I know that to some people, what I’m about to say sounds insane.
My marathon training plan is twenty weeks long.
I live and breathe by the philosophy that what works for one person will not work for another person. It’s how I coach my runners and why having a personal run coach is important. It takes time to figure out what works for you and it takes even longer to figure it out if you don’t have much experience or aren’t consulting an expert for help.
Figuring out what works is a dynamic process. What works one year may not work for me another year. What I did while training for my first marathon 17 years ago, will obviously not work for me now.
Can we switch gears for a second and talk about age?
It’s interesting how often I hear myself saying “I’m old”.
There have been quite a few time periods in my life when I felt old, yet I was literally only a child or only twenty-five. I don’t want to look back at my forties and wish I had viewed my current life situation differently. Instead, I want to make the most of this decade of life and just live without an emphasis on my age.
I don’t remember where I first read this statement, but saying “I’m old” has become the new “I’m fat”. Both phrases have a twinge of distorted thinking and I really am too old for this kinda crap. 😉 Promise me that if you hear me saying I’m old that you’ll call me out on it!
Okay, back to the main subject of marathon training.
I’m doing a twenty week marathon training plan. Why?
Because I know it works for me. I have plenty of time to relax, slowly build up my miles, increase speed and can schedule plenty of cutback weeks.
I thrive on having extra time built into my training schedule. Things come up and long runs or key workouts get missed. Having a longer schedule doesn’t intimidate me. It give me a sense of security knowing I can take cutback weeks to recover from hard training weeks while having some wiggle room for those times when a long run goes bad or I need to take an unplanned weekend off from running.
My first marathon I decided halfway through to switch training for a half to the full… so my training wasn’t overly long! About 12-14 weeks. This time I’ve had 18 weeks and I agree it is so much nicer, to have a bit more cushion built in and just feel less rushed!
I ran my first marathon in April, the Boston Marathon. I put in 16 weeks of training and felt very prepared to run my goal. Come race day, it was hot at the start, cool at the finish, and I crossed the finish line an hour after my goal. I think we are around the same age, and frankly its just a number. I’m still chasing a sub-20 minute 5K, a BQ, and a 1:35 half marathon. You’re never too old unless you give up. Then you’re a quitter. And we are not quitters!
Your words are true!