Here’s a description of the 20 Week Advanced Marathon Program. You will learn the following:
1. Who this program is for?
2. The purpose of each training phase?
Who is the Advanced Marathon Program for?
A runner that wants to take on the advanced program should have a strong running back ground prior to beginning the advanced program. This may include:
a – A history of consistent running for a minimum of 1 year injury free. Runners who have been running less than a year will benefit from continued development of their durability and overall running strength. If they have been running more than a year (even multiple years) but find themselves dealing with injuries and lay offs from running (for any reason) they will also benefit from building consistency into their schedule prior to adding in the changes associated with the advanced program.
b – A history of consistent running (as mentioned above) with the additional issue of plateaued performances. The program is designed to narrow in on some run performance training that can break through the typical runner’s “slump”. If you have seen 5k, 10k, half marathon and even marathon performances level off and consistently have results that are similar to past results, then this program will help identify what efforts and paces you should be working at in order to help achieve a “breakthrough”.
c – A solid history of running, but you have been running the same schedule for 6 months to a year (or longer). The body responds to change! If you have been running the same schedule week after week with a few extra miles here or there, then this program will help. It is designed to systematically change during the 20 weeks so that you are working on the running skills and metabolic systems necessary to improve.
The program will take you through 5 specific phases of training, each with a specific goal and purpose. No more running “just to run” or training “just to train”!
d – A running schedule that includes running at similar paces and efforts no matter what they day or what the week. To achieve results in running, you need to make sure that each run workout you do serves a purpose. This means that your weekly and monthly schedules reflect change, but it also means that each workout should have a goal and an associated pace and effort. If you have been running a 5 to 7 mile run at similar paces (plus or minus 15 seconds) as your longer runs, then you will benefit by changing your daily focus.
Purpose of the 5 Training Phases:
Phase One -
1. To make sure that the runner has the durability and strength to take on the additional training stress involved in the coming phases. For some runners, this may feel like a small step backwards if they are used to running 6x a week. This period will also allow them to step back, get refreshed and prep the body to put in some serious work as the plan progresses.
2. Start to implement a double long weekend run. Technically the runs on the weekend are not a “long” run but the idea of running even middle distance runs back to back on the weekend is new for many runners. The first phase allows you to get a feel for how that will work.
3. Develop and test out a run: walk strategy. This is something that many runners that consider themselves capable of doing an “advanced” program will likely have resistance in the beginning. This is a period of time to test this strategy and allow us to discover if it will allow you to finish your marathon faster. Which I believe it will get you to the finish line quicker – but we’ll work with it, if you are new to the idea and unconvienced.
4. Stride workouts are the first technical workouts added to the schedule to help facilitate runners biomechanics and run form.
Phase Two -
1. Add in the “long run”
2. Increase the length of the double long weekends
3. Continue to implement and test out the run:walk strategy on long runs and double long runs
4. Start to incorporate Threshold Runs to start improving metobolic fitness markers such as lactate tolerance and lactate clearing.
5. Start to implement repetition runs (or what some may call longer intervals) to boost cardio-respiratory characteristics.
Phase Three-
1. Continue to increase the length of the long run.
2. Build upon the threshold efforts and adjust paces and efforts associated with these workouts to make sure training is creating the appropriate training stimulus.
3. Build upon the repetition runs
4. Start practicing race nutrition strategies on long runs
5. Re-evaluate your run:walk strategy and adjust based upon feedback and current fitness
6. Begin to add marathon pace work to the Sunday runs on the double long weekends
Phase Four-
1. Marathon Pace work becomes important training stimulus. Tuesday runs are now focused on marathon pace periods, along with continued marathon pace work on the Sunday run of a double long weekend.
2. Repetition runs are taken out of the program and the Thursday run is now focused on the threshold training stimulus.
3. The training volume is also the highest during this training phase, so making sure that there is adequate recovery is very important.
4. The long run builds to 3 hours during this phase, for faster runners this should be the shorter of 3 hours or 22 miles.
Phase Five – Race Prep!
1. Don’t call this a taper. I know it is just terminology, but these training phase is not a period to sit back and relax hoping that all goes well when race day comes. This is a period to cut back on the volume so the body begins to absorb all the training from phase four, but it is also a time to prep the body. The quality of the workouts don’t drop, the volume of the running does.
2. At the beginning of the training phase you will have an additonal day of recovery to fully unload all the fatigue of phase four, then you will start back with a lot of marathon pace work and start to add the stride workouts back in your weekly schedule. Quality!