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Marathon Training
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EIGHT WEEKS TO GO
EIGHT WEEKS TO RACE DAY
You have eight weeks to go until race day if your target marathon is run the last weekend in October. Training is all-consuming. You might be getting tired. You might have symptoms of overuse. You are moving through the second half of the endurance phase of your training, with just two weeks remaining until you sharpen. At this point you are approaching your peak weekly mileage, averaging 35–40 miles per week including the long run, perhaps more if you are an experienced marathoner.
A word to the wise if you are beginning to hurt: the most important thing to do is get to the starting line uninjured. The second most important thing is to complete the long runs. Everything else is secondary, including the workouts in these columns. Get enough sleep. Eat well. If you are tired or hurt, take extra days off. You already have one twenty-miler under your belt. You are approaching the point where you will be as well-trained as possible for this training cycle.
This week you again have two “quality” workouts in your schedule, having rested a bit last week to adapt to the stress of training. We have spoken about training principals, the first of which is the application of progressive stress. In resting a bit, your body adapts to progressive stress. Adaptation is the second training principle. Specificity is the third principle: the workout should be tailored to the race you intend to run.
LAST WEEK
Last week you did your second ladder workout, covering four miles at training pace. You learned the concept of the interval, shortening the recovery time between the distances up and down the ladder.
THIS WEEK
This week, we’re coming back to “in-outs,” lengthening the “in” to 600 meters (1-½ laps), and the “out” to 1000 meters (2-½ laps). Each “in-out” now totals 4 laps or 1600 meters, just 9 meters less than a mile. Warm up with a few strides. Run the following pattern:
- Run 1-½ laps in 2:30, which is 30 seconds faster than your normal training pace of ½-lap in one minute, or a full lap in two minutes.
- Run 2-½ laps in 5 minutes, which is your normal training pace. This is the “out.”
Walk ½-lap to recover, jog to the starting line.
- Repeat the “in-out” a total of five times.
In this workout you cover five miles, the “out” component at training pace, and the “in” component faster than marathon training pace. The “in” component is more the speed you would train for a 10K. The purpose of the workout is to trick your body into thinking that your training pace is like resting. A measure of success in the endurance phase is getting to the point you no longer feel as though you have to push through tiredness to get to the end of the workout.
Your second quality workout this week is a 22-mile long run. You’ll get lots of debate about how far or how long your long runs should be. Long slow distance has been in everyone’s training vocabulary since the days of Arthur Lydyard. Several of the leading training methods, including Jeff Galloway’s, recommend runs as long as or longer than the marathon. I don’t go quite that far, but definitely advocate 22 and 23 mile runs, even for first-time marathoners. I just think you will have much more confidence late in the race if you know that you only have another three or four miles beyond your longest run to finish the race. I don’t like the idea of being tired with six miles to go. So take as much time as you need to cover the distance. How fast you go it is unimportant. Take walking breaks if you get tired.
NEXT WEEK
Next week, we’ll culminate the endurance phase with mile repeats, the Olympian’s workout.
Archive of Marathon Training
TWELVE WEEKS TO GO
ELEVEN WEEKS TO GO
TEN WEEKS TO GO
NINE WEEKS TO GO
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