

Rick said...

OK Scott hope the above helps.
P.S. I'm trying to take your advice and focuse on my running and for now not worry to much about my future!
Cheers Rick

Rick said...

2:30 Marathon Schedule

by Reto, Answer by Marius

Is it possible to use the 100 day marathon plans as a 2:30 marathon schedule or even faster ?

"Hi Marius I run the 10k in 31 Minutes. Is it possible to use the 2:45 Training Shedule for a 2:30 or 2:25 Marathon without more training but only faster speed? Or do I need more Training sessions? Gruss Reto"

Answer: Reto, you can certainly do this. It would work all the way down to faster times. But you do need to add some more runs in there in order to make it work 100 %.

What I suggest is to take the 2:45 schedule and add on average2 runs weekly. These should only be easy runs of 45 minutes. The ideal is to use a periodization where you alternate this into "A" and "B" weeks. So that in the 2:45 schedule, in the Week 1 you add in these 3 easy runs of 45 minutes, but in Week 2 you only add in 1 easy run (and Week 3, 3 easy runs etc.) This adds up to 2 extra runs weekly on average.

What this does is to add natural variation to the total workload which is more and more important the faster marathon you train for. If this is hard, in practical terms with the A + B weeks, just adding two easy runs weekly every week + run the sessions slightly faster (or by heart rate - ideal) then you'll be set for your 2:30 quest and probably faster, based on your 10k time.

Kind regards,
Marius

Ewen said...

Rick, some good feedback there from Marius. You didn't have to twist his arm too much to get him to let you run the club sessions ;)

Yes Scott... ask the Master rather than the Grasshopper!