Hey everyone,
I’ve been running somewhat seriously since about 2021, logging minimum 20 km/week year-round, and ramping up/down according to races. Last year I ran my first marathon and ended up bonking pretty hard at 30 km in. A tale as old as time itself. I wasn’t following a training plan so I definitely didn’t put in enough weekly kilometers to have a good aerobic base etc.
Anyway, this year I’m following the Hanson advanced marathon training plan. I’m 9 weeks in (out of 18) and I feel like the cumulative fatigue is already starting to slap pretty hard. I’m working on slowing down the easy runs which is helping, and the last few weeks have also been quite hot and humid which isn’t helping. I am also trying to ramp up my carb intake which has probably been a bit low.
Anyway, my question - seeing as the advanced plan was probably a bit much to chew for my running level (going from 20-30km/week - 70-80 for the last 2 months), and I’m already feeling the fatigue, should I stick to the prescribed one week taper, or make it a two week taper? It seems like most plans generally have a two week taper.
I was thinking about maybe doing one tempo run about two weeks before the race, then hitting 40-50 km that week, and the suggested ~30 km on race week. According to the training plan, the week before race week should be 86 km.
Slowing down your easy runs, eating more, and sleeping more are all great. Another option would be to just drop down to the beginner plan. I would stick to the planned taper rather than trying to do your own thing, though.
In general I like to think that the coaches that make these plans know more about running than I do, so I really try to avoid changing things unless I know why I’m doing it. In this case reduced mileage and intensity the last two weeks seems pretty reasonable.
Yeah I’m a little bit hesitant to change the plan on my own whims, especially as it’s my first time using a plan. Reading into it a bit more, compared to other plans it seems like Hansons really emphasizes the constant fatigue vs. hitting extremely high weekly mileage. So maybe I’ll try and stick with the prescribed taper plan, although I may skip or slow down one of the speed workouts in the last week depending on how I feel. I don’t want to mess it up and miss my “peak”.
Ideally eating properly and slowing down my easy runs will do the trick before then anyway. I’ve been sleeping 7-8 hours pretty consistently.
Get the book if you haven’t. I got it used for less than $8 on ebay. Be sure to get the second edition with the yellow cover.
I found the Hanson advanced plan great until week 14. At that point, the wheels quickly came off. Lots of pain in places that I hadn’t had pain ever before, and pain of a kind I couldn’t identify. Despite days off, no apparent healing, just more deterioration.
The book says running on tired legs is part of the training, but just how tired is productive v. disastrous is hard to determine. The fact that you are concerned likely means you are too tired.
I greatly reduced the miles and the load, but I wasn’t certain even the day before the race that I would start. I ran fine, though I hadn’t eaten right and didn’t eat well during the race. My time was very good for me.
Two days after the race, walking was still hard. It took me nearly three weeks before I could run pain free again. That sort of post race pain was new to me.
I suspect you’ve done enough training to do quite well at the race. Switching to the easier program will build on that, just at a slower rate than the advanced program. AND you can practice eating and drinking, which is what hammered you last time.
The advice to drop down to the beginner plan, which I recall the book says is not really for beginners, is good. That will give you a chance to stay with a program and practice race nutrition before the event.
Sorry I missed this earlier, I’m often browsing on other lemmy instances since I find world to be so slow. Thanks for sharing your experience though!
The training plan fell apart pretty hard for me not long after making this post. I’d been dealing with a bit of knee pain that just got worse and worse (and consequently I got slower and slower). Over the last three-ish weeks I reduced my mileage quite a bit, including one week of just 3 miles and lots of stretching. Thankfully my knee is better now and I don’t have much pain anymore. But I’m a bit hesitant to dive back into the advanced plan, and in particular the speed sessions.
I’m slowly getting back into the beginner plan but I’ll see how well I stick to it. I think at this point trying to keep up a relatively high but slow weekly mileage to maintain an aerobic base will be the way to go, but it will depend on pain. I might just have to suck up another mediocre marathon compared to my goal, and try again next time. I definitely won’t be rushing into such an advanced plan again without gradually increasing my weekly mileage more carefully.