Everything seems so compressed

As I have alluded to in a couple previous posts, I have resumed my marathon training post-Blue Ridge Marathon. This round is a bit different from previous training plans though. The reason is because the next marathon I plan to run is the Bethel Hill Moonlight Boogie Marathon on June 10th. That is only seven weeks after the Blue Ridge Marathon, meaning I have a short turnaround time. I decided to give this a try because running marathons in such close time will be a new challenge for me and this was about the closest I could find to something I could fit into my schedule.

In the past, for all of my running events, I have used full 16-week training plans. That includes last year's half marathon, the Rocket City Marathon, and the Blue Ridge Marathon. In addition to the full training plans, I also had some time after each race before the next training plan started during which I was just trying to maintain. With only 7 weeks between events, I am having to modify the training plan to fit in the time available and I had to pretty much jump right back into training right away.


Since this is such a weird timeframe, I ended up having to construct my training plan from scratch. Hopefully, I have learned enough over the past year to put together something that will be effective. The general structure for the plan follows this pattern:

Week 1 - recovery week, just trying to get my legs back under me after the last marathon
Weeks 2 through 5 - build-up weeks
Weeks 6 and 7 - taper

During the build-up weeks, I will max out at 18 miles on my long runs. For the Blue Ridge Marathon I maxed at 20 miles, but 18 miles was the max for the Rocket City Marathon. I also added in some Wednesday evening runs for weeks 3 - 5, meaning 5 runs per week, just to help get the total weekly mileage up. For these weeks I'll range between 40 and 46 miles per week. I'd really like to be over 50 at the peak, but I think that may be too aggressive given the time constraints.

I'm already almost halfway through the plan. What have I learned thus far? The second week was very tough and my body was probably not ready for me to start pushing it. That tells me I really need 2-3 weeks for proper recovery after a marathon. I managed to get through it though. During week 3 I finally felt like I was getting my legs and cardio back under me and that was reflected in some of the times I was able to achieve during the training runs. I'm hoping for a sub-4 hour marathon, so I had to set some decently aggressive target paces. The last couple runs have proven to be within the realm of what is possible, so I am feeling pretty good about where things stand although I still need to make some improvements.

Besides the challenge of a compressed training plan for a marathon, the Moonlight Boogie gives me a couple other new wrinkles to deal with. I'll write about those in a future post as I get closer to race day.

For those interested, here are the detailed runs for the plan:

Week 1
Tuesday - 2 miles easy
Thursday - 3 miles easy
Saturday - 6 miles long
Sunday - 10 miles long

Week 2
Tuesday - 3 x 2 mile intervals
Thursday - 4 x 1 mile intervals
Saturday - 6 miles easy
Sunday - 12 miles long

Week 3
Tuesday - 2 xy 3 mile intervals
Wednesday - 3 miles easy
Thursday - 6 miles tempo
Saturday - 6 miles easy
Sunday - 14 miles long

Week 4
Tuesday - 5 miles cutdown
Wednesday - 5 miles easy
Thursday - 6 miles tempo
Saturday - 6 miles long
Sunday - 18 miles long

Week 5
Tuesday - 5 x 1 mile intervals
Wednesday - 5 miles easy
Thursday - 8 miles tempo
Saturday - 8 miles easy
Sunday - 16 miles long

Week 6
Tuesday - 5 miles + 5 strides
Thursday - 6 miles tempo
Saturday - 6 miles easy
Sunday - 10 miles long

Week 7
Tuesday - 6 x 3 minute intervals
Wednesday - 4 miles easy
Friday - 10 minute shakedown run