HADD training plan

Works "do" last night and feeling a little delicate, might try a run later on though. The weather has been all over the place over the last couple of days.

poor andy Hope nothing serious with that niggle! You do monster miles ... do you stretch enough? And do you get regular massages? It may be just the thing to save you from breaking down. Just a thought...  your training is very close to what the elites do but they get plenty of physio and SMT to be able to bear the workload.

48hrs of sickness and I am a little weaker and a little lighter!

But all recovered now and did 10.5m @ 70% yesterday and 9.5m @ 70% inc 45min @80% today. My first 80% run felt quite good. All over boggy fields and the downs so hard to keep the HR consistant.

My P&D plan starts on Monday. I certainly feel so much fitter, comfortable and faster at lower bpm than I did 6 weeks ago and ready to start a proper campaign. But I am starting to have concerns about the LT session. Basically P&D has a 9mile run with 4m @ LT (10m) pace. This would be 90%Max HR for myself. Having completed my first 80% run today HADD would say I am not ready for this. But if I spend the next 6 wks at 80% then another 6 weeks at 85% then I only have 4 more weeks before the taper starts. This is forgetting all of the VO2 (92%) stuff later in the P&D plan. Do I focus on squeezing all the toothpaste up from the tube and risk being well under prepared for my A goal, or do I leave some paste in the tube and jump into the Marathon plan?

Keir many runners use the 12 week P&D plans as a stand-alone mara plan - so you could do another 6 weeks Hadd with 1 or 2 subLT runs per week before jumping...

Still benched here...

What marathon Keir? As Tek says I tihnk I'll be doing the P&D 12 week plan to enable me to get a better base. Hopefully it'll turn out to be the right decision.

Badf news Tek. Any improvement at all? 

Gaz - went for a 3m walk (to the pub) and my knee starting aching again - so I think I'm a fair way off running still...

Hi Guys,

2 hour run this morning an out and back along the canal to Dochgarroch, 11 miles on total the last two miles were a little quick, I was bursting for the loo

 also the heart rate reading from mile 9 dropped off the scale, this has never happened before

 anyone had a similar experience with their garmin HR monitor

VLM for the first time for me Gaz

12 weeks could be another option Teknik. I will have a look at it. Sorry to hear about the knee. Painful when walking isn't good. 

Stewart - HRMs sometimes can be 'funny' mwhen close to over or underground electricity sources. A friend has a problem with his Garmin HRM on windy days - it seems to 'blow off his chest' and disconnect itself.

Brian. wrote (see)

Keir, big decision for any of us that.
A few questions that hopefully will help you decide:
1 why did you start hadding ?
2 how long have you been hadding?
3 what do you want to achieve from hadding?
4 do you have a long term plan (5/10 years)?
5 do you want to eek out every second you can out of your next marathon?

Hope by answering these questions, your decision will be easier.

Thanks for that Brian. Excellent questions. My answers are:

1. Originally to build a base. When I got into it I also realised how good 70 / 75% runs feel and how much I can ramp up the mileage using this approach.

2. 5 weeks

3. Ah, The key question. I guess to achieve my potential over 10m - 26.2m

4. No. I will be a vet in 2 years, but not sure on a autumn target, let alone one for later on.

5. Not necessarily every second, but I would like to pb (sub 2.54), ideally sub 2.50. 

I guess this answers my immediate question. I think I will follow the mileage of the P&D 18 wk plan but drop the LT sessions to 80%. Then either step in to P&D at 12 wks (prepare for a similar neurotic question at the end of Jan!) or just HADD all the way up to VLM and focus on Abingdon instead. Thanks guys. 

Keir, I can't fault your approach, plan or reasoning. You're in the same boat as me, and I think I would use a very similar plan as this. Infact I think I cut the mara specific phase to 10 weeks last time, and this worked out fine. As you say, as long as you have a decent base with lots of slow miles and the odd sub lt run, the transition into P&D should be pretty painless.

Glad you're feelign better Keir ...

Sorry to hear you're still benched Teknic  ...

... and you Andy. Actually, your back-of-the-knee niggle is very familiar to me - it's something I get when I'm over-doing things. Good news is that it fades away with some rest.

Week 1 of winter base done - 38.5 miles (6 x 5M ish and 1x 8.3M). The good news is that I'm getting used to the work-commute doubles. I'd like to first build up to doing this 5 days per week ... then I'lll drop back to 4 days, with one lunchtime sub-LT ... and then to 3 days, with 2 x lunchtime sub-LTs. I'll hopefully do this over January - meanwhile I'll just have to run whenever I can  ...  this week & next will be a bit disrupted as two work-related o/n trips to Colchester and London (I'll bring my kit just in case, but it's never straight-forward). And then it's Xmas and NY - always hard to run when the routine is broken.

Good running, Dr. Dan

Andy: I hear ya re. the cost thing. But now you are a fulltime athlete it is something you may want to consider ... it's money well spent if it keeps you on the road ...

Keir: another one to advocate for the 12 week plan. I Hadded for 6 months and then got straight into it. Their tempo runs are a lot less daunting after a good few sub LT runs twice a week! It got me sub 3:30 this year. Something that I never deemed possible when I started running in 2008

Teknik wrote (see)

Still benched here...

Bugger Tek. Sorry to hear, mate.

Thanks Chick...I've binned the plans for Hamburg, as it's only 19 weeks away: I don't want the added pressure of rushing back before the knee's fixed.  Think I'll go for the rather less glamorous Halstead...

Makes sense, Tek. You want to start training in one piece and not broken. Halstead is a great little marathon. I did it one year when I still lived in Essex and really liked it. It's more like a club outing, very friendly. Make sure you train on undulating routes though - it's not flat.

Chick - very true!  I've blown up 3 times on that course - I'm going back to bury some ghosts