Marathon recovery importance

by RICK
(SOUTHPORT)

The importance of marathon recovery :

"Hello Marius,

I made a big mistake after setting a great P.B.at London following your plan.

I ignored your training advise to follow the 3 week recovery plan. Infact I raced only a week after London then got straight back into your plan and trained for the Langdale mountain marathon, said to be the hardest road marathon in the world with it 5000ft of climbing.

Training went well until August when I started to struggle in the last hour of my long runs and found I needed to use an ever increasing effort to hit my paces in the fast sessions.
Basically by the time of the moutain Marathon I'd gone well past my peak form, I ran the race on empty legs to 13th place http://runwitharthurlydiard.blogspot.com/2010/09/mistakes-ive-made-and-tough-langdale.html , but could have done much better if only I'd given myself the 3 weeks recovery after London you recommend.

My question is;
My next target is London next year, where I hope to break 2.45 for the first time, how should I follow the 100 day plan as I have 7 months until London ?"

Answer: Hi Rick, good to hear from you. No worries at all, the way to "freshen" up your legs again is this :

1) take the recovery weeks of the 100 day plan and follow them srictly the next weeks.

2) take the intro weeks of the 100 day plan and to these thereafter.

This will give you about 4-6 weeks of perfect recovery but at the same time smart training.

Thereafter, use on of the approach I explain here (with the links included) : All year marathon training You can basically pick sessions you like until you are 121 days before the marathon again and then you want to follow the 100 day plan strictly again. Note though : do follow the pattern of hard day-easy day-hard day the whole way, this is crucial, even when you are not on a "strict" 100 day plan !

I wish you all the best and I look forward to seeing sub 2:45 in London,

regards,
Marius