Marathon du Medoc training
For the next 23 weeks this will be my life. On the days I cross-train, I’ll focus on biking and swimming in preparation for the Seafair and Danskin triathlons. I may add a couple of other running races as my schedule allows (my need to earn a living catering barbecues during the summer overrides my desire for another race).
April 3rd, 2007 at 9:33 pm
Hi Betsy–
I looked over your training schedule and noticed it looks pretty aggressive. This is your first marathon, correct? I’m far from an expert on the matter, but you may wish to reconsider running a full 26-mile training run before the actual marathon. Most beginner programs peak at 20 miles (some go up to 22), but I think the general consensus is any more than that is too much stress on the body and too little recovery time for the race. I trained up to 20 miles and wondered how in the world I’d run another six in the race, but adrenaline and conditioning (not to mention systematic walking breaks during the entire course of the race) got me across the finish feeling exhausted, but strong. My recovery was very quick as well. Just something to consider! Feel free to email if I can be of any help with my experience.
April 3rd, 2007 at 11:29 pm
Hey Angie!
This will indeed be my first marathon, however, the training schedule I’m following is Jeff Galloway’s run/walk program for beginning marathoners. His philosophy is that you tend to hit the wall at the point of your longest run (so if your longest run is 20 miles, you’ll hit the wall then). For the half marathon program, he has you run 14-15 miles as your longest run before the race, which has worked well for me. In addition, the pace that I’ll be running will be about 2 minutes slower than what I will be running in the actual race.
That said, I’ll see how my body holds up after my 20-22 mile run! If it looks like I’m taking too much of a pounding, then I won’t go for the 26 miles!
September 22nd, 2007 at 5:03 pm
Congratulations on your marathon! I’ve never heard of Marathon de Medoc. Are you training for any races right now? Are you interested in training for Vegas with our group from Konamoxt? http://lvhm.konamoxt.com/2007/09/08/join-konamoxt-team-train-for-las-vegas/ We do our long runs on the weekend, usually Saturdays. I ran around Greenlake on Tuesday. Small world huh?