2004-05 Marathon Training
This is the training schedule that I’m going to be working from, which started out as one of the Hal Higdon schedules although I’ve upped the speedwork on Tuesdays and Thursdays to match my normal schedule. Geez, I must be nuts! Anyway, I’ll continue to update it over time, changing the scheduled runs to actual runs with links and adjusting it as necessary to account for the fact that life will inevitably interfere with running. It starts off fairly gently since I’m still recovering from my MCL sprain:
| Monday + Gym | Tuesday Speedwork | Wednesday + Gym | Thursday Speedwork | Friday Gym | Saturday Long Run | Sunday Race Pace | Total Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9:00 | varies | 9:00 | varies | n/a | 9:15 | 8:15 | ||
| 8/23 | .5 | 1.2 | 3.6 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 2.4 | 15 |
| 8/30 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 15 |
| 9/6 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 4 | 14 |
| 9/13 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 17 |
| 9/20 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | spin | 8 | 5 | 17 |
| 9/27 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6.2 (race) | 11 |
| 10/4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | spin | 7 | 5 | 17 |
| 10/11 | 4.5 | 4 | 2.5 | 7 | spin | 4 | 5 | 27 |
| 10/18 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 10 (race) | 26 |
| 10/25 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 8 | 0 | 10 | 6 | 36 |
| 11/1 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 13 | 6 | 37 |
| 11/8 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 8 | 0 | 8 | 7 | 35 |
| 11/15 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 10 | 13.1 (race) | 41 |
| 11/22 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 5 (race) | 0 | 16 | 8 | 42 |
| 11/29 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 7 | 12.4 (race) | 38 |
| 12/6 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 8 | 0 | 10 | 9 | 40 |
| 12/13 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 19 | 9 | 47 |
| 12/20 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 8 | 0 | 20 | 10 | 53 |
| 12/27 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 0 | 12 | 6 | 39 |
| 1/3 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 8 | 0 | 20 | 10 | 53 |
| 1/10 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 0 | 6 | 18.6 (race) | 47 |
| 1/17 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 8 | 0 | 12 | 6 | 42 |
| 1/24 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 13.1 (race) | 37 |
| 1/31 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 28 |
| 2/7 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 26.2 (race) | 38 |
So. Right now, its looking like the week of Thanksgiving will be one of the hardest scheduled, since I have a 5 mile race on Thursday and a 16 miler - big jump - on Saturday. Other than that, the hardest thing will be working on getting my paces nailed down so that I’m training appropriately for the distances.
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Aug 26th 2004
3:56 PM
Does that mean you want to do something “too stupid” at a later point in time?
Schedule looks great. I appreciated your comment about changing it when life interferes. How true!
Aug 26th 2004
4:01 PM
Heh … doesn’t running a marathon count any more?
Aug 26th 2004
5:27 PM
Be careful. Injuries take a while to come back from and the stress of the speed work and mileage can be difficult. I know that when I am increasing mileage, as you have outlined, I drop at least one if not both of my speed sessions and focus on distance. Once I am at my mileage, then I add speed. It is hard to run fast and increase distance at the same time.
Aug 26th 2004
5:48 PM
Thanks for the advice. I had been doing regular group speedwork on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but that’s currently suspended and I’ve been doing some pretty low-impact speed instead (1km intervals are much more gentle than 400m circuit training). I’m planning on rejoining my speed group somewhere around mid-October where I will, you can be sure, take it pretty easy.
BTW - I just noticed your blog a couple of minutes ago. I don’t know if you’ve commented before - if so, I probably confused you then as well with Mark (see comment #1 in this post) :-) Again, thanks for the input.
Aug 26th 2004
9:50 PM
Ya, the other Mark. Maybe we can add a few more and make things really confusing!
Touche’ on your comment above!
Aug 26th 2004
10:15 PM
I’ve made some minor adjustments to some of the weeks. Looking it over, I think that the week of 11/22 (Thanksgiving) is probably going to be one of the hardest ones to do well. I can’t wait for the challenge!