Paris Marathon
Paris Marathon is in 14 weeks and 3 days from now. I’ve been ill or suffering the effects of an allergy to birds over the Christmas period, meaning I have only run three times since the Ebersheimer Adventslauf 11 days ago. I haven’t been doing nothing though, actually I have been busy! Eating cake, biscuits, chocolates, drinking beer and generally being lazy and putting on weight! I don’t mind too much, that’s what Christmas is for anyway.
It’s the 28th of December now though, and Christmas is over. It’s time to get my arse into gear, and get training for Paris Marathon. I enjoyed doing my Roth blog last year, so I’ll do a Paris one this year.
Be Marathon Fit?
I found a plan for Roth last year but I don’t have a specific plan for Paris. I am having a bit of a triathletes dilemma. I need to run as much as I can, do do as well as possible in Paris. I also can’t completely ignore swimming and cycling, otherwise I won’t be ready for the triathlon season come June. So here is a general skeleton plan for what I think might work for me.
Doubles
I want to run before work more often than I usually do. I can run 3.7km to work as the crow flys, or I can extend it to 8km by looping around to work. I see Monday, Thursday and Friday as good doubling days (for reasons I’ll get to in a minute) If I run 16km on Monday and Friday, and extend Thursdays run home, then I can have 52km of running built up over those 3 days.
Track work-outs
Quality is usually not where I shine. I like running out the door and doing my 1h to 1h15 everyday and being done. I can get pretty fit doing just that, but I won’t reach my potential by just doing that. Tuesdays will be work out days. I will try to get gradually more specific as I get closer to race day. That means VO2 max work to start with (~4 weeks), then Threshold work (another 4 weeks) then Marathon pace work (the last 4 weeks before the taper). I will think about if I want to do the M pace work block, I’m not sure it is worthwhile physically, it seems like more of a mental thing.
Long runs
I’m not trying to re-invent the wheel here. I will just do my long run on Saturdays. In a 14 week build I will want to have 8 runs of over 30km, with 4 of 35km or so. Saturdays are best for me, in case something causes me to miss it, then I can just run on Sunday instead. I will try to get some quality into my long runs, probably M pace work.
Cross Training
I plan to swim every week on Wednesday mornings before work. That is a minimum. A second swim per week would be good. I’ll definitely try to get them in as and when I have can (so on double days in the evening) or on days off. Sunday would be possible too.
Ideally I will cycle on Sundays when the weather is decent. They will have to be easy rides, but a few hours would be very helpful for making the switch to triathlon later in the year. Again, days off would be well invested in doing some riding.
Races
This is tough for me. I like racing a lot, but I do think that I might sometimes race when I should do a long run instead, or just not race but train. I will probably do fewer 10k races this time out. If they are on Saturday, then I don’t see much harm in running, then doing an all E pace long run on the Sunday, but the other way around seem like it is poor training.
I do think that half marathons (and longer) are good marathon training, as long as I can recover from them and run them untapered. There is an Ultra in Rodgau in 1 month. I might run 30-35km (6-7 laps) as a supported long run. Otherwise I want to do the Mörfelden Half Marathon and either Kandel or Frankfurt half. They are only 4 weeks before Paris, so should be interesting tune up races and give me a good idea of what will be possible in the marathon.
- Lindenseelauf 10km Saturday 13 January – 12 weeks
- Rodgau Ultra Saturday 27th January – 10 weeks
- Groß-Gerau 10km Saturday 10th February – 8 weeks
- Mörfelden HM Sunday 18th Febraury – 7 weeks
- Kandel/Frankfurt HM Sunday 11th March -4 weeks
The Goal(s)
My favourite running book is Jack Daniels. So think I have to train to my ability and what ever comes out at the end, is what I can run. So in that regard, I don’t have a goal time. In another way, I do!
I would really like to break 2:45. That is 3:54/km which is tough, but should be possible given my best half marathon time.
My best 10k and HM times are now 2 years old. I have been close to the 10k time recently in pre-training, so that one has to go. I reckon I can run near 35 flat for a fast 10k. I would love to run a sub 1:17 half in Mörfelden, to get an elite start in Frankfurt. That might be optimistic as it predicts a 2:41 marathon, but it would be ideal for me.
Weight
I am around about 80kg now. I want to be at most 76kg when I get to the start line in Paris, and really sub 75kg would be optimal. I’ve never reached that weight, but I’ll try again this time out!
Overview:
- 3 double days – 52km
- 1 workout day – 14km
- Wednesday single run – 10-15km
- 1 long run – 30km ave
- Sunday recovery run – 10km
- 116-121km + 1-2 swims + 1 ride