The past 10 weeks has been quite a trip, having done 3 marathons in 10 weeks…. and still have one more to go in another 3 weeks! I’ve gotten a lot of inquiries from people on how I’ve done it and wondering what my training is like, so it’s time to share what I’ve learned.
I started reading Bill Rodger’s training logs back in November when I was getting back in shape. I had bookmarked them a few years ago, but I was just getting into marathoning and couldn’t fully comprehend everything. Now that I’ve lived and experienced a lot of what he went through, his logs make much more sense. What really struck me as amazing was in the fall of 1976 (see here), he ran 3 marathons within 6 weeks, including2:10 at NYC and2:08 (short course) atFukuoka, 2 weeks later! He then came back in December to run2:14 atBaltimore.
The man was an absolute monster, putting in mega-mileage most of the year, while still racing prolifically at all distances and running lots of marathons each year. He shows us what is possible and that you don’t know what you can do until you try! No one should place any rules and limits on themself, or follow any cookie-cutter blueprint on training and racing. He is just ‘one’ example…. there were and have been many many more (~I just learned about a guy named Steve Benson who ran 7 marathons in 7 months in 1981, all between2:14-2:18+).
Some important things to note are that Bill R. didn’t run his PR until his 23rd marathon, 2:09:27 in Boston, and also sprinkled amonst all his marathons are several 2:20+ marathons and 9 DNFs (of 60 lifetime marathons). Most elites of today are afraid to take the sort of risks that Bill R. took, possibly failing/running slow, and facing the criticism (~elite runners being much more exposed and controlled today). There’s a great quote, “Every great race involves an element of risk”. You have to be willing to take risks, learn and experiment, and possibly fail, if you ever want to ‘break through’. There’s no better way to learn than to actually race! Having put in several high mileage years (19,890 miles between 2006-2009), a few marathons, and now being healthy and over my serious hip injury, I’m willing to put the ”BR philosophy” to the test! We’re all an experiment of n = 1.
So I’ll start with my mileage the past few months.
11/15-11/21– 126.2 mpw (90 second pickups on Tuesday; 1:45 steady on Thurs.; first long progression run on Sunday, which went so well, decided to sign up for Dallas White Rock!)
- 11/22-11/28– 122.6 mpw (small workout Tuesday; 1:50 steady over hills on Thursday; local 5K race; 2:15 relaxing easy run on Sunday)
- 11/29-12/5– 112.6 mpw (Nasty snow and ice this week– 4 x mile on Wed. at HM effort; 2 day taper; 26.2 in Dallas– 2:42 and first win! Started slow and felt like a long progression run, windy, hilly, cambered and winding, all alone. Elite fluids starting at mile 10 and took 2 gels. 45 min. sloooowwwww run in afternoon to shake out rigor mortis.)
- 12/6-12/12– 77.3 mpw (9-10 min. mile pace; Sleepy; ate lots of food; taking Emergen-C + iron; left quad beat up badly from camber in Dallas– got massage on Tuesday, but leg still beat up; 6K XC in Charlotte– couldn’t lift legs to save my life- dead legs!; took Sunday off, first full day off since September)
- 12/13-12/19– 109.1 mpw (Flew toIreland for vacation; started to feel really really good on Wednesday, 10 days after the marathon; strides Friday;2:15 Saturday easy-steady with a few short pickups)
- 12/20-12/26– 129.1 mpw (……. FOOT OF SNOW and cold temps = no melt inIreland and no real workouts) ! Strides on Monday and Friday with screw shoes on packed snow area;2:30 Sat. with a few pickups on packed snow area)
- 12/27-1/2– 137.2 mpw (flew back to USA; Change in race plans, so signed up to run MS Blues Marathon on 1/8; 5 x 8 min. at 10 mile pace on Tuesday; 2:15 on Friday with 45 min. progression run…. best run yet = ready for the marathon!)
- 1/3-1/9– 109.2 mpw (3 x mile at HM pace on Tuesday; 2 day taper and tried to experiment with eating more food than usual; 26.2 miles at MS Blues, 2:41+ to finish 2nd! No elite fluids. Hardest course I’ve ever run + cold/windy, swished and spit 2 gels out =felt good with this strategy, but drank the Gatorade/water ~every 4-5 miles; 18 min. cooldown.)
- 1/10-1/16– 117.8 mpw (feeling much better this week than how I felt afterDallas. Was it the massive pre- and post-food consumption? Metabolically feel better. Little sleepy. Hilly courses are difficult ‘in the moment’, but the DOMS isn’t as traumatic cause of the varied muscle usage. Drove toOklahoma Thursday for 12.5 hours; strides Friday;2:30 very slow with friend David on Saturday)
- 1/17-1/23– 137.3 mpw (45 min. progression run Mon.; 5 x 5 min. at 10K effort Wed.; 95 min. on dirt XC course on Friday; drove back to Indiana for 12.5 hours; 2:32 easy-steady on Sunday)
- 1/24-1/30– 146.6 mpw (Set up altitude tent this week and adjusting to it; 90 second pickups Tues.; 2:00 with steady last hour on Thurs.; 5 x 8 min. at 10 mi.-HM effort on Sat.; 2:15 relaxed run with few pickups at end)
- 1/31-2/6– 96.2 mpw (NASTY SNOW and ice storm = 3 treadmill runs; 1:40 unstructured fartlek over icy/snowy rolling hills on Tuesday; Trip from hell to Texas + 10K race in South Texas; took Sunday off= mentally and physically warped from trip)
- 2/7-2/13– 120 mpw (Trying to jog easy and recover from Texas trip; Still dealing with nasty snow and ice + too cold to melt; 3 x 3-3-3 @easy/med/hard on icy/snowy road on Wed.; 2 day taper and food stuffing once again; 26.2 miles in Birmingham, 1st in 2:43, UGLY BONK; Generally felt a little tired/heavy for the whole race; Completely alone on second loop of rolling hill course; No elite fluids; Experiment: swished and spit out 3 gels and all fluids ~every 3-4 miles…. works at first/helps brain/no GI problems, but crashed big time the last miles. Gave the caffeinated gel a try at ~mile 20-21/spitting it out, but bad idea! Didn’t feel good at all after this gel, having side stitch and overall feeling bad. Once again learned I can only do caffeinated fluids in a race, no caffeinated gels (even spitting it doesn’t help). 26 min. cooldown…. stopped at Hasher’s beer stop for 2 beers.)
- Next stop….. Napa Valley Marathon in 3 weeks (March 6th)! Will get to do elite fluids for this one, so will try either fluids-only or combo of fluids + non-caffeinated gels (and actually consuming, not spitting out).
Ok, so here’s my thoughts on all of it. First off…. marathoning and RACING is fun, and winning is even funner (ok, I know, that’s not a word or the correct usage, but made-up words are funner to use and sticking to the BR philosophy, there are no rules!). 1-3 peak marathons/year…. YES…. but who says you can’t run more in between to practice, learn, and make $$$$? Plus, the more frequent marathons you do, the easier it is to recover from them, such that they end up feeling like a regular part of your training and boost your fitness like any other race. If you want to do lots of “non-peak” marathons in a short period of time (or consistently throughout the year), it’s best not to do a full taper cause that probably throws the body off more than the actual race. You have to treat the marathon as part of the training.
From what I’ve found doing a “peak” marathon, I personally thrive on a 10 day taper, cutting back the duration of runs but keeping the frequency and intensity the same. For a non-peak marathon, if you stay consistent and in a regular routine with doubles, and then cut back the duration of runs for only a 2-3 days, you can still get the glycogen loading and rest up the legs decently well. You probably won’t be as fresh or get a “peak” performance, but you’ll bounce back faster and feel normal sooner after the race.
As mentioned, the prolific marathoning gets easier to do, the more frequently you do it.Dallasfelt much worse and traumatic post-race than MS (and now recovering fromBirmingham). I was highly undertrained forDallastoo and hadn’t done a marathon in a year+, so the body was probably like, “what the heck are you doing to me”?! With the subsequent marathons, I haven’t been as sore, and even the tiredness/hungriness is less severe. The marathon ends up feeling more like how you’d feel after a hard, 20+ mile long run in training, which you might do, say, 4-5 weeks before a peak marathon. Knowing this, why not go run an actual, non-peak marathon?!
I think people are worried about it interrupting the training flow too much, but 8-10 days to recover and absorb the work isn’t any different than what you’d experience with a regular week of training. From what I’ve figured out, 5 weeks is sufficient time between marathons. I’d go as far to say that if you’re properly trained for the marathon, you could have a minimum of 3 weeks between marathon and still get decent performances (and if you’re crazy enough like Bill R., 2 weeks between, but that’s pushing it!).
Even taking time off after the marathon is something that’s probably not normal to the body (at least for those putting in consistently high mileage and double days). I’m of the opinion that you can jog slowly for as long as you need to, keep up the routine of double days, eat like a horse…. and there’s no need to take full time off unless you’re absolutely warped. Bill R. never really took time off, unless he was sick as a dog (and I believe Frank Shorter was the same)! With myself, I seem to feel ‘normal’ after about 8-10 days of easy jogging (whereas with a half marathon, it take me about 4 days to feel good). In the past, my ‘sweet spot’ for taking full time off after a marathon was 10 days, which matches up with how I feel when I’ve jogged easy after a marathon with no time off. The key is always giving your legs the chance to recover by jogging easy, getting massages, sleeping, eating very well (go on food holiday!), and not doing anything hard until they feel that regenerative “spark” in them again.
Post-marathon, I try to stick with my routine of doubles, but keeping the duration short (like doing a taper in reverse). You end up getting a “fitness boost” from the marathon, just like you would from any other race. I strongly believe the prolific marathoning/racing is a large reason why we had so many good Americans in the 1970′s/80′s. They trained to race! There are several Africans and international runners inAmericaracing prolifically every weekend (and putting up fast times!), and we question their actions and how they’re able to do it. However, we shouldn’t question what they are doing cause Bill R. and the GBTC did exactly the same thing, 25-35 years ago. In terms of recovery, it definitely does help to be running full-time, and that’s probably a large reason why the international runners inAmericaare able to race prolifically.
I want to share what I learned, going from the MS Blues Marathon to the Birmingham Marathon. Generally, my training/life has been less-than-ideal the past 5 weeks. I’ve travelled a lot, eaten unordinary food, weird sleep patterns/time zone changes, bad weather, adjusting to new shoes, treadmill running (yuck!), inconsistent with training volume/quality/weights/drills/strides, and trying to adjust to a new altitude tent. I’ve generally felt whacked and mentally tired. One of my friends has a good quote on her Facebook page, “Live like a clock” (I think it’s a Jumbo Elliott quote?). This is soooo true– when you’re in a consistent living and training situation for a long period of time, that’s when you begin “flipping the switch”.
I strongly believe that in order to run a peak, high-quality marathon, you have to be very well rested, both physically and mentally. The more layers of stress you add, you begin to burn the candle at both ends. I definitely felt “heavy” and more mentally tired forBirminghamthan the previous two. I can tell I’m aerobically fitter and feeling more fluid in training, but the body is “ebbing” right now from multiple stresses…. and it will begin to flow very soon as the load comes off and the quality goes up! The stress of the previous weekend’s travel debacle/10K definitely wore me out– had I been training to run a peak marathon this weekend, I would not have done this race.
Also, I purposely kept my training load very high for Birmingham cause I’m bouncing back to run the Napa Valley Marathon in 3 weeks and the 15K Champs thereafter (and will cut back to feel fresh for these races). I’m also trying to get the volume up higher, to the 140-160 range, which will be important for when I do my marathon training cycle next fall for the 2012 Olympic Trials (better to adapt now, than later). I’ve been at a consistent 120-130 mpw for the past 3 years of marathoning (and then added in more speed to get faster). It’s time to jump up the aerobic volume, which of course is going to make the body more tired for a period of time, as the body adapts. It will be quite phenomenal to see what happens when we begin adding in the quality work again. I’m ‘slow’ right now (in terms of leg speed), but that’s ok!
Birminghamwas an ‘experimental marathon’ in a lot of ways, as I tried a few new things, which didn’t work as well as I hoped. I probably overdid the pre-marathon food loading. Felt “heavy”, whether it was metabolic/hormonal/stress/tiredness. I tried to swish and spit ‘all’ the gels and fluids this time (they had Powerade, which I don’t normally drink/practice with), and while this helped (mentally) at first, I crashed big time the last 10K. That was the second time I had tried a caffeinated gel ‘during’ a marathon, and once again it did some weird things to my gut and body. I’ve been ok with caffeinated fluids (~Gatorade Endurance Formula + Red Bull). ForNapa, I will either alternate fluids and gels, or do fluids-only (since we get elite fluids).
Also, I’m in shoe-limbo right now, waiting on some new Inov-8 shoes to arrive, while continuing to race in a pair that has wayyyyy too many miles on them. I thought they were shot forDallas10 weeks ago…. now they really ARE shot (bad Camille!)! While I still haven’t nailed the last 10K of a marathon (despite a gazillion progression runs in training, trying to go out slower, different drink/gels strategies, and mentally preparing myself in training and racing to “go”), I will keep trying until the stars finally align. Appreciate any constructive advice anyone has! Lots to learn, always!
And because everything is “funner with a runner”, gotta include a few photos from the latest marathoning extravaganza:
