I've been looking at this plan on the
cool running site.
I like it as it gets you doing the full distance in training. I know its a no no for some, but that sort of fits with my way of thinking.
TBH, I don't like the plan. The ramp up in long run millage is way too fast and the weekly millage quite low too support those long runs, thus the injury risk must be quite high.
The distance of the longest long runs is a controversial subject but there is extremely good reasons why most plans cap out around the 20 mile mark with only some newer plans going for 22/23 miles (even then typically only 1 or 2 times). It is very naive to think that to train for a marathon you need to run the Marathon distance, you don't need to. In theory it is a great idea, hell in theory it would be great to run 30-35 miles to build endurance, just like half marathon runners will train to 18-20 miles for their 13 mile race. In reality such long runs have a high injury risk and cause a huge amount of fatigue in joints, muscles, ligament, tendons and will require a huge amount of recovery time to the point you wont be able to do any real training the following week or 2. Therefore, they really just aren't an efficient form of training for the most part. You are much better off doing a hard week of training and a 18-20 mile run than a 24 mile run with a week sitting on the couch or doing 'recovery' runs.
One of the most popular marathon training plans (Hansons) caps the long run at 16 miles. I don't personally believe that is optimal but it certainly proves that you need not go any furthers to get very fast marathon times. The science is also fairly clear that the benefit of long slow runs starts to occur after 90 minutes of running but disappears after about 3 hours because the slow-twitch muscles will be too fatigued and the running dynamics changes a lot (your muscles start invoking fast-twitch muscles in support for example). 20 miles is about 3 hours for many people, which is no coincidence. This difference also explains why people recover form their 20 mile long runs relatively quickly but the full marathon can takes weeks to months to fully heal the muscles and joints. A neighbor is not running the local marathon this year because he is still injured form running it last year!
There are much more important training patterns to look for: weekly millage, total plan millage, intervals, tempo runs, fast finish long runs, rest, cross-training, race practice, pacing, heart rate zone training, etc. I think an 18 mile long run with 10 miles run at slightly slower than goal pace is a much more beneficial training run than doing 26 miles at 90-120 second a mile slower than goal pace for example.
I would do a lot of reading and research before committing to a plan purely on the basis of the long run.
As for the rest of the plan, it looks like a lot of the weekly millage is from very short runs that don't tend to induce many beneficial adaptions, which is the main point of training. I don;y understand those 3mile runs on Saturday the day before the long run. Typically such a short run is used for recovery after a long run, and in themselves are controversial (Some say they are useless, some say they inhibit recovery, some say they make you feel good and are harmless). But in this plan Friday was a rest day so why such an easy run on Saturday? I think Hal Hidon 8-10 mile with some goal pace speed work the day before the long run is going to help more, or simply do the long run on Saturday after having the break Friday.
Similarly, the longest run apart form the long run is 10 miles, which is done once. I'm a big fan of the medium long run, you get many of the same benefits as a long run but even less stress. As I said above, may of the critical adaptions only occur after 90 minutes of running, which wont happen in a 10 mile run.
EDI: I don't mean to say don't choose a plan that has a long run over 20miles. I actually believe you SHOULD run over 20 miles based on the scientific evidence, likewise I think you should have (occasional) long runs with speed work comparable to marathon pace. I just think you shouldn't make a naive decisions that to race a marathon is makes sense to run 26 miels, that is way to simple. Make that decision yourself based on all the evidence out there and all the different training plans. You certainly don't need to so it shouldn't' be a priority IMO.
mad: wanted sub 2!). Lost about 2 stone and feeling great. Run 3 times a week, Tues, Thurs and long run Sunday. Deffo got the running bug!
