So, I officially posted my training plan for a race* – namely my first full marathon – under the page “intentions” in the top header bar. When I originally began crafting this plan it was over a month ago and that extra four weeks of cushion were nice. And then I didn’t run. Now, I’m wondering if my mileage increases might be too much from one week to the next.
Also, if you take a look you’ll notice the last six or so weeks are left blank. My inexperience glows here. How much mileage should I be covering here? Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions?
Does my plan totally suck? If so, don’t be afraid to tell me.
*More details on that later.
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have you looked at any training plans? hal higdon makes some good ones for beginners, but there are also many others out there. i would suggest looking at a ‘sample’ plan to get the basic structure for your own.
it looks like you want to do 4-5 days of running/week? sounds good to me. keep the easy runs easy (2-3 per week). do some hills or speedwork once/week. the speedwork doesn’t have to be formal (like repeats on the track) – it could just be a “fartlek” style run. and then of course that leaves you with the long run.
i wouldn’t recommend increasing the long run week after week all the way through. starting out – it’s common to increase/build for 3 weeks (no more than 10% bump in mileage) and then cutback in the 4th week. in cutback weeks you shorten the long run as well as the weekly mileage in total. then in the next week you would go up to 10% more than where you left off before the cutback. (if you check out a hal higdon plan, or some other one, you will probably notice the reduced mileage weeks every 3-4 weeks) also for long runs, 2-20 milers and some 18 milers are the most they say you need to build up to.
good luck!
ummm how awesome are you? No, I hadn’t heard of a Hal Higdon plan. I basically took the plan that my coach made me for a half and thought I could alter it for a full? Plus some tweaking, obviously. Well, a lot of tweaking I guess. Anyway, I’ve now checked out his stuff and it is really helpful. I’ll definitely be changing things up to reflect that! Thanks for all the great information! You’re the best!