Training plan for Seville Marathon 2013

I've been cobbling together various ideas from different sources: books, old training plans and personal experience. Here is a top down plan for the 8 weeks between San Silvestre and the Seville Marathon on the 24th February.

Top level
- I have 8 weeks to convert from being focussed on running a 10K race in around 37 minutes (3:40 pace) to running a Marathon in around 3 hours (4:10 pace).
- The weakness that showed up in the last Marathon (not for the first time) was a lack of muscular endurance in the (fast twitch) fibres that were recruited towards the end of the race. In retrospect, I think my biggest error was to do my long run on a Sunday after a day off on Saturday (for family reasons) and at too fast a pace.
- A strength has been an ability to tolerate reasonably high volumes of training without injury. I put this down to following a weights programme and having a fairly good running technique (with minimal footwear).

Several ideas I want to incorporate (inspired by Brad Hudson's book, the Hanson Method and Jack Daniel's Running Formula):
- Replace weights sessions with uphill sprints.
- Include "strides" or 200m - 400m intervals at high speed. I find this helps hone my running technique and makes it more efficient.
- Converge running fast at shorter distances (neuromuscular training) and running long distances at slower than Marathon pace (aerobic support training) to running longer distance at race pace (specific endurance). For example, series that become gradually longer and slower; tempo runs that become Marathon pace runs.
- Use the long runs for two different training purposes. Firstly, to increase glycogen stores, capillaries, fat burning etc. by running long and slow after a week of glycogen depleting exercise and possibly on an empty stomach. Secondly, to train the muscle fibres that get recruited at the end of a Marathon by training hard the evening before or by increasing the pace during the long run. I think that I can alternate between these two types of long run, perhaps limiting the second type more to the specific phase.
- Variety. There is a natural tendency to repeat workouts that you know you can do but there is a certain point beyond which the body will stop adapting to that particular stimulus: you reach a plateau. As well as new workouts I think it is effective to have variety in a single workout by playing around with different speeds (in fact, this is where the word fartlek comes from fart = speed, lek = play in Swedish).
- Include periodic tests such as 7 kilometres at Half Marathon heart rate (172 bpm), to see how I'm improving and what my limiters are (aerobic, neuromuscular, etc.).
- Be careful not to peak too early. Try cutting down the taper to only two weeks (after all, I'm only training 8 weeks all told!).

Quality, week by week (Long run on last day of the week)
31/12 Week #1 San Silvestre International 10K. Fartlek. Threshold run. Easy long run.
6/1 Week #2 Fartlek. Threshold test. Hard long run.
13/1 Week #3 Fartlek. Threshold run. Easy long depletion run.
20/1 Week #4 Getafe Half Marathon. Fartlek. Threshold run.
27/1 Week #5 Threshold run. Marathon pace run. Easy long depletion run.
3/2 Week #6 Peak week. Fartlek. Threshold test. Marathon pace run. Hard long run.
10/2 Week #7 Taper. Fartlek. Marathon pace run. Easy long depletion run.
17/2 Week #8 Taper and Seville Marathon. Marathon pace run.

The idea is that the training follows this progression, but the point is to be flexible and to change things along the way depending on how my body responds to the stimuli:

(Here I am assuming that my Marathon pace is around 4:00, my Half Marathon pace is around 3:45, my 10K pace around 3:40 and my 1,500m pace around 3:10)

Long runs
Week #1 25 km easy (4:40-5:00 pace)
Week #2 3 km easy + 22 km @ 4:20 + 3 km easy

Week #3 30 km easy (4:40-5:00 pace) on empty stomach
Week #4 -
Week #5 35 km easy (4:40-5:00 pace) on empty stomach with gel @ 30 km

Week #6 3 km easy + 24 km @ 4:10 + 5 km easy

Week #7 21 km easy (4:40-5:00 pace) on empty stomach

Week #8 -

Threshold runs

Week #1 2 x 15' @ 3:45 w/ 3' active recovery

Week #2 Test: warm up + 7 km (20 laps of track at work) @ 172 bpm

Week #3 3 x 15' @ 3:45 w/ 3' active recovery

Week #4 2 x 20' @ 3:45 w/ 3' active recovery

Week #5 15' @ 4:00, 15' @ 3:45, 15' @ 3:40 w/ no recovery

Week #6 Test: warm up + 7 km (20 laps of track at work) @ 172 bpm

Week #7 -

Week #8 -

Fartlek

Week #1 8 x 1 km @ 3:40 w/ 1' rest + 4 x 200m @ 3:10

Week #2 4 x 2 km @ 3:40 w/ 1' active recovery + 1 km @ 3:30 + 4 x 200m @ 3:10

Week #3 2 x Ladder 6'-5'-4'-3'-2'-1' @ 3:40 - 3:10 w/ 1' active recovery

Week #4 70' of 2' @ 3:45 + 3' easy

Week #5 -

Week #6 2 x Ladder 1'-2'-3'-2'-1'-2'-3' @ 3:40 - 3:10 w/ duration active recovery

Week #7 2 x Ladder 1'-2'-3'-2'-1'-2'-3' @ 3:40 - 3:10 w/ duration active recovery

Week #8 -

Marathon pace runs

Week #1 -

Week #2 -

Week #3 -

Week #4 -

Week #5 40' @ 4:00

Week #6 50' @ 4:00

Week #7 2 x 30' @ 4:00 w/ 1 km easy active recovery

Week #8 3 km easy + 30' @ 3:50 + 3 km easy

A typical week will be:

Monday - Rest

Tuesday - Easy run + Hill sprints

Wednesday - Fartlek

Thursday - Easy run / Rest

Friday - Threshold run

Saturday - Easy run / Marathon pace run

Sunday - Long run