Intermediate Training Programs

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1 Page 1 of 5 Hal Higdon's MARATHON TRAINING GUIDE Interediate Training Progras Hit the button for the full Interediate - I Training Schedule Hit the button for the full Interediate - II Training Schedule The Novice and Advanced training progras in y Marathon Training Guide represent the extrees. The forer progra is designed for ners ning their first arathon, or experienced ners who are happy with that level of training and see no need to do ore. The latter progra is designed for those very experienced ners, who have done a nuber of arathons, perhaps have plateaued in their ties, and want to axiize their ability by training hard and incorporating speedwork into their training. In between, there's a broad area for ners just like you! If you previously have trained using the Novice progra, you now can increase your ileage a bit, soe workouts at a faster, and seek iproveent. That's why I designed two separate schedules for two levels of interediate ners: The Interediate-I progra offers a slight jup in difficulty fro the Novice progra. You Begin in Week 1 with a long of iles instead of iles. You thus get to iles for your long by Week 13, which perits a second -iler in Week 15. Midweek ileage is slightly higher, but instead of cross-training on the weekends, you get ore serious about your ning and do a second of 5-iles, often at arathon race. You now do your cross-training on Mondays, instead of taking the day off. The Interediate-II progra offers another slight jup in difficulty. You begin in Week 1 with a -ile long, which brings you to iles by Week, peritting three s at this distance. The idweek s are soewhat longer; the s on the weekend are soewhat longer. The pattern is about the sae as Interediate-I, but there is a subtle, though iportant, increase in distance and difficulty. If you chose Interediate-I as the training schedule for your second arathon and have success, you ight want to choose Interediate-II for arathon nuber 3. Here is an explanation of the type of training you will encounter in the two interediate progras: 2//06

2 Page 2 of 5 Long Runs: The key to the progra is the long on weekends, which builds fro or iles in the first week to a axiu of iles. Although soe experienced ners do train longer, I see no advantage in doing 23, 26 or even 31 ile s. (I've tried that yself in the past, and it just wore e out.) Save your energy and concentrate on quality s the of the week. Consistency is ost iportant. You can skip an occasional workout, or juggle the schedule depending on other coitents, but do not cheat on the long s. Notice that although the weekly long s get progressively longer, every third week is a "stepback" week, where we reduce ileage to allow you to gather strength for the next push upward. Rest is an iportant coponent of any training progra. Run Slow: Norally I recoend that ners do their long s anywhere fro 45 to 90 seconds per ile slower than their arathon. This is very iportant. Listen to what the Coach is about to tell you! The physiological benefits kick in around 90-0 inutes, no atter how fast you. You'll burn a few calories and trigger glycogen regenesis, teaching your uscles to conserve fuel. Running too fast defeats this purpose and ay unnecessarily tear down your uscles, coproising not only your idweek workouts, but the following week's long. Save your fast ning for the arathon itself. There are plenty of days during the of the week, when you can race. So siply do your long s at a cofortable, one that allows you to converse with your training partners, at least during the beginning of the. Which brings up y next point. 3/1 Training: Toward the end of the, if you're still feeling fresh, you ay want to pick up the and finish soewhat faster. This will convert your long into what I call a 3/1 Run. That eans you the first three-fourths of your long (say the first iles of a 16-iler) at an easy, then do the final one-fourth (iles of a 16-iler) at a soewhat faster --though still not race. This 3/1 strategy is advised for only the ost experienced ners, and I don't recoend you do it ore than once out of every three weekends. In other words: first weekend, easy ; second weekend, 3/1 Run; third weekend, step back to a shorter distance. My philosophy is that it's better to too slow during long s, than too fast. The iportant point is that you cover the prescribed distance; how fast you cover it doesn't atter. Walking Breaks: Walking is a perfectly acceptable strategy even for interediate ners, and it works during training s too. While soe coaches recoend walking 1 inute out of every, or walking 1 inute every ile, in the CARA Marathon Training Class, we teach ners to walk when they coe to an aid station. This serves a double function: 1) you can drink ore easily while walking as opposed to ning, and 2) since any other ners slow or walk through aid stations, you'll be less likely to block those behind. It's a good idea to follow this strategy in training as well. Our class that trains on the lakefront encounters water fountains (also known as "bubblers") every ile, or ore often. We teach the to stop frequently to drink. Our classes that train elsewhere in the suburbs don't always have easy access to fluids, but we teach the to wear a water belt and also stop frequently to drink. You will lose less tie walking than you think. I once ran a 2:29 arathon, walking through every aid station. My son Kevin ran 2:1 and qualified for the Olypic Trials eploying a siilar strategy. And Bill Rodgers took four brief breaks (tying a shoe on one of the) while ning 2:09 and winning the 1975 Boston Marathon. Walking gives your body a chance to, and you'll be able to continue ning ore cofortably. It's best to walk when you want to, not when your (fatigued) body forces you too. 2//06

3 Page 3 of 5 Race Pace: What do I ean by "Race Pace?" It's a frequently asked question on y V- Boards (see below), so let e explain. Race Pace is the you plan to in the race you're training for. If you're training for a 4:00 arathon, your average per ile is 9:09. So you would that sae when asked to Race Pace (soeties stated siply as "Pace" on the training charts) in this progra. If you were training for a 5-K or -K, "race " would be the you planned to in those races. Soeties in prescribing speedwork, I define s for different workouts as 5-K or -K, but you won't be asked to this fast in the Interediate progra. Cross-Training: Mondays in the interediate progras are devoted to cross-training. What is cross-training? It is any other for of aerobic exercise that allows you to use slightly different uscles while ing (usually) the day after your long. In this progra, we long on Sundays and cross-train on Mondays. The best cross-training exercises are swiing, cycling or even walking. What about sports such as tennis or basketball? Activities requiring sideways oveents are not always a good choice. Particularly as the ileage builds up toward the end of the progra, you raise your risk of injury if you choose to play a sport that requires sudden stopping and starting. One tip: You don't have to cross-train the sae each week. And you could even cobine two or ore exercises: walking and easy jogging or swiing and riding an exercise bike in a health club. Cross-training for inutes will help you recover after your Sunday long s. Midweek Training: Training during the week also should be done ostly at a coparatively easy. As the weekend ileage builds, the weekday ileage also builds. Add up the nubers, and you'll see that you roughly the sae ileage during the week as you do during long s on the weekends. Midweek workouts on Wednesdays build fro 5 to iles for Interediate-I ners and fro 5 to iles for Interediate-II ners. There are siilar slight advances on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The progra is built on the concept that you do ore toward the end than at the start. That sounds logical, doesn't it? Believe e--as tens of thousands of arathoners using this schedule have proved--it works. Rest: Despite y listing it at the end, is an iportant coponent of this or any training progra. Scientists will tell you that it is during the period (the 24 to 72 hours between hard bouts of exercise) that the uscles actually regenerate and get stronger. Coaches also will tell you that you can't hard unless you are well ed. And it is hard ning (such as the long s) that allows you to iprove. If you're constantly fatigued, you will fail to reach your potential. This is why I designate Friday as a day of for Interediate ners. It allows you to gather forces for hard ning on Saturdays and Sundays. If you need to take ore days--because of a cold or a late night at the office or a sick child--do so. And if you're tired fro the weekend, take Monday off as well--or cut the length of your cross-training. The secret to success in any training progra is consistency, so as long as you are consistent with your training during the full 1 weeks of the progra, you can afford--and ay benefit fro--extra. Speedwork? There is no speedwork involved in the Interediate progra. If you feel you need speedwork to iprove, check out the Advanced training schedules, which offer hill training, interval training and tepo s on different days of the week. Norally, however, I recoend that arathoners save their speedwork for ties of the year when they are not doing a arathon ileage buildup. Check the Spring Training progras elsewhere on this web site for ore on that. 2//06

4 Page 4 of 5 Modifying the progra: My training progras are not carved in concrete, and you can ake appropriate changes based on your experience, or to suit your convenience. One frequent request ade by V-Teaers is to odify the order of the weekend s, particularly those who want to long on Saturdays instead of Sundays, because that's when their friends do their long s. Running with friends is certainly ore fun than ning alone, but the s are placed on Saturdays ahead of the long s on Sundays for a purpose. The ain reason is to tire you out a bit in the first workout Saturday so you are not tepted to do the second workout Sunday too fast. It is also difficult to hit race on Sunday the day after a draining long. Soe ners ask if they can split these two workouts, for exaple, ning on Friday and long on Sunday. They can, but it defeats soewhat the purpose of two "hard" workouts back to back on Saturdays and Sundays. Most ners have both ore tie for their training and to after that training on the weekends. So odify the progra if you want, but if you ake too any odifications, you're not following the progra. InterActive Training: If you would like ore help with your arathon training, sign up for y InterActive Training, and I will send you eails daily telling you how to train. The daily eails include even ore tips than are available here on y website plus you can log your training and use other features. To learn ore about your InterActive Training options, click here. Here is your Interediate - I and Interediate - II training schedules. The below chart tells you what to do for each day for the 1 weeks leading to the arathon. Click on the week nubers on the left side of the chart to be taken to the weekly schedules with detailed instructions. Marathon Training Schedule: Interediate-I Marathon Training Schedule: Interediate-II Week Mon Tue Wed Thur Fri Sat Sun 1 cross 2 cross 3 cross 4 cross 5 cross 6 cross 7 cross Week Mon Tue Wed Thur Fri Sat Sun 1 cross 2 cross 3 cross 4 cross 5 cross 6 cross 7 cross //06

5 Page 5 of 5 cross 9 cross cross cross cross 13 cross 14 cross 15 cross 16 cross 17 cross 1 cross race cross 17 9 cross cross cross cross 13 cross 14 cross 15 cross 16 cross 17 cross 1 cross race Click Here To Order a Print Version of the Marathon Training Guide and Other Books by Hal Higdon Copyright 00 by Hal Higdon. All rights reserved. Hal Higdon's Marathon Training Guide Higdon's Hoe Page 2//06