Dawn's PBs are tumbling fast. She's run a 3:26 marathon in the last year. Can she hit sub-3:15 in October? Former London Marathon winner Mike Gratton has the tips...
Age: 40
Live forum coaching: See how Mike Gratton coaches Dawn here
Background:
Dawn has been running since 1997 and races approximately 25 times a year. She runs all distances except track, and runs mostly road races but actually prefers cross-country. She also competes at sprint triathlon.
PBs:
(All achieved in the last year)
5K: 20:40
10K: 42:06
10 miles: 1:10
Half-marathon: 1:34
20 miles: 2:26
Marathon 3:26.
Target:
To run 3:15 at Cardiff Marathon on October 3
Sample Training:
Mon: 6 miles easy and/or - hour circuit session. Rest if tired
Tue: am: 3 miles easy; pm: 7-mile road run with club
Wed: 10 miles steady
Thu: 60 mins turbo trainer.
Fri: 60 mins on turbo trainer followed by 4 miles fartlek on treadmill
Sat: 5 miles easy, 1 mile swim.
Sun: 17 miles long slow distance
Mike thinks:
To run her target marathon time, Dawn needs to develop more speed endurance. This can be done by dropping one of the turbo sessions and doing an interval session such as 16 x 400m with 100m jog recoveries.
We'll introduce some longer reps at marathon speed – maybe six alternate miles at 10K pace and marathon pace after a mile warm-up jog, plus a mile jog to finish.
If time allows, we'll introduce five-mile recovery runs on three days each week and lengthen the long run to 20 miles.
Back to Hard Training mainpage | See Dawn's coaching thread
