Pete Pfitzinger's training plans

No, its out his book, I'm looking at the 55-70 miles per week one with a goal of a sub 3-15 marathon, my current PB is 3-23.

I have the Pfitzinger & Douglas book "Road Racing for Serious Runners" in my room, which I imagine has training plans that aren't totally different.

I'm not an expert on training for marathons, but the priority looks to be based around raising lactic threshold - which is a key determinant for marathon running. The midweek medium-length run seems to top out around 14/15 miles, which is pretty good. The speed workouts tend to focus around improving VO2 max with intervals at 5 & 10k pace. While some 10k pace would certainly be beneficial, VO2 max isn't a big priority at marathon level so those sessions probably aren't as necessary.

I would say it's a reasonable schedule. Good luck.

*waits for Moraghan to disprove all he's just said*

I have it in front of me.  They are pretty solid plans and if you are going to go "off the shelf" it's about as good as it gets.

Agree with The Duckinator - they have too much short rep vo2 max stuff. 

I also think they probably do with a couple more 20+ long runs and overall there is a real lack of creativity with regards to the long runs and quality sessions (e.g. variable pacing etc).  You could also argue (although this depends on experience) that there is enough room to do a bit more high end aerobic running during the week (e.g steady state sections in medium long runs).

Do yourself a favour though, whatever route you take don't decide on a time until you are well into your training.  To pick a time now is completely arse about face.

Thanks for the advice guys, I was basing my goal on my last half time 1 29.  One issue everyone gives me different advice on is what pace should long runs be, do you have any advice on that?

There's no one accepted pace to do run easily at (long runs should be roughly at easy pace too, mind). I'd personally say about 60-75 sec/mile slower than your current pace.

 Yes, current pace. Something to keep in mind is that you shouldn't be running your workouts at your aspirational pace, rather for now you should be running them at your CURRENT marathon pace. 

 Imagine it as climbing a set of stairs. Running the workouts at your current pace is like putting both feet on the step below the step you want to be on - your aspirational marathon time. You then have a better chance of climbing onto the step you want.

Running them at aspirational pace all the time is like taking steps 2, even 3 at a time - you have a greater chance to fall. Towards the end of training (the last 5 or 6 weeks) you can run them at your aspirational pace to get accustomed to running at that pace.

I hope that makes sense - I'm not to good with analogies. 

Neither do I sorry.

Try Google !

Elgin,

It's www.pfitzinger.com

Simples

Elgin

Was the Pfitzinger site helpful ?

As a general rule swap out races for workouts based on the target physiology of the workout.  So, a 5k race instead of the VO2 max repeats, a 10k / 10m race instead of a tempo.

Half marathons, in my opinion are best done instead of a slightly shorter long run.  E.g.  an 18 mile long run could be replaced by a 3m w-up || HM || 2m cool down.  Although obviously the race will be a lot more stressful.

Not that I would suggest doing this all the time.

Moraghan wrote (see)

As a general rule swap out races for workouts based on the target physiology of the workout.  So, a 5k race instead of the VO2 max repeats, a 10k / 10m race instead of a tempo.

Come to think of it, one of the advantages I found in training for an autumn rather than spring marathon is that there are more practical options for fitting shorter races into the schedule without buggering up the normal pattern.  During winter most road race options are on a Sunday, which generally means running a race instead of the long run, whereas in the summer there are mid-week options for 5k for example, where you can easily subsitute for a speed work out and get some race experience at the same time.

(I even surprised myself by managing a long run the day after setting a 10k pb, without my legs feeling like total shite.)