Hal Higdon and I have taken our relationship to the next level. We first met in the fall of 2007 when I bumped into him at the bookstore. I had just signed up for my first marathon and was looking for a book with lots of information and training schedules for beginners. I took him home and we spent many hours together. I listened to his advice and he assured me that I would survive. While I liked Hal a lot, I just couldn’t buy into his training schedule. I was a three-day-a-week runner, and Hal only wanted to get serious with four-day-a-week runners and would really have preferred five-day-a-week runners. I still respected all of the useful information that he gave me but ended up getting serious with a Runner’s World training schedule.
After that first marathon, I had a relationship with a local coach who helped me run a much-improved time at Twin Cities Marathon. After that I went back to my old flame, Runner’s World training schedule for my third marathon. It’s been a couple years since that third marathon, and when I checked in with Runner’s World, RW had gone a little nuts. Now RW wants five days a week and says to run three 20 milers. The whole schedule just didn’t make any sense, so I had to say good-bye. In the back of my mind, I remembered good old Hal. Hal, who I actually saw at a marathon expo and gave me a sweet smile when I said hello. Hal, who’s words and assurances gave me confidence that even I, a mom who was slow by any measure, could run a marathon. Good old Hal, who’s book I already owned and therefore could get several training plans for free.
In Hal’s book, Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide, there are five training plans to choose from. The easiest plan is the Novice schedule with one 20 miler and only four runs that are 15 miles or more. The schedule asks for four days of running, one day of cross training and two days off. The next step up in difficulty is the Intermediate-I plan. This schedule has two 20 milers and five runs that are 15 miles or more, but every long run is at least two miles longer than in the Novice plan. It also has four days a week of running with two rest days and one day of cross training. All of the other schedules have three or more 20 mile runs on them which isn’t for me.
At first, I copied both schedules and figured I would do something in between. On the weeks that I felt good I would do the Intermediate mileage, and if I was tired I would do the Novice. I’ve been lucky and so far my legs have been feeling fresh, so I’ve been running the Intermediate schedule exclusively. Five days a week of running is still a lot for me, so on one of the shorter mileage days I’ve been cheating with my bike. I figure that two hours on the bike more than makes up for a 4 or 5 mile run. So far it is working fine for me. This past week was a cut back week with a long run of only 11 miles, but this week things start to get serious. I have a 17 mile run this week and an 18 mile run the next. Then Hal gives me a week off with just 13 miles, followed by the first of my two 20 milers.
I’m trying to decide if Hal knows what’s best for me or if I should change my schedule around a little bit. For each of my three marathons, I felt great for the first 20 miler, I felt run down for the second 20 miler and I felt like I was out of gas when it came time to race. Since I started training, I’ve been thinking that I would do just one 20 mile run. I had assumed that when the schedule had the first one, I would just run 17 or 18. Another option was to push the one that I was going to do back to the beginning of the week, effectively giving myself 4 weeks to taper before the race instead of the usual three. Now that I’ve been following Hal’s schedule for six weeks, I don’t know what to do. Part of me thinks that I’ve learned from past experience what works for me and that I should change up the schedule. The other part of me thinks that I’m overall more fit than I was in the past and that I can handle the few extra miles.What to do? Should I trust expert advice that has worked for thousands of others, or should I rely on personal experience that is three years old and maybe still applies to me, but maybe it doesn’t?
Just to make things a little more complicated, most local runners are running the TC marathon. They have a 20 mile run on their schedule for September 10th when I have 18. If I did two 20 milers, my first would be two weeks later. There are some supported 20 mile runs and races targeting TC runners, one of which is the Bear Water Run which I did in 2008. I went ahead and signed up and now I have two weeks to decide what to do. I could:
- Run the 18 miles that is on my schedule and walk in the last two, then run the first 20 mile as scheduled two weeks later.
- Run the 18 miles, walk the last two, then run 18 miles again when the schedule says 20.
- Run 20 miles and count that as my first of two 20 mile runs, then run 18 when the schedule has the first 20. The next one wouldn’t be for four more weeks, which would be plenty of time to recover but I would still get in two 20’s.
What is magic about 20 and why am I spending so much time thinking about it? I’ve read that in Europe it’s typical to run 30k as the longest run, which equates to 18.6 miles. I guess they like easy, round numbers just like we do. I’m sure if they thought that running an extra 1.4 miles would make a difference, they would do it. Intellectually I get that whether I run 18 miles or 20 miles probably doesn’t matter to my physical conditioning, but if I only ran 18, would I feel like I cheated? Would I be as confident on race day as if I knew I ran 20 twice? If I ran the first one early, would I feel like I peaked too soon? I checked out Hal’s Facebook page which he claims to facilitate himself. People ask all kinds of questions and he answers them. He’s tough! I know if I asked him in person what to do he would tell me to stop with the fussing and run the schedule. I don’t know, Hal. Maybe I’m not as ready to fully commit as I thought I was. Give me two more weeks to think it over.
{ 6 comments }
I felt like I was hearing myself think I’m using a training program that is based on time and not miles. My longest is 3 hours. At my pace, that’s definitely not enough. So, I’ve done my long runs in miles and done at least one 17, one 18.6 and next Sunday is my 20 miler. Reading this post has reassured me, because I was worried that it might not be enough. Since this is my first marathon and the first time I’ve made it this far without injury…I’m feeling more confident that it’ll get me to the finish line Thanks! Good luck in your decision!
Lots of choices, but I think that keeps it interesting. I’d go with option 3 at the Bear Water Run – run the 20 miles. Since everyone else will be running it will be easy just to continue on to 20 and being supported is great.
I think I would listen to Hal – you are in a totally different place at this time. As you said – you know that you really shouldn’t stress about a couple of miles – it won’t really make a different in the long run.
Go with Hal.
I think you have to run the 20 miles. I follow a schedule where my longest run is 32 km (19.9 miles).
If you are interested I can send by e-mail my 3 months scheduled plan.
I think you are fine either way. The third options sounds good. Glad to hear that the legs feel good, and I think that cheating with the bike should be encouraged
Gotta love Hal. I’d say go with him.
I’ll be thinking of you as I run my 20 this Saturday.
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