I’ll spare the graphics but my training cycles now involve managIng bunions and black toes. Not that I’m getting old or anything, although it didn’t used to be that way. Especially the bunion part.
No complaints here, this was a good marathon buildup. Think about it, any time you can finish a marathon build with no dings or forced cutbacks you are doing okay. Here are some thoughts and nu here on how it went.
Phase One
After a mid-December break from racing on the roads and cross country. I jumped into some volume for a couple of weeks with running and xc skiing, and by early January I embarked on a six week block of double doubles, sort of a modification of the Norwegian system used so successfully by the Ingebrigsten family and before that that country’s former 5000 m record holder Marius Bakken.
Now obviously I’m not in my teens or twenties, nor am I world class. Just an older runner who likes to train and sometimes tinker with things. Nevertheless, I gave it a shot while considering my age and biomechanical state, bunions and all.
Rather than jumping into two days of double threshold sessions each week—with some 20 to 30 minutes of effort at lactate threshold effort for each workout—I started out easier than that. The first sessions were just 3X 4 or 5 minutes in the mornings at about 20 or 30 seconds per mile slower than threshold pace. So in my case I started out at a little over 7 minute pace and finish a little under 7. With warm up and cool down the early sessions started at 30 or 35 minutes of running.
In the afternoon of workout days I did a short warmup and ran hill repeats of about 1.5 to 2 minutes and jogging back down. I started out with just four repeats and added some each week.
By the fifth and sixth week I was up to 6X 5 minutes in the mornings and 7X or 8X 2 minute hill reps in the afternoon and a total of 90 minutes of running for the day. I did not do many long runs yet but cross country skied up to 2 or 2.5 hours once or twice a week.
Phase Two
By mid-February I cut back on the doubles and did a weekly single mid-long run of 10 to about 13 or 14 miles. I also reduced the xc skiing and increased the distance of long runs to 19-22 miles.
Although I did some work at marathon pace it was not a lot. On tempo days I often mixed in reps or continuous pacing for 30 to 45 minutes at an effort between marathon and half marathon. And on long runs I ran a fair amount at steady state effort so slower than marathon but faster than easy. Rather than being satisfied with 20 miles as my longest efforts my three longest runs were 21 and 22 miles. Hopefully that will help hold off hitting the wall until later in the race.
| Week | Miles | Time | Long Run |
| 1 | 53 | 7:05 | 14 |
| 2 | 56 | 7:28 | 15 |
| 3 | 46 | 6:32 | 31K xc ski |
| 4 | 61 | 8:07 | 17 |
| 5 | 61 | 8:05 | 19 |
| 6 | 57 | 7:50 | 19 |
| 7 | 70 | 9:20 | 17 |
| 8 | 66 | 8:53 | 22 |
| 9 | 70 | 8:10 | 17 |
| 10 | 51 | 6:38 | 17 |
| 11 | 64 | 8:44 | 22 |
| 12 | 70 | 9:20 | 18 |
rrunnin234 