I have been leaning toward HH. It seems so boring, but is straightforward I guess. Just want to make sure I explore all my options. I really want to go sub-4:00 and I think it's doable.
Wellll my friend, I don't think I'm the one to give much advice, but I did have a wonderful experience & was reasonably satisfied with my finish time. I want to do it again, so I must have enjoyed it
For me this last year, my marathon was sort of a way for me to increase my running fitness before triathlon season, so had I put in more running miles and fewer xc miles, I am certain I would have done better. I maintained 5 swims & rides throughout the training cycle - a little too much xc for a maximum potential marathon I think. I ran 6 days a week: 1 long, 2 speedwork, 2 junk (no watch, just fun), & 1 mid distance. I trained up to 22. My plan was written by my uncle.
Next time I will increase my mid distance runs (I didn't ever fit in a single one longer than 8, oops) & do more segments of goal pace within longer runs. If I ever needed to skip a day I would skip junk miles, but I'm glad I had them in there - it was nice to take a mental break. I also did bodypump 2x/week, which was great for me & I'm convinced helped me to stay injury free.
So, that's a lot of advice for someone who doesn't think she has a lot of advice to give . The best training is the training that works for you & your schedule. Whatever you decide on will be great.
ETA: my marathon time was 4:30. My previous half time was 2:05 & then my first half after the marathon was 1:57.
Ditto the HH plan suggestions. Of course, the plan Tara posted is a "Break 4 hr" plan, so there's that too. If you get the proper base of mileage in during the week (I think this was key to my endurance,) I think you can do it. I ran a 4:03 when my half time was 1:56, and a 3:46 when my half was 1:46.
I like HH. That's what I'll be using to try to go sub-4 this fall or winter. Re: the break 4 plan, I think the hills are fairly important and I don't know where in Houston there are hills for that kind of mileage. I think there just aren't any.
Post by Wines Not Whines on May 7, 2013 18:47:53 GMT -5
Butting in: clseale and taratru - did you use the exact paces in that RW plan? Long runs at 10 mm pace seems slow to me, but maybe they know something I don't know.
Butting in: clseale and taratru - did you use the exact paces in that RW plan? Long runs at 10 mm pace seems slow to me, but maybe they know something I don't know.Â
No. I ran my long runs between 8:45-9:15. I knew my first marathon long runs were too slow.
Butting in: clseale and taratru - did you use the exact paces in that RW plan? Long runs at 10 mm pace seems slow to me, but maybe they know something I don't know.
No, I completely tweaked that plan. At first, I just added a bunch of mileage, but kept the runs the same. I knew I wanted to hit 60+. Once I started training & I got a new half time, I adjusted my goal from break 4:00 to break 3:50.
I used McMillan to adjust the paces in the plan. The endurance paces for long runs in McMillan for my new time ranged 8:44-10:03. I ran my 20+ runs at an 8:55. I raced at an 8:36, so I think some might argue that I ran them too fast ( though I talked through all of them), but I was happy with my race results.
ETA: The RW paces fall in the middle of McMillan paces, but I like that McMillan allows a range.
I think I'll probably end up doing HH. I need to nail down my goal pace and figure out training paces. Sometimes I kinda suck at stuff like that and just aimlessly run. That can work for 5Ks and 10Ks, and I even faked my way through halves like that. But I need to take this marathon training more seriously. For one, I've never even done speedwork of any kind. I'm so lame.
I'm not, I've never really had time to feel like I could participate in enough races. Definitely will be looking into that though. It's a great race and I'd like to run it again before I potentially move away!
I need to learn to read. I got excited and joined HARRA and then noticed that sign up for their spots ended 2 days ago on the 5th, which is super frustrating.
I need to learn to read. I got excited and joined HARRA and then noticed that sign up for their spots ended 2 days ago on the 5th, which is super frustrating.
Runaways....they never fill all their spots this early....they usually send out another email later to all HARRA members saying they have spots left and to email them for one.