1. High Mileage or Quality Run, but not both. Some plans call for high mileage weeks for most of the training. Other plans pull back on the weekday mileage and incorporate what I like to call quality runs (i.e., intervals, hill repeats, tempo runs, etc.). Either approach is valid, but mixing the two can often spell injury for many runners. It's hard for the body to put in high mileage week after week as well as the quality workouts. The majority of the runners I've counseled and/or trained who have been injured during the course of marathon training, have been trying to get the best of both worlds. Pick one method and stick with it.
2. Pull Back and Build. One of the hardest things for established runners to do when starting marathon training is to pull back on their mileage (both total weekly and the long run). If you're already doing 16-mile long runs and logging 40-mile weeks, there's really not much room for you to build and grow. Your body will love you if you ease off the overall mileage and weekly long run mileage allowing you to heal, gradually building endurance, mileage, and pace over the course of the training. Increase your weekly mileage by about 10% each week putting most of the increased mileage in your weekly long run while keeping the weekday mileage about the same each week.
3. Build-Up. Drop-Back. A great way to allow your body healing time is to insert some "drop-back" weeks into your training. Divide your training into thirds. When you reach the end of the first third of your training, drop back your long run by several miles. For example, if your longest run in the first third is 15 miles, then run 10-miles for your long run in the drop-back week. The week following the drop-back week, run 16 mile for your long run and continue to build until the end of the 2nd third. You'll probably have gotten to your 20-miler, so try dropping back to 15 miles for the 2nd drop-back week. The taper (see #10) is the last drop-back. This build-up and drop-back approach is not only a great way for your body to recoup, it's also a great mental break from the hard training. My runners relish the drop-back weeks.
4. REST! Some runners think they're being a whimp if they take a rest day. Or they think that somehow they're going to lose some ground. Nothing could be further from the truth. One or two rest days during your training week is vital and as equally important as your run days. If you don't allow the body some days to rest and repair, you'll risk overtraining and increase your chance of injury.
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2 comments:
All excellent tips ... some of which I'm better at following than others. Curious as to your thoughts on what 'rest' really means. I typically lift upper-body on my rest days, but I've had several runners, much more seasoned than me, say that lifting is forcing the body to work on repairing those muscles and not allowing the body to focus on mending the legs. Not sure what the conventional wisdom is here.
I have at least one complete rest day scheduled for my runners and then depending on the runner one or two rest/crosstraining days. Cross training days can be anything non- or no-impact such as swimming, cycling, rowing, the elliptical machine, etc.... Crosstraining can also include resistance training, but the resistance training should be at a moderate maintenance level. Once you get to the higher mileage in your training you may want to back off legs and focus more on moderate core and upper-body muscular endurance training. A more intense focuse on resistance training should happen in the base-building phase before the marathon training kicks in. Hope this helps.
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