No, this post is not about how to eat enough cheese and foie gras to prepare you for a trip to France.
People have been asking me about my training going into Paris, so this is a brief overview of what I focused on. Before we do that though, I think it is important to discuss what I did for training in the past because I made some dramatic changes.
For the past 11 marathons (not triathlons) my training was as follows:
Tuesday: Speedwork
Thursday: Tempo run
Sunday: Long run
Did it work? Yes. I love the science aspect of sports though and thought it would be interesting to freak it and do something radically different.
I decided to run 6 days a week and focus on volume. I would stop swimming and biking altogether and become a focused ‘runner.’ The schedule I built was a modified Higdon plan.
Monday: 4 Miles
Tuesday: 5-6 Miles
Wednesday: 4 Miles
Thursday: 4 Miles
The Monday through Thursday miles increase every 4 weeks peaking at 6 and 10 miles.
Friday: Off
Saturday: 6 miles at race pace (6:25 per mile)
Sunday: 14 miles
The weekend runs increase to 13 race pace miles and 20 miles on Sunday. These runs were crucial and very challenging. At times my long runs felt grueling right from mile one, but that is the purpose. ‘Running on tired legs’ simulates the feeling one has at miles 18-26 of the marathon.
My weekly mileage peaked at say 50-55 miles per week, which was 5 lower than my goal. I had to hit 3 twenty mile runs but was only able to make it to 18 on all of them. Previously, my weekly training mileage peaked at say 25 miles, so it was a big difference.
I was also very consistent. There were days in which it was -10 degrees or raining, but I still got out there and followed the plan.
Another thing I stopped doing was weight training. I wanted to strip down and embrace the body type of a runner. What does that mean? By focusing on one sport entirely, I wanted my body to adapt and evolve into a runners body naturally. I lost maybe 4-5 pounds, but became more streamlined.
My nutrition stayed more or less the same. I eat pretty healthy year round, so I didn’t have to make too many changes. I drink a veggie shake every morning and eat a high carb meal before heavy training days or races.
Staying injury free is very important as well. Something I try and instill in my athletes is to foam roll and stretch after workouts and every morning if possible. I paid a few visits to the good Dr. Levine as well for ART and Graston sessions.
That pretty much sums up my strategy for the Paris Marathon. I wanted a new PR and so I pushed myself further than I ever had in training. Will I use the same training techniques for New York this year? Certainly.
If anyone has any further questions feel free to email me.