Every time that I read an article about marathon training I see something pertaining to the longest run in a marathon plan. Why is there so much controversy?

Every marathon runner or coach has his or her own theory about the longest run during marathon training. Some argue that 20 miles in long enough. Others argue running up to 30 miles. And some even say that 15 miles is long enough. Which theory is correct?

In my own opinion the two greatest coaches are Arthur Lydiard and Jack Daniels. These two coaches never had their runners run longer than 22 miles. My interpretation of their coaching system is that they based this distance on the length of time that a marathoner would run during the actual race. During marathon training a distance of 22 miles ran at slower than marathon pace would equal the time running the actual marathon.

My own theory about marathon training follows a similar pattern. I try to lengthen my long run in minutes to the amount of time that I project to be my finishing time. For example if my projected marathon goal is 3 and ½ hours. My longest run will be 3 and half hours at my long distance heart rate of between 60 and 75% mhr 3 weeks before the marathon.

Two drawbacks to this theory are under estimating your finishing time and running longer than three hours. Figuring out your estimated finishing time can be a challenge. There are many ways to estimate your finishing time. My personal choice is to take my latest half marathon finishing time and double it and add one half hour. For those whose finishing time projects out to be longer than 3 hours I would not run longer than 3 and a half hours.

A suggestion about longs runs during marathon training. When your long run time starts approaching three hours allow 14 to 21 days between these efforts. Three hour runs take a lot out of you both physically and mentally. Extra time is needed for the body and mind to adapt to these difficult efforts.

My theory about long runs during marathon training has helped to me set my own personal best times in the marathon. I believe this will allow you to reach your own marathon goals also.

Author of: Fatigue Nutrition & Endurance Exercise, Run2Fast, Ultimate Training

http://www.everything-running.com

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In the home stretch now and in the tail end of the taper phase - the run is this coming Sunday and I feel good. I don’t think this will be my fastest half every (1 hr 48 minutes) but it should fell good. I am ready to push it and see how fast I can do it.

Tonights run was a 10 minute warm up followed bu 6 X 0.25 mile repeats with a 0.25 coll down between each speed workout. I finished up with another 10 minute cool down. Tomorrow and Friday I plan to ride into work and on Thursday I am going to do a pretty light 3 miler just to keep the legs fresh.

My next post won’t be until after the race so until then….

For those of you who have been following my progress as I train for a marathon may have noticed the real scarcity of posts concerning this training. Truth is that my life has been way too hectic and I have not been able to do the required training. The long runs on Sundays were next to impossible to get in - it was not fair to my wife and kids, who I don’t see much during the week due to work anyway - to head out for 2.5+ hour runs. The volume of the weekday runs were equally hard. Don’t get me wrong, my wife is the most supportive wife in the world - it was my guilt that was the issue.

This lead me to making a pretty tough decision - I have decided to pull out of the full marathon and have re-registered in the half-marathon. The funny thing is that it feels like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I was constantly stressing about being ready for the marathon and not getting the good quality runs is was have an impact on my well-being. I am a pretty passionate guy and things like this affect me greatly. I now feel revitalized and am enjoying running again as the runs are manageable. As I wrote about awhile ago, I have been incorporating my runs and cross-training into my regular daily activity of commuting to work and it is working. The biking has given me much stronger legs and my running speed is improving. I have also been following the training methodology presented in the book, Run Less, Run Faster, which has me running 3 days a week as well as cross-training another 2. This fits nicely in my schedule. I encourage you to check it out if you are looking for a different way to train.

Days to Half-Marathon: 20

Almost through week 11 here and I have gotten some pretty good training in with some cross-training as well. I still need to do my long run and that is planned for Saturday morning. I am looking forward to it.

This week I biked to work for the first time in a long while. It felt good. The trip is 1 hour each way with some ups and downs - it is a good workout. I did a tempo run last night where I did 1 mile warm up, and then 3 miles at about a 9:30 pace and then another 1 mile cool down. Going 3 miles at that pace felt great and I could feel my legs working harder. On Tuesday night I did some intervals with 1 mile warm up, 6 1/4 mile runs at about a 9:00 pace (I need to go faster next time), and then a 1 mile cool down. This was something I had not down in a long while and it was a nice alternative to just getting out and running a straight 4 miler.

That brings me to my next point about boredom. In training for a marathon there is so much running that adding some variety is important. A bored runner during training is not getting an effective workout.

Here is my training stats to this point, keeping in mind that I will be doing my long run (12 miles) tomorrow:

Here are my running stats for Week 11:

Date: May 20- May 26, 2007
Days until race: 43
Weekly Running Mileage: 8.4 miles (plus 12 miles to be completed)
Weekly Cross Training: Biked 2 hours 13 minutes for 22 miles

My training has not been consistent in the past few weeks. My family and I took a trip to Disneyworld and I did not get any runs in - however we did get a lot of walking in so I can’t call it complete wash however I have to say I am no more ready for my marathon than I was before. For the week back, I got a couple of my runs in but not the long ones that I should have. Oh well, rather than dwell on it I have a plan going forward.

I have a young family and all the pressures on time that a young family brings with it - soccer, a wife at home with the kids that needs me as much as possible during the weekends in order to remain sane, lawn and yard work, a social life, work, etc. - that makes it difficult to get all my runs in. I have read, as we all have that you need to make time to do the runs no matter what. I think we all know how that works - family is more important than even running. So, I was thinking how I could make it work. The thing that comes to mind is incorporating my training with something I do every day…commute to work. The distance from my home to the office is about 13 miles which is a great distance for biking and will also be a pretty good long distance for my long runs. I will need to up it a bit by running further on some of the longer days as the Hal Higdon program dictates, but I think I can make it work. So I am going to give this a try of the next few weeks as I prep for the marathon. Of course, I will update my progress as I go.

Here are my running stats for Week 9 - 11:

Date: April 29- May 19, 2007
Days until race: 47
Weekly Mileage: 12 miles
Weekly Average Pace: N/A

I started out on my 13 mile run today and at about 0.5 miles I felt something in my knee that wasn’t good - it hurt. The funny thing was it hurt only while running and was ok while walking. Fast forward a couple of hours later and things feel ok but not perfect. So, I did not get my long run in today and I am pretty upset about it. What are you going to do. I have a plan though. As I am off from work on Wednesday prior to leaving on vacation for a week, I will do the 2 hour run then. That should at least keep my miles up. Next week will be another story however - I will get to that in my next report!

Here are my running stats for Week 8:

Date: April 22- 28, 2007
Days until race: 69
Weekly Mileage: 24.05 miles
Weekly Average Pace: 10.30

This was a tough week to get all the miles in. The weather in Calgary was absolutely awful with Tuesday and Wednesday night filed with rain/snow and cold winds. I actually missed one of the runs. Being the perfectionist that I am however meant that the guilt of not running took over so I turned on one of my wife’s exerciser DVDs and I did 30 minutes of squats, pushups, and lunges. Man I was sore the next day. It actually was a good thing and I may incorporate this into my weekly training regiment - still keeping Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursdays, and Sundays as running days and Monday and Saturday doing the 30 minute DVDs. I will watch for over training but it should help with my strength and flexibility.

Here are my running stats for Week 7:

Date: April 15 - 21, 2007
Days until race: 76
Weekly Mileage: 16.05 miles
Weekly Average Pace: 10.48

Really picked up the mileage this week - the long run was 10 miles and it felt good. I was traveling but still managed to get all the runs in, on different days but at least I got them in!! The long run as super windy and a bit cold but in retrospect the wind was probably a good thing as it made me work a bit harder. The stats below look higher than normal as there are two long runs in here as opposed to just the one, as a result of traveling.

Here are my running stats for Week 5:

Date: April 1 - 7, 2007
Days until race: 87
Weekly Mileage: 30.34 miles
Weekly Average Pace: 10.51

See you next week!

This was a reduced mileage week, which was welcomed and left me feeling refreshed and ready to build it up over the next couple of weeks. The form feels good, however my hamstrings seem pretty tight so I am going to focus on stretching them really well over the next few months. I am under 100 days until race time and looking forward to it.

Here are my running stats for Week 4:

Date: March 25 - 31, 2007
Days until race: 95
Weekly Mileage: 14.78 miles
Weekly Average Pace: 10.40

See you next week!

A bunch more mileage this week including upping the Wednesday run by 1 mile. This actually felt pretty good. I was mildly sick this week with a cold but I ran through it and actually felt pretty good. My Garmin watch acted a little funny on my Sunday run so I ran a 7.5 miler instead of a 7 miler - probably good in the end but I was a little ticked after the run as I was pretty tired. Oh well. My average pace was also up for the week which is encouraging. My new shoes are feeling good too…I went a half size bigger for this pair and they are very comfy and springy, which is what I like to have.

This upcoming week I drop the mileage a bit in a transition week so I am looking forward to that!

Here are my running stats for Week 3:

Date: March 18 - 24, 2007
Days until race: 105
Weekly Mileage: 17.24 miles
Weekly Average Pace: 10.39

See you next week!