Extremely hilly marathon course

Hi Marius
How to train for an extremely hilly marathon ?

"I've read your advice regarding training for a hilly marathon,thanks. However I plan to run the Jungfrau marathon, which has an almost flat course for the first 20+km but then climbs very steeply for about 1500 vertical meters towards the finish. How can I best adapt the 100 day plan and prepare for the strenuous 2nd part of the race?
Kindest regards
Juerg"

Answer: Hi Juerg and thanks for your question.

Now, for extreme marathons like that I would suggest the following : from the week the half marathon phase of the plan starts and onwards at least every 10 days or so, aim for the last half of a planned session going uphill. You want to follow the same pattern as the 100 day plan (no adding of sessions!) but just place in there hill parts at the end of some of the runs. This especially goes for the really long marathon specific sessions. You want to run the first parts of these fairly flat then start climbing. This gives you the specificity you need to get used to the rapid climbing at the end of the marathon like that.

I wish you all the best,

kind regards,
Marius

Hilly marathons?

by Angelos
(Athens,Greece)

How does one deal with hilly marathons ?

"Hi,

I plan to run in the Athens classic marathon on 31/10/.The course is very demanding, as it has many uphill and downhill stretches.

I have just bought the 100 Day Marathon Plan and I've been thinking of using the sub 3:15 program. Would you recommend any special workouts for the hilly course, in addition to the existing sessions, or perhaps modify some of the existing ones?


Thanks and regards,
Angelos"

Answer Hi Angelos, and thanks for your question.

I will refer you do two pages on this that will answer your question. Hill running marathon and this one on New York marathon training - dealing with hills

Hope this helps,

I wish you all the best for the Athens Marathon !

regards,
Marius

Great Wall Marathon

by Florian
(Shanghai)

How to deal with a hilly marathon :

"I am preparing for the Great Wall Marathon in Beijing. Since this includes more than 5,000 steps on very uphill terrain, I would like to know how to combine this with your program. "

Answer:Hi Florian, I've answered this before a few times, you can read my answers here, that would apply to your situation as well.

1. Hilly marathon 1

2. Or a slightly different approach to it :
Hilly marathon 2

It is really a matter of placing in a few specific runs in there, and follow the rest of the plan like planned out.

Kind regards,
Marius

Mountain Walking and Marathon Training

by Melanie Wright
(Shropshire)

How to incorporate mountain walking into the 100 day marathon plan training :

"Hi Marius,

I am a regular mountain walker and want to know how I can incorporate this into my 100 day schedule. I have a Trail Marathon in July and shorter trail races in April, May and June.

I generally walk for about 4-8 hours, and about 3-5,000 feet of ascent. Some weeks I may go twice, sometimes it can be a four week gap. The mountain terrain I am walking in is the same as the races, except I walk up to the top of the mountains but just run part of them for the races.

I am left feeling quite tired for several days sometimes after a hard walk, but it is something I will always do, so want to incorporate it somehow.

My marathon schedule is the sub 4 hour one, though it is my first formal marathon, I did run further as a youngster. (I am 38).

Kindest regards and love the 100 day marathon plan. I am in the pre-3 week build up at the moment, can't wait to start properly.

Melanie"

Answer: Hi Melanie and thanks for your question.

The way to deal with this is like this : you have to place the hardest workout of the week as many days as possible away from the walk you do. The second hardest (based on length of the workout and how hard you "expect" it to be - this is individual), the second longest way from there etc.

You also want to consider cutting down about 1/3rd in the length of these long hard sessions after such a walk for the first 3-5 days, plus cut down 1/2 of the easy long runs in this period. The walks themselves are excellent training so no needs to worry about the overall shape :)

Point is to keep the structure (number of runs) but cut down the length of these in addition to spacing the hardest work as far away from these as possible. There is, however, no problem going on such a walk the day AFTER a hard run, the point is what you do before hard workouts.

I wish you all the best !

kind regards,
Marius