New year new marathon plan

It’s been a long time since I have updated this blog but as I wasn’t training with any marathon in mind the blog was also on a break. All that has changed in the last few weeks. Training has begun and it’s 15 weeks to the Berlin marathon. My program is made and I plan to stick as close as possible to it. As always there are always the odd week that training can get interrupted due to work and injuries but now is not the time to worry about what might happen so I will take it week by week.

It’s no secret that long term I would love to break the 3 hours for the marathon so I look at each marathon to learn what I need to do differently to bring me closer. With that in mind I have changed a few things in my program this time. First thing I am planning differently is going over the 20 mile mark on 2 of my long runs. With 10 weeks to go (week 8) I plan on a 21 mile run and with 6 weeks to go (week 12) I plan on running a 23 mile run. The second thing I hope to try differently is to run 2 long runs at marathon pace. On week 7 I hope to run 18 with 12 miles at marathon pace and on week 15 for my last long 20 miler I hope to run 13/15 miles at marathon pace. If I can get these into a race then that’s all the better. I find it hard to keep a steady marathon pace while training so I’ll be looking for some help with this.

Race wise I don’t plan on doing that many this year during my program. I plan on running the Ballycotton Summer series and the Streets of Galway 5 mile as breaks from the normal routine and to see if my sharpness is improving. I would really like to get a top 50 position in the Ballycotton series. Other than those races I will just concentrate on training and probably try to fit in one or 2 races over 10 miles during the program. Maybe run them at marathon pace.

Onwards to the training. The program is 18 weeks in total and started at a 50 mile week. Normally this would be way too much for me to start at but I was putting in 40 to 45 mile weeks over the last few months so my body should be well able for it. There are some problems that I can see in the schedule for example between week 6 and 7 shows a big jump in mileage. Nearly 13 miles. This will need to be changed but I will look at this closer to the time. Previous experience has proved that I get injured if I increase mileage too suddenly.

I suppose for now my main target is to get the first 5 weeks of the program done. This should give me a good base with my mileage increased and plenty of hill work to help build up stamina. With 14 weeks to go my weekly mileage will be up to 60 miles and a recovery week ahead.

Mileage so far.
17 weeks to go 51 miles

16 weeks to go 38 miles. (Drop is due to Cork half marathon on Monday the 7th. No long run on the Sunday)

15 weeks to go 52 miles.

Next update in 2 weeks.