Runners World Smart Coach plans

[Wines Not Whines]

Has anyone used one for a marathon? Did it work well for you?

[clseale]

Sort of. I started with the break 4:00 plan. I then decided that I wanted to be more ambitious than that, so I kept the same format, but bumped up the weekly mileage & adjusted the paces (using McMillan) for a break 3:50 plan. I wound up with 3:46:10.

[Wines Not Whines]

Thanks. I've seen that break 4:00 plan, too. When I entered my info, the Smart Coach plan was very similar (and has me running a sub 4:00 marathon). It also has me running 4 days/week, which is my preference. When I bump up to 5 days, I tend to get injured.

[clseale]

Yeah, I've looked at a few of their plans, and they seem pretty well rounded to me. I think they give decent mileage, and a good variety of quality runs.

[Wines Not Whines]

Cool, thanks.

Now I'm trying to wrap my brain around the concept that I should do my long runs at a pace that's 60 seconds slower than my goal marathon pace. I think I'll write another post about that.

[jamalynn]

I have used it for HM and I have done well with those. I like Smart Coach. But I haven't run a full yet so I can't say how that would be. GL!

[savan]

I used one for my last half and was pleased with my time.

[taratru]

I did the same plan as clseale and tweaked the same way. Ended up at 3:47.

[clseale]

Jul 1, 2013 9:03:31 GMT -5 taratru said:

I did the same plan as clseale and tweaked the same way. Ended up at 3:47.

I find it fascinating that we came from similar PRs prior to our races, did similar plans, and wound up within 1 min of each other. I can't think of better results to prove that a plan works. lol 

[taratru]

Jul 1, 2013 9:09:07 GMT -5 clseale said:

Jul 1, 2013 9:03:31 GMT -5 taratru said:

I did the same plan as clseale and tweaked the same way. Ended up at 3:47.

I find it fascinating that we came from similar PRs prior to our races, did similar plans, and wound up within 1 min of each other. I can't think of better results to prove that a plan works. lol 

I know! They need to hire us as paid spokesmodels.  

It also tells me that at some point we need to run a race together.

[agrippa]

I used it for half matathon training, but couldn't follow their sugested paces. They were just too slow. I wad happy with my half time.

[hannahb]

I've used them before as a base and then have tweaked them a little like others have said.