Between marathons

by Paul
(West Bloomfield, MI)

In between marathon approach :

"Hi Marius,

I just finished my latest marathon following the 3:30 plan. Unfortunately I cramped again and struggled to finish. I have yet to finish a marathon strong.

Since I am between marathons I would like to use the time to get stronger and faster. I still run 3-4 times per week but would like to do speed and strength workouts - hopefully to boost my stamina.

What program would you recommend I follow and do you have any additional advice for someone like me?
Thanks in advance!"

Answer: Hi Paul and thanks for your question.

The best way to do this is probably to use the sessions you find in the 5k/10k part of the 100 day plan (in addition to the intro weeks) and pick the sessions you like the most - especially the 45/15 type sessions (45 sec running, 15 sec recoveries). Use these to boost your overall speed endurance.

As for strength work, be very careful with too much of this on the legs. The Italian marathoners that have been very successful do lots of eccentric strength work, which is the way to go on the legs at least. If you google that, you'll find plenty of good ways to approach this.

Whatever approach you pick, do remember the hard day - easy day - hard day approach, it is the # 1 most important thing to stay injury-free!

I wish you all the best,

kind regards,
Marius