quote:<HR>Originally posted by Nobby:
Are you talking about Jimmy Conners training 3 days a week or are you talking about Jimmy Conners training 4 hours a day instead of 6 hours a day? Your level of comparison in running is comparing someone runnning 120 miles a week vs. 70 miles a week. I can easily see someone being an elite runner training 70 miles a week; but not 20. I'm sure Conners didn't start out practicing hours and hours everyday when he was 10 years old; but I'm also sure he wouldn't dare trying to play at Wimbledon at the age of 10 either.

Don't get me wrong. My wife is preparing for TCM right now. She's been training 3/4 or even less of what other people are running at MDRA marathon group based on my advice. She told me she did an easy 10 last weekend while others did 14. She said she felt really good and ready to go while she saw some others "bonked" and walking in their 14-miler. She probably does 25~35 miles a week but she trains smart and breaks 4-hours just about every time she runs a marathon. She would do better than most of the group (and I've been telling her to write something to the local running magazine). She doesn't "dread" her long runs. She feels fresh and good when she runs and looks forward to her runs. She does cross trains just once in a while; nothing set.

But she'll NEVER run 2:45 based on that type of training.

I'm sure there IS a better way to train. But that's not by avoiding running (running less) when you are at 20MPW level.

http://This message has been edited by Nobby (edited Sep-25-2007).<HR>

quote:<HR>Originally posted by Nobby:
Knifey:

It all depends on your strengths and weaknesses, background of training, life-style, and your goal. For her first marathon, she probably ran somewhere around 20~25 miles a week. We laid out a 10-week plan to gradually build up her long run from 1:30 to 3:00. She would run twice, three-times tops, during the week; just a couple of miles jog. She had a very demanding work at the time and we figured that's enough stress! I would go for those long runs with her, carefully monitoring what she's up to, alternating the plan just a bit. The thing is; I believe in building confidence from success in workout. It would be completely pointless, as far as I'm concerned, to go for over-the-head 20 miler just because the schedule calls for and bonk badly. I'd rather her do a 14-miler and feel good about it. I think the longest she ran for her first marathon was 18 miles. But we included lots of hills--we started out with relatively flat courses but gradually introduced lots of hills. I kept telling her that, because of those hills, 16-miler is actually worth 18-miler. Is it really so? Who knows, and who cares? That's positive thinking! Her first marathon was 3:54.

This time around, her schedule is quite a bit different. I capped her long run to one 20-miler. She was a bit hesitant about it but I told her that (she's run something like 8 or 9 marathons over the years) she's already got good base. She wanted to do one more 18 but I stopped her at 14. She got confidence when she saw others struggling to finish thier long runs (she felt much more fresh). Now she probably runs 4 times during the week, mostly easy jog of 30~40 minutes. I give her one faster work like 6~8 times 320m (two 1/10 mile) or 2X1km but not every week. She would have done two 5k races by the marathon time; almost PRed in half. I think she'll PR at TCM this time (her PR is 3:47 at Grandmas).

This young lady I coached last year for her first marathon; her schedule was quite a bit different too. We took about 12 weeks to build up from 1:30 to 3:00; once again, started out flat courses and added lots of hills. In fact, we were going to do two long runs a week (one long one on weekend and about 1:30 mid-day) but it got too hot during the summer so we did one hill session instead. It was a typical Lydiard hill exercise. We worked it up from 20 minutes to an hour. I don't know how much more she ran in between (not that much at all), she played softball, she play beach volleyball. And probably jogged twice during the week at most. She ran sprints in high school and had a 10-year blank. After 4 months of training like this, she did her first marathon at Chicago in 3:41. It was **** cold and windy and, had she not started out too fast (that was the only "long" run I didn't run with her!), I'm quite certain she would have run 3:30.

I coached a young girl when I was in Japan who won this local marathin in 2:42 (her first serious marathon). Of course, her training was quite a bit different. Everyday, twice a day... But I think the longest she ran was 30k. Did lots of tempo run on track or road, anywhere from 5k up to 20k. She did two half marathons before she did the marathon. I paced her in one of them and I think we ran it around 1:19. <HR>

quote:<HR>Originally posted by Fishbowl:
dpoppel,

FWIW, I am a relatively new runner, however, I am pretty sure I understand that the advice you have been given is this:

People believe that you are running too few miles to do adequate marathon training but that even those miles may be a little too much too soon for you, resulting in overtraining.

Who knows, I could be wrong.... Just trying to clarify and simplify.

Fishbowl

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