Do we have a training forum? Or would training plan ideas/advice go here?

[barefoot.zumba.runner]

I'm hoping to try for a full marathon the end of Oct with SayPay if all goes well in the next few weeks when I start running again. From the time I can start running again until the marathon is 15 weeks, so I've put together a training schedule. Does this look feasible, those of you with marathoning? (bd=1hr belly dance and ld=1hr latin dance). The numbers are in miles


Week Date Monday Tuesday Wed Thurs Fri Sat. Sun. tot. miles 1 w/e 7-24 3+bd, ld zumba 2 rest zumba 3 rest 8 2 w/e 7-31 3+bd, ld zumba 3 rest zumba 5 rest 11 3 w/e 8-7 3+bd, ld zumba 4 rest zumba 6 rest 13 4 w/e 8-14 3+bd, ld zumba 5 rest zumba 8 rest 16 5 w/e 8-21 3+bd, ld zumba 6 rest zumba 10 rest 19 6 w/e 8-28 3+bd, ld zumba 6 rest zumba 12 rest 22 7 w/e 9-4 4 zumba 7 rest zumba 15 rest 26 8 w/e 9-11 4 zumba 8 rest zumba 17 rest 29 9 w/e 9-18 4 zumba 9 rest zumba 20 rest 33 10 w/e 9-25 5 zumba 9 rest zumba 22 rest 36 11 w/e 10-2 5 zumba 8 rest zumba 24 rest 37 12 w/e 10-9 5 zumba 6 rest zumba 10 rest 21 13 w/e 10-16 3 zumba 4 rest zumba 8 rest 15 14 w/e 10-23 3 zumba 3 rest zumba 26.2 rest 32.2

 

[barefoot.zumba.runner]

hmmm, that didn't work. Any

hmmm, that didn't work. Any ideas on how to paste in a spreadsheet?

 

[saypay45]

No clue on how to post a

No clue on how to post a spreadsheet, but I did my best to read it.

This is my second time training for a marathon, so keep that in mind. Here's what I noticed and have comments on (in bullet form, because that's what lawyers do):

1) Rest: You have plenty scheduled. But two days of rest a week is a lot. You could even get away with only one rest day with all of the dancing you'll be doing.

2) The Long Run: This is probably the most important part of your training week, and I'm glad to see you have a long run scheduled every week. I would say it is more important to run distances of over 13.1 miles to get your legs used to the distance. So my only critique of your plan in that respect is that it seems like you're either scheduling a run of 20+ miles, or something under 12. The distance between 12 and 20 is equally important to build leg strength and lactic acid threshold without putting the body under as much stress as a 20+ miler will do.

3) Max Mileage: Although a lot of training program recommend only going 20 miles in training, I think that is a bunch of BS. I only went 20 miles while training for my last marathon, and I wish I would have gone further. It's one thing to "think" that you have the stamina to go an extra 6.2 miles past the furthest that you've ever run, and it's quite another to "know" that you can run that far. I will be doing at least one run of 26.2 miles during my training. It's a huge confidence booster. I'm glad to see you're considering that also.

On the other hand, my concern for you in doing that would be that stress fracture. You might want to consider doing what most do and only doing 20 miles in your training because re-injury is a big concern for you. It would be nice to see what others think about this.

Otherwise, I think your plan looks good. I'm excited for this race!

 

[Barefoot Gentile]

I can't tell from the plan

I can't tell from the plan but what mileage are you going to peak at? From what i can see the plan seems to be low on the mileage side. For my first marathon I only peaked at 40 miles, which was way to low.

Running a full marathon during training is extremely risky, especially if you are injury prone. I agree with most plans that you only need to max out on twenty. One factor that you don't have during training is that race day adrenaline. That adrenaline is amazing and takes you a long way. The number one goal besides your training is to be at that starting line completely healthy.



Also you will need some time to work on your base before training. So lets say it takes you about 3 -4 weeks to start getting a base of 25 mpw before training that will cut down on your actually training plan. This will leave you less time than 15 months to train for a marathon. The recommended time for marathon training is 18 weeks. Giving this is your first marathon this might not be enough time. You should go into marathon training with at least 3 weeks of 25-30mpw of miles under your belt.

I would look for another marathon maybe in November. The hardest part of the marathon is the training, not the actual race. This is all just my personal input. Good luck!

 

[Barefoot TJ]

Tyler and Jason are working

Tyler and Jason are working on such a plan, Zum. You'll be able to plug in all kinds of variables and produce a plan that fits you best. Too bad it will be too later for you though. In the meantime, Google docs is good, like Lavaman said.

 

[LavaRunner]

Get a google docs account,

Get a google docs account, create your spreadsheet and upload it. Then you can share your schedule like this

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AgjFvRNmdqvfcGYtWjlXcGJHV1N5Ri1hZm5GNWViY0E&hl=en

This plan is a modified plan I created combining several I found and tailored it a bit. You can steel it or change it any way you like

 

[Jimmy Hart]

very good advice in here so

very good advice in here so far. saypay your final thought about her plan was good. that stress fracture will dictate everything and it looks like the plan you made zum will center around taking it easy which is good coming off an injury. i would say leave the two days rest because jumping in and doing too much puts you at a great reinjury risk. if you were perfectly healthy and had a base built i would agree with you saypay.

adam i like your points too but i see this as an attempt to finish not to do well. am i right zum? if so then your low mileage plan does a good job of bridging the gap between injury and being able to cross a finish line. if your goal is something more performance based then i would say, like adam, that you need more miles and possibly a little more time.

with your plan and your situation i would say you have set yourself up for a finish. it could be a tough finish but that's mostly because of the short time frame and the injury factors. in all honesty i think you'll find yourself playing this one by ear.

 

[saypay45]

+1 About getting to the

+1 About getting to the finish line healthy! We don't want another stress fracture! Like I said to you before on facebook Zum, you should see how you feel for a while before registering for the marathon. You have until the beginning of October. It's not a big deal if you don't run this one. Personally, I think you can.

 

[barefoot.zumba.runner]

. 

.

 

[barefoot.zumba.runner]

Ok, I'm working on getting it

Ok, I'm working on getting it into a google spreadsheet...too many damn templates to sift through. Not one basic spreadsheet??

I'm a 3 day a week runner, I have been for a few years now and I like it that way. I think that I've read some articles on Runner's World about training for a marathon on 3 days a week. My mileage would be lower, but again...I'm there to just do it not race it or make any records. Just for the enjoyment of doing it. I think my peak mileage week is 37miles with 24mi being the longest run. I'll get my spreadsheet up in a bit. And SP, definitely won't register for it until I know for sure I can do it. May even end up running my own personal marathon in November like Adam mentioned, since I don't think there are any November marathons in MN. Just going to play it by ear and of course run wisely, if it seems like too big a feat this year, I'll just aim for next year instead.

Thanks for your advice.



TJ, I'll be looking forward to what Jason and Tyler come up with, sounds like an awesome program!

 

[barefoot.zumba.runner]

ok, haven't figured out how

ok, haven't figured out how to paste it in here yet but here's the link...does it work ?

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Atyb-evOnbYFdFN1TGRjVHJfRnRVQi1QZHZ3ekZabVE&hl=en

 

[Abide]

Are you gonna do it barefoot?

Are you gonna do it barefoot?

 

[barefoot.zumba.runner]

yes, weather permitting. It's

yes, weather permitting. It's hard to say what the weather will be like late October in MN.

Another apprehension is training time, my time is limited as is and to add more to the mix I'll be starting school in the fall (online, so instead of spending the last two hours of my night on here chatting with my barefoot homies, I'll be studying ) So depending on how intensive my school work is going to be, that may play a big part in whether or not I can pull this off. We'll see.

 

[Barefoot TJ]

I can see it on Google.  Yeah

I can see it on Google. Yeah for you!

 

[barefoot.zumba.runner]

yay! Thanks for letting me

yay! Thanks for letting me know TJ

 

[barefoot.zumba.runner]

testing, see if this works

testing, see if this works

 

[barefoot.zumba.runner]

pasted my spreadsheet into

pasted my spreadsheet into microsoft paint, then saved as a jpeg. Uploaded to photobucket and pasted here

 

[Jimmy Hart]

that was a lot of work to get

that was a lot of work to get it on here but looking at it i dont see anything wrong with it. it looks like a good finisher program. im a little concerned about the three 20 plus runs in a row. i didnt notice that before you made the spread sheet. if it were me i would drop the 22 down to an 18 and make the last 10 a 12.

i see what you're doing with the three long runs but given your situation i dont really like it so much. if you were paying me to help you out i would make the changes i said above, but since you're not paying me...well i'll still say go with those changes i'll explain why:

the three long runs are great but on consecutive weeks having never covered those distances before you run the risk of really wearing your legs and feet out. thus putting you at a risk for injury as well as an inability to get a good recovery. dropping four miles off the middle run gives you more than enough distance for endurance building and gives you a bit of a break.

making the last 10 a 12 follows a good distance drop off. going from 24 to 10 is too big a drop and is unnatural for tapering. dropping to 12 is still a 50% cut but also keeps you in a longer than standard distance to help keep and build endurance.

 

[mokaman]

 That late in the year

That late in the year complicates training for barefoot...you can't be sure it will be warm enough for barefoot so you would have to train MR some I would think.

It might be worth considering finding a half marathon(Omaha) a few weeks sooner to run barefoot then a full marathon a few weeks later in Nov. or Dec. for MR running to take the cold factor out of it. That would stretch out your build up to the full... those 3 long runs on weeks 9 - 11 would seem tough and still be fully recovered for race day too.

 

[saypay45]

Well just remember Zum that

Well just remember Zum that doing a personal marathon is fine, but nothing feels quite as good as finishing an actual marathon race and getting that finishing medal.

Just for everyone's information, the marathon we're thinking about doing is the Mankato Marathon on October 23rd. It's pretty late in the year, and from the course description it is a relatively flat, all pavement course.

With the weather as it is here in MN, I think if you're going to do a barefoot marathon then Mankato is your last chance. In November you'll be wearing snowshoes. Once it snows I don't do anything above 12 miles for a run, just because it sucks hard.