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Program
Hill Training
Repetitions
Intervals
Marathon Specific
Taper
Mileage base building is
one of the most important phases of marathon training. Building the capillary
beds in your muscles will allow you to recover quickly from the hard training
you'll do in the weeks to follow.
General purpose of this phase
 | Build your aerobic capacity - your muscles can't work if they can't
breath! |
| Increase your weekly mileage by approximately 10% per week. For
example, if you ran 30 miles last week, you would increase to 33 miles this week...an
increase of 3 miles. |
| After every 2 weeks, plan to decrease your weekly mileage a bit to give
your body a chance to fully recover. |
| Prepare you for the hill and speed workouts in phases 2-5 |
| Plan to enter Phase 2 (Hill training) with no aches or pains, and no
general tiredness. Trust me, the little aches and pains will come in the weeks
to come. You don't want to be feeling them now. |
| At the end of this phase, you'll be running ~70% of your planned peak weekly
mileage |
| Have FUN |
Remember
| You are increasing your mileage by 10% per week. If you run too fast,
you'll increase your risk of injury |
| Of course you can run faster than the easy run paces in this phase...but it doesn't mean you should. |
| Keep your eyes on the prize. The goal is the marathon; not to win a
training run |
Duration
| Approximately 6 weeks or longer, if possible |
| Do a long slow distance run for at least an hour or hour and a half once
per week |
| Typically, you should take about 6 weeks to build up your base mileage
after a training layoff (e.g., post marathon recovery period) |
Workout tips
| Running too fast during these workouts will increase the amount of lactic
acid in your blood and muscles. It takes time to "clear" this acidic level.
Your body recovers most rapidly when the acidic level of your blood is NOT
elevated. So run easy. |
| Increasing mileage by 10% per week increases your risk of injury. Doing
speed work increases your risk of injury. Increasing weekly mileage by 10% and
doing speed work is a recipe for injury. Please, don't do both. |
| RUN EASY! |
| Some definitions of easy running:
1-2 minutes SLOWER than marathon race pace
Conversational pace...if you're dragging your tail back into Memorial Park
after 10 miles, you ran too fast!
Check your VDOT for specifics (see Coach Jack's book below) |
Key books to review
| Daniels' Running Formula, Jack Daniels, Ph.D. |
| Lore of Running, Timothy Noaks, MD |
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