Sun 17 Jan 2010
Running with the Pack 65: Goofy Challenge, Ice Baths, Camelbacks, and Training Advice
Posted by Allan under inspirational stories, podcasting, running, travel
[4] Comments
Stevie and I talk with Jim, a listener who has just completed the Goofy Race and a Half Challenge in Walt Disney World. We are planning to go there in 2011 to participate in the Marathon weekend: Stevie is doing the 5K and Half-Marathon. Jim and I will be doing the Half-Marathon and Full-Marathon. We also talk a bit more about ice baths, the possibility of hot beverages in a camelback, and advice for a mom of two who is training for a half marathon.
Goofy Challenge, Ice Baths, Camelbacks, and Training Advice [53:31m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Just curious about one thing. Stevie mentioned that you should "never run the distance until the race." Why not? As long as the incremental increases of distances during training are not more than the "10% a week" advice, why not experience the entire distance rather than assuming that if you can go 11, you can go 13? I would think it better for your body to 'know' the distance rather than risking a bonk at mile 12, as it were.
Thanks,
Jay
the training plan Stevie mentioned is on this web site: http://www.halhigdon.com/halfmarathon/novice.htm
for the novice the longest run is 10miles on the Sunday before the race. the advanced tells you to run 2:00hours, i guess it depends on your speed if that's longer than your 1/2 marathon goal.
((i've seen 100mile training plans that have the longest training run is 64 miles. (can you imagine having to dig out that last 36mile stretch on race day??
!!))
the marathon training plan i followed had 20miles as the longest training run. i'd seen more advanced plans that had 30mile runs.
i have a running coach now and he is of the philosophy that an hour run with sprints mixed in (paraphrased) which gives you the benefits of a long run in less time.
That is interesting, and I have often seen training plans end with a long run that is less than the full race distance; still, I fail to understand the rationale and have not seen anything that explains this common practice with training schedules. If anyone has any info on the reason for the sub-race distance longest run, I would love to see it. I don't want to knock any given plan, I just was wondering about the basis.
Thanks for the links!
Jay
Hey Jay. It really depends on the distance. When I was training for 5K races, I routinely ran 5-6 mile runs. My friend Meisha who was in the olympic trials was running 10-12 mile training runs to prepare for the 1 mile event. I found that to be really surprising.
On the other hand, for my marathons, 20-24 miles is my maximum run length. I do this because I know that my recovery from that last long run will prepare me to jump up to the 26.2 distance. Also, the more I run the really long distances, the greater chance that I'll get injured. The difference in the time it takes to complete a 20-mile run versus a 26.2 or longer run is getting close to an hour – and I already spend enough time away from Andrew. Another thing to consider is that I would need to extend the length of my marathon training plan by 3-6 weeks to slowly build from 20 to 26 miles.
From what I've seen of amateur versus elite marathon training programs, the elite ones include much more overall mileage, twice-daily runs, cross training, strength training, speed work, fartleks, hill work, etc… They gain more from spending time in those types of workouts than running the extra few miles. You can see this if you look at the plans in Runner's World. Their beginner plan has your maximum long run at 20 miles versus 22 miles for the advanced plan. However, the total weekly mileage for the longest-long-run week is 39 miles for the beginner plan and 53-57 miles for the advanced plan.