Now that my summer of racing is (mostly) behind me, it’s time to transition to focusing fully on the Chicago Marathon.
Sunday, July 21 marks twelve weeks until the race – Sunday, October 13. Given the fact that I’ve maintained high mileage (~70 miles per week) and a strong base of long runs (16+ miles most weeks), that’s a good amount of time to spend focusing on marathon prep.
Hopefully, some of the workouts I did this summer along with the additional time I spent racing will yield some benefits in terms of speed. It’s always hard to tell in the middle of summer, because the heat distorts things so much. But here and there, I’ve gotten some indications that things are trending in the right direction.
What I’ve Learned from Previous Marathon Training Cycles
This will be the sixth race that I’ve run, so I’ve got some experience under my belt. And in that time, I’ve used Jack Daniels 2Q, Pfitz, and a few Frankenstein plans of my own concoction.
I like the way the JD 2Q plan incorporates workouts directly into the long runs. It’s an efficient way of getting in quality work along with your long runs, and it also helps making the long runs a little shorter – since some portion of them will be spent at T / M pace.
I think the second long run of the week is important. When I did the Pfitz plan, I admittedly skipped and/or cut back on a few of these. Running 10-12 miles midweek just isn’t the same as running 15-16 miles. Lesson learned.
I tried designing a plan with a long run (without quality work) and two workouts during the week. I found this to be too much. It worked in the beginning, but I got worn down and I had trouble hitting my paces towards the end.
At this point, I like capping my long runs at 20 miles. Once I get to the point where they’re consistently under 2:40, I’ll consider doing the occasional 21-22 miles. But for now, I think I’d benefit more from just trying to get in more 20 milers.
I’ve done 85 miles per week before, and it’s a lot. Until and unless my pace comes down some more, I think that’s about my limit. But I could benefit by trying to get in more peak weeks.
Although I prefer a straight 2Q plan, I have found weekly Wednesday night track sessions with my team to be fun and motivating. Incorporating these is probably a little sub-optimal. But the trade off is worth it to me.
The Broad Strokes of the Plan
After reflecting on my previous training cycles, I’ve decided on the following basic elements of a training plan.
My long run each week will be 18-20 miles, and I’ll incorporate some of Jack Daniels Q1 workouts from his 2Q plan. The emphasis will be on T workouts, but I’ll try to fit in 2-3 M workouts as well.
I’m going to ramp up to a peak of 85 miles per week, with a couple of down weeks at 70 miles sprinkled in. Over the last three weeks, I’ll taper down to 70, 60, and 45 miles.
I’ll plan on running Wednesday night workouts on the track with my team, followed by a midweek long run on Thursday or Friday. This will be a Pfitz style run – starting off easy and working down to ~10-15% slower than marathon pace.
The rest of my miles will be easy, and I’ll likely do most of them on the trails.
Races to Plan Around
There are a few races on my calendar that I’ll have to plan around.
The Big Bang Mile was supposed to be in July, but it was rescheduled due to lightning. It’s not August 18 – smack dab in the middle of marathon training. I’ll probably do a long run the following day (Monday) without any quality work.
The following Sunday is a XC 5k team championship race. Again, I’ll probably do a shorter, basic long run on Monday morning.
On September 15, I’m running the By Hook or By Crook 12k. It’s a team championship race, so I wanted to run it anyway. But it’s also one month from Chicago – making it a perfect time for a short tune up. I’ll also be out of town the following week for a conference, so I’ll take a down week with some easy miles following the race,
On September 22, I’m running a local charity 5k in town (Stop for Nikhil). I’ll either tack on some miles that day to make it a long run, or I’ll do a shorter long run the following day. Unlike the other races, I won’t be going all out on this one.
On September 29, I’m running the Jersey Shore Half Marathon. That’s two weeks from Chicago – so a final tune up race. From that point on, it’ll be taper time.
The Basic Weekly Outline
Here’s the basic weekly outline, with mileage goals sketched out and some other details worked in:
- 7/21: 75 mpw, 16 LR (E), 15 MLR, Wed track
- 7/28: 75 mpw, 18 LR (M), 16 MLR, Wed track
- 8/4: 85 mpw, 20 LR (T), 16 MLR, Wed track
- 8/11: 85 mpw, 18 LR (T), 16 MLR, Wed track
- 8/18: 70 mpw, BB Mile, 16 LR, 16 MLR, Wed track
- 8/25: 85 mpw, XC 5k, 16 LR, 16 MLR, Wed track
- 9/1: 85 mpw, 20 LR (T), 16 MLR, Wed track
- 9/8: 70 mpw, 18 LR (M), 16 MLR, Wed track
- 9/15: 85 mpw, Hook Crook 12k, 16 MLR, no track
- 9/22: 70 mpw, Charity 5k, 16 LR (T), 14 MLR, Wed track
- 9/29: 60 mpw, JS Half, taper down
- 10/6: 45 mpw, taper time
I’ll pick out the M/T workouts when I get closer and sketch out the additional easy miles ahead of time. But that blueprint should give me enough to go on.
As usual, I’ll write up a weekly reflection on how things are going … and I’m hopeful this will lead to a strong performance come October. I don’t have a firm time goal yet, but tentatively I’m thinking somewhere between 2:55 and 3:00 is reasonable.