Tuesday, August 20, 2013

ING New York City Marathon: 11 weeks

With 11 weeks left until the ING New York City Marathon, the mileage is starting to ramp up. I'm feeling good after a solid 3 weeks at 120, 125, and 135, and I'm ready to start pushing it a little further. I will be aiming in the 145 to 150 range for this next week. Hopefully within the next couple of days I will have a half-marathon tune-up picked out. It will either be September 15th or October 6th depending on which Dave Smith and I decide will be more beneficial for my marathon preparations. This will allow us to finalize the next 11 weeks of training. I will share this training blueprint once it's finished, but pieces will certainly be adjusted throughout the season based on how many body is holding up to the training. So far my body is fairing very well, and I continue to see Dr. John Howell at Portland Integrated Health and Sports Medicine for maintenance, mostly on my tight hamstrings. This last week was a step up in intensity, so I was pleased with how my body responded in both the mile repeats, and the broken up tempo/long run. This upcoming week will include mile repeats with longer rest at a significantly faster pace, so I'm looking forward to seeing what I can get down to during a week of very high mileage. I'm wrapping this up just in time to head down to P.A.C.E for some strength training in between runs. Thanks for reading, and I'll continue to post my weekly log from now until New York.

Week 3 AM PM Strength/Drills Mileage
Monday 13 miles + drills and grass strides 6
19
Tuesday 10 x 1 mile starting @ 4:58 and working down to 4:42 w/1 min rest 5 1 hour 20
Wednesday 12.5 6
18.5
Thursday 12.5 6 1 hour 18.5
Friday 13 miles + drills and grass strides 5.5
18.5
Saturday 3 mile tempo @ 71.9s, 10 mile run @ 5:50, 3 mile tempo @70.9s + warm-up & cool down

22
Sunday 12.5 6 40 minutes core 18.5




135

2 comments:

  1. Hi Ryan,

    It's brilliant that you are posting your training diaries up. For someone like myself who is aiming to run a sub 2:17 debut, it is really interesting to see what your schedule is like. Couple of questions:
    1) Have you always doubled on easy day? I have tentatively put down an easy single 6-10 miles for my easy day.
    2) Do you find that if you take a day really easy that it makes no difference to how you feel on key workout days?
    3) How many workouts do you do in a week when you are at your peak mileage/intensity?
    4) Do you work on a weekly or 10 day cycle or something else? Just trying to ascertain how you fit in all the key workouts in a training block.

    Thanks

    Aaron Scott

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  2. Hi Aaron,
    Sorry for the long delay. I haven't actually been checking the comments on here. Thanks for reading, and I'd be happy to answer your questions.

    1. I didn't start doubling until I got to college. It's a good way to build volume while not trashing your legs. It's obviously time consuming, and still more tiring than a short easy single. It depends what your training goals are. If you're trying to increase your mileage then add a couple doubles to your week rather than just making your runs longer. This is a way to be conservative and see how your body will react. Don't add too much too quickly though. I wouldn't add more than 10 to 15 miles per week to your normal mileage during one training block. Take it slow and listen to your body. It's better to be under-trained than over-trained.
    2. Sometimes taking a very easy day or even a day off is crucial to keeping me healthy and fresh. I listen to my body, and when I'm exhausted, I will take a very easy day. Sometimes that means just running very slowly, sometimes it means cutting back on volume, and sometimes it means a day off. My pace will also vary greatly on easy days. If I feel good I may run 6:00 or better; if I feel tired I may run 7:00 to 7:30.
    3. During marathon training I don't do more than 2 workouts in a week, and one of these workouts is included in my long run. Sometimes I will do some short hill repeats as well, but I don't push these too hard. During the track season I will do 2 or 3 workouts a week depending on the week.
    4. Currently I'm working on a normal 7 day cycle. A 10 day cycle can be very helpful though in order to put more time in between your long runs. It depends how your body handles the long runs and workouts.
    Thanks again for reading, and let me know if you have any more questions. Good luck with your debut!

    Ryan

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