Pete Pfitzinger's training plans - Page 2 - Training

aye puffin

28/04/2010 at 11:50

Hi Chickadee, thanks for that, I've never managed a even paced marathon yet, that is my goal. Planning to start the schedule next week its really just a natural progression on what i'm doing at moment. Congrats on you PB!

birkmyre

28/04/2010 at 12:59

Looks like a Pfizinger debate has started again on RW !

kinaseboy

28/04/2010 at 14:34

I did P&D 55-70 for my one and only marathon last fall. I was aiming for sub 2:55 and ended up just under 2:52. So I guess it "worked" though I have no way of saying if I had done another plan whether I'd have achieved my goal as well. I liked the medium long run midweek and think that's pretty key. I'd also tend to agree about the VO2 max stuff being a bit much. There's one workout that calls for 5k-pace intervals that's 2 days after the longest long run (22 miles I think) and I ended up straining my calf which meant I couldn't run for about 5 worrisome days, so I'd be careful about that one.

Sean G

28/04/2010 at 19:53

I did the P&D 12 week, 70 mile per week schedule aiming for sub 3.15, ran a very comfortable 3.09 and could have gone even quickly. Gets a big thumbs up from me.

aye puffin

29/04/2010 at 16:22

All very encouraging going to give 18 week schedule a go starting Monday.

LS21

30/04/2010 at 10:44

Another one who 'broadly' followed the 18 week 55-70 mpw schedule. I say broadly followed, cos I always had Tuesday as a rest day (for family reasons) and P+D have a quality session in there. So I ended up jiggling it round a bit, but mostly did the sessions. It helped me to run a 15 minute PB - 3'12 to 2'57, so thumbs-up here too.

If I was doing it again I'd make sure I did all the Mara paced stuff they advocate. Too many of my Long Runs were time on feet jobs. Yes you need these to build an aerobic base, but I didn't step it up enough later in the programme where I should have. You need to get used to running at 7'20 pace (for 3'15 say), and to get into the 'hurt zone' a little bit on LSRs. Not EVERY LSR by any means, but certainly more frequently than I did. I also did a lot more 20 mile+ runs than they advocate - 10 were 20 miles or over actually. I personally think some of the LSRs are a bit light, so I did extra miles (but then I felt I had a weakness in my endurance, so I tried to address it).

That's why I say broadly followed - work out if you have any weaker areas and try and address those as part of a solid programme - but don't be afraid to tweak it a bit to suit you.

Good luck

aye puffin

30/04/2010 at 12:30

Thanks LS21,

was going to tweak it to suit especially what days of the week to suit each session as i too am tied by family committments but am lucky enough to be able to do my long runs during the week occasionally. Great to hear from people whoe have followed the scedule and improved .

chickadeee

30/04/2010 at 16:24

I second what LS 21 said. The schedules can definitely do with more 20+ mile runs. I amended mine slightly and ended up doing 1x20, 1x21, 3x22 and 1x24.

kease7

02/06/2010 at 21:08

can you buy this online or is just a boook?

andrews148

13/10/2012 at 15:16

I followed the 18 week 55-70mpw plan for my second marathon, run last Sunday. Knocked 20mins off last year's time and ran 3:01:32, having started the plan hoping for sub-3:10.
Pete Pfitzinger's plan worked for me and I'll be following it again.

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