Mainstay of our training: LongRuns and FunRuns

Another important “aspect” of our training: RunningInjuries.

Put your own training schedules and principles on the web: marathonexperiences

The Beginners guide is still under construction. Meanwhile, we refer to serpentine

Do you do long easy runs, or do you try to introduce some speed work in the long runs?

Let us know, what do you do, and why?

John Shostrom:

I do most of my long runs with speed work in them. My theory is that in order to run both long and fast in races, you should do both at once. The stresses of marathons involve both duration and intensity, so if your training focuses only on duration, you won't be trained to step up the intensity suitable for racing the marathon.

If your goal is just to finish, none of this applies – long, slow runs are perfectly suitable. But if you want to improve your time, here are four different workouts you can try:

1) Marathon-pace runs (MP). When I was first getting serious about the marathon, I was working with a program developed by Frank Horwill and published in “Marathon and Beyond” magazine, an excellent resource for all marathoners. Horwill's program started with an MP run of 9 miles, then adding 1 mile about every 10 days, ending with an 18-miler 3 weeks before the marathon. This is a superb way of getting to know your pace and gaining confidence for race day. Every marathon cycle I would speed up the MP runs a little, and I set PRs every time.

2) Long runs with tempo segments. Next I moved on to the “Jack Daniels Running Formula,” in which the key marathon workouts included a few MP runs and something called TLT: tempo-long-tempo. These are killer workouts that, after a 2-mile warmup, started with tempo runs (the pace at which you would race a 1-hour race), then 60 to 80 minutes easy, then more tempo miles. The last tempo miles really tell you when you are fit (and when you are not!).

The hardest of these called for 4×1 mile tempo at both ends of the workout. For most people, I'd recommend starting with 2×1 mile, then work up to 3×1, then 4×1 if you can. The tempo pace is considerably faster than MP, so if you're strong at the end of this workout, you're in great shape for the marathon.

3) Progressive workouts. These start out easy and get progressively faster as the run goes on. In Brooklyn, one easy way to do this workout is to bump up your pace with each 3.4-mile loop of Prospect Park. Start out jogging easily, then do 4 or 5 loops with each loop a little harder, ending at your anticipated marathon pace (AMP) or even a little faster if you can manage. At the end you'll have a nearly 20-mile run and a good preview of late-marathon stresses.

4) LAMP runs. Long + anticipated-marathon-pace runs are a little easier than No. 3: Do about 15 miles easy and then crank up your last 3, 4 or 5 miles to MP. This is probably the best workout to do if you're new to incorporating hard running into your long runs, because most of the workout is at your regular jogging pace.

The goal here, as with the other three workouts, is to practice doing hard running when you're already tired. After all, that's the essential aspect of marathoning, what sets it apart even from half marathons or even 30K's.

Write down what works for you, wat not and why.

Bananas work for me, with a coke. An hour before a long run, I down 2 bananas and a coke. – Geert

I eat half a bagel with crunchy peanut butter, a banana, and half a tiger's milk bar about 1-2 hours before a long run/race and a powerbar gel 15 minutes before start time, and another gel every 45-50 minutes during. EZ

If you want to run your first marathon you must train. So start reading our ultimate guide.

But there are also a lot of practical problems to tackle. If you are not a real star runner, your logistical preparation begins now.

You have just started running, or runs 5 k on a regular basis, and wants to expand to a marathon. Do you really want to invest in all that training and depend, a few months before the actual marathon, on a lottery?

Here is our time line:

Before the end of January year one : become a member of the New York Road Runners. Don't even try on the first of February.
During year one:
Run at least 9 Qualifying races as indicated in the NYRRC calendar. This way you qualify for guaranteed entry.

• Building up goes better if you run regular races. You start shorter races, by January next year you should participate in half marathons.
• Never ever forget to mark BRRC on your form as club affiliation (or we will smite you)
• There are a 2-3 qualifiers a month. Choosing your races is important:
  • Build up distance
  • fit them into your family/training schedule
  • try the club scored races, there will be more people around you know, and you contribute to the club.
• Be part of a club like ours. Regular group runs keep you motivated
• Start a running log or a training blog. It really helps. You can start a blog on our website.

January year two:
Don't forget to renew your membership before the end of January

• Participate in 9 qualifiers, don't waste your time and money on short runs. Go mainly for the club scored races.
• Build up your training distances, you should be at 20 miles by May.
• Don't forget to apply. Normally they warn you in time that you qualify, and you have to apply end of April. Before May. More or less. They might advance it again some more. To February e.g.

don't forget to apply.

November: contact Steve for your place on the Bus.

:training:how_to_prepare_and_run_a_marathon.pdf

Running with a team in the New York Marathon: see this year's team on the dedicated part of our website races

Prepare together with novices and veteran participants.

From the end of July on, the training will prepare specifically for the marathon:

• less speed work, if there is speed work, concentrated on longer- one mile or more intervals
• Long runs are the main marathonpreparation.
  • doing all the long runs of the New York Road Runners, except perhaps the last one, Staten Island Half, which might be too close for the less trained
  • If there was no long run at NYRRC that week, a slow long run on Sundays, of near half marathon distance or more, if conditions and agendas permit
• Trying to run at least 30-40 miles per week, preferably more.

Put your questions and remarks here.

If we aim for a long run on Sunday, What type of training should we do on Saturdays? - Geert

At 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, July 5, at the Knights of Columbus hall (10th Avenue and Prospect Park Southwest), Dr. Riccardo Bianchi and I will be giving a presentation and discussion on marathon training.

Riccardo, a longtime BRRC member and perennial sub-3-hour marathoner, is a professor of physiology and pharmacology (insert EPO/steroid joke here) at Downstate Medical Center. He's a lifelong endurance athlete, focusing first on cycling and then on running. He knows training and the science behind the training.

I, on the other hand, haven't taken a biology course since freshman year of high school, which was an extremely long time ago. Unlike Riccardo, I've been lucky enough to avoid injuries, so I've run about 25 marathons over the last dozen years. For my part of the talk, I'll add a little of my trial-and-error experience.

We will answer as many questions as we can. There's a saying in running that every runner is “an experiment of one,” so Riccardo and I hope that those who come will share their knowledge as well as their questions.

Hope to see many of you on July 5.- John