Marathon training (the second time)

So I thought I'd talk a little bit about my marathon training last year.  I didn't really want to talk about it while training because I was afraid of "cursing" myself.  But it was pretty different from the traditional thought about marathon training so I wanted to share what I did differently this time from my first time training for a full marathon.

In 2017, training for a January 2018 marathon, I follow a fairly traditional marathon training plan for a beginner and went up to a long run of 20 miles.  However, I'm really slow.  And this resulted in three long runs that took over  hours, 16 miles, 18 miles and 20 miles.  By the time the race came around, I was having a lot of knee problems and my knee locked up during the race, causing me to get swept around mile 20.

 

20 mile training run in 2017

So when I decided to try again, I knew it made sense to try something different.  There was someone on an online board I read that provides coaching services (Blaser Coaching Services) and his philosophy is that the training plan needs to be specific to each individual.  In addition, he believes in a max 150 minute long run (or 180 minute for run/walk). So for some that's 20 miles, and for others it's only 12 miles. My longest run during marathon training this time was 14 miles.

Longest run in 2018, 14 miles with tempo miles

Which sounds crazy.  Was I really going to be prepared for a marathon if my longest run was 14 miles?  I expressed this to the coach and asked about whether I could go up to at least 16.  He indicated that he really believes in these limits and it would make more sense to add another day of running to the week.  So we increased from 4 days of running to 5 days of running during the week.  The thought is that the 14 miles are on tired legs after the cumulative miles of the week are really more like the last 14 miles of the marathon instead of the first 14 miles.

And it wasn't easy.  There was still speed work and there were multiple days of running in a row.  In fact, having back to back runs is a big part of the cumulative fatigue.  In addition to back to back runs, a lot of my long runs included tempo miles and learning to run at that pace on tired legs was really useful.  There was a cut back week every other week which really helped too.

Last 5 miles were the fastest ones

Going up to 20 miles hadn't worked for me so I figured trying something different couldn't hurt and I just had to have faith in the method.  And it worked!  I was worried about finishing, and I was able to finish this year.  I was worried that I would be in pretty bad shape after the race given that I had only gone up to 14 miles in training, but I didn't feel any worse this year than I did after last year's race.  In fact, I felt better since I didn't have the knee problem to contend with.

The training plan wasn't the only thing I changed so I should mention the other things too.  I did see a PT about the knee issues and she told me about my tight calves and weak hips.  I was diligent about the PT exercises through the year.  I also kept up with going to body pump this year.  I was better about stretching and foam rolling in general.  The electronic foam roller (i.e. car buffer) really helped.  I also got massages regularly during training.

 

Some of the PT exercises I was given

I don't know if these helped or not but the other things I added were taking a turmeric pill (anti-inflammatory) and vitamin D pills (my vitamin D levels tested really low).  I also changed the dosage on my thyroid medicine as it turned out it was too high (which was weird since I'd been on the same dose for like 20 years) and that had been causing my heart rate to be too high.  I think these things probably helped with my health in general.

So that's it!  Turns out you don't need to get up to 20 miles in training for a marathon, and if you're on the slow side, it may do more harm than good.  I was really happy with how my training experience went this year and I'm planning on continuing to work with this coach. In addition to the completely customized training plan, he was always readily available to answer questions and help me make adjustments if needed.  The plan was really detailed with specific numbers for pace for each type of run and that made it pretty easy to follow.