Marathon Training Program - Developing You Own

The Chicago Marathon is 20 weeks away and I have not even put my schedule together.  It will be coming in a post, but my training program is not your training program.  What I will share with you is the approach I am taking this year.  Maybe it can work for you.  My Fall marathon last year was St. George and I came away cramping and limping to a PR 3:13.  I am looking for 3:10 at Chicago, but my conditioning is not there.  I will have an uphill battle.

I am a big believer in a few training methods and principles.  First is Jack Daniels Training Formula.   At the core of his method is determining proper training paces for running your various workouts using his VDOT tables.  These use your current best race times to determine proper paces.  I really like this Jack Daniels VDOT Calculator.  I am using it now based on my last slow 5k  under Texas heat conditions to set my paces for training runs since they will all be run in the heat.  With this tool you can easily calculate your own training paces.

Now that you know your paces, what runs do you need to do and how often.  That kind of depends upon the run you are doing.  A few key principles:

·         Schedule hard and easy days.  This is critical.  Resting is important.  Then when you have an easy day, force yourself to run at the pace indicated from the calculator based on your current VDOT.  Also, cut your miles back. 8 easy miles is not easy unless you do 80 miles per week.  3 – 6 miles are plenty depending upon your current mileage.

·         If you are training for a marathon, getting your Threshold Pace as close to your VOMax pace is key.  Your Threshold Pace (TPace) is the pace when lactate is flowing out from your muscles about as fast as it is being created.  You 15K or half marathon pace is approximates this.  You expand your threshold by doing extended runs at TPace.  I ran my first TPace run for Chicago today.  I started with 3 miles at my TPACE and will tack on .5 miles until I get to 9 miles many weeks from now.  Target getting to 1 hour at TPace before your taper.  To me, threshold pace runs are the key reaching marathon pace goals.  I usually do this run the day before my long run.

·         You need speed and economy.  The track will bring this to you.  1-2 workouts per week depending on your conditioning and need for recovery.  I have trouble doing track workouts on my own.  Thankfully, my friend Randy leads a track workout every Monday morning at TCU’s track (it’s free by the way – 5:30am).  On Wednesdays, while I am in Austin, I try to make Run-Tex’s workouts at Brushy Creek (also free @6:00pm).  Both are a combination of track intervals and/or hill work.  The goal is the same.  Reach VOMax (90%+ HR = Maximum utilization of Oxygen) with as much time in that range as possible to raise your VOMax.  You can substitute a 5K or 10K for a VOMax day.

·         The long run and Marathon Pace (MPace).  You have to get used to the distance and the pace.  1 day per week, I run long (usually 16 miles or more).  This should start at your slow end of your easy pace (about 20% slower than goal marathon pace – from the calculator above) and end at the fast end of your easy pace (10% slower than MPace).  The negative split should make you feel good, but only if you really start our slow. 
There is an adage about long runs.   They call them LSD (Long Slow Distance).  It trains you to run long and slow.  To combat this risk, I do two things.  On a normal long run, I add stride outs to the last few miles.  This is a slow pick-up to 70% or so of my top speed for 20-30 seconds and back down.  6 – 12 or these spaced at least a quarter mile apart will do the trick.  Alternatively, every few weeks I will work in increasing miles at MPace toward the end.  This does two things: It says, I am not going to just run slow.  And it trains me to run at MPace getting me ready for the day.

So, there you have it.  2-3 hard days plus your long run.  Just remember to make your 3-4 easy days really easy and do it all at your own personal paces based on your own current level of conditioning.

Let me know what you think.  Blair