Question for you trainers out there. I have used Jenny Hadfield's plans with good success in the past. I was entering the plan into my calendar. I have a couple of questions and not sure what to do. I am running NYC marathon on November 3rd, then Dopey in January. I am also running a local half three weeks before NYC. It seems most plans have the last long training run (20 to 21 miles) three weeks before the marathon. Should I move that long run a week back (so 4 weeks before marathon) or forward (so it is 2 weeks before marathon)?
Second question, any good plans to maintain between NYC in early November and Dopey in January (9 weekends between the two)?
The first thing I'd ask is how you want to approach each of the three events: Local HM, NYC Marathon, and Dopey. Do you plan to treat them all as "A" level events? Where you're giving everything you've got? Or are they "B" level events or something else entirely? That helps dictate the approach.
Second, if I told you that you'd be 5 minutes faster on the NYC marathon if you took the local HM easy, would you do it? What about 10 min faster? What about 30 min faster? I ask because a HM "A" race that's only 3 weeks out from the M might have an influence on the performance of it. So if you'd be willing to do it as a "B" race, or possibly a training run, then it would certainly lessen the impact of it on the NYC marathon.
If you could be convinced to do the local HM that's 3 weeks prior to the NYC M as a training run, then the next question would be whether you could conceivably add mileage to the day to make that day the de facto long run day? The longest run in your plan sounds like 20-21 miles. So maybe 7 miles prior to the start of the local HM and then 13.1 miles at long run pace to finish out the 20. Keep the time between them at 5-10 min and you'd be golden. Just want to avoid tightening up too much. If you're like me, and struggle to do races at anything other than race pace, then having these extra miles in advance of the race could help squash the adrenaline. And if you're plan ever calls for Marathon Tempo workouts, then you could do some maneuvering of this HM training run into a M Tempo workout instead. Maybe like 5 mile WU before race starts + first 7 miles at long run pace + 6.11 miles at M Tempo as a fast finish.
If you'd rather the HM stay an "A" race at 3 weeks out from the M, then I'd probably err on the side of having the peak workout earlier in the plan than later. Possibly at 5 weeks out instead of 3 weeks out. This gives you ample time to recover from the peak workout (LR at 20-21 miles), then HM "A" race (which needs an additional 7 days of easy/recovery), and then "M" 3 weeks later. You could conceivably do the peak at 4 weeks or 2 weeks, but in both cases it means that you'll be doing either the HM after little recovery from the max training run, or be doing a max training run after a HM only 7 days prior. And then the M itself two weeks later means you run the risk of not shedding the fatigue in time for the race. A consideration there on the 14 day taper is whether you've done one as short as that for a M, and tolerated it with a good performance afterwards.
Following the NYC M, I'd seriously consider some rest if it is an "A" HM and "A" NYC M (if that's the way it plays out). Because trying to carry the peak for another 9 weeks after that for a potential "A" Dopey could be risky. So, if it were me, I'd probably take a single week completely off to allow some recovery from the NYC M. Then the week of 11/11/19 would be completely easy (no pace of any type) with duration capped at 45 min a day. Then, week of 11/18 would be the start of a reverse taper from the NYC M plan. So whatever the last week of the Hadfield training stated (minus the M) would be the week of 11/18, then the week prior on Hadfield would be 11/25. This should get you back to somewhere around 50-60% peak mileage. That leaves us like the following:
11/4 - Week OFF
11/11 - Only easy capped at 45 min per normal running days
11/18 - Reverse taper from last week of Hadfield
11/25 - Reverse taper from second to last week of Hadfield (approximately 50-60% peak)
12/2 - 70-75% of peak from Hadfield
12/9 - Recovery Week of only easy running (approximately 50-60% peak)
12/16 - Peak Week (80-85% of peak from Hadfield)
12/23 - Taper Week
12/30 - Taper Week
1/6 - Dopey Week
I'd probably only do paced runs during the weeks of 11/25, 12/2, 12/16, and 12/23. Otherwise everything kept super easy.
As a rule of thumb I use with my runners, for every 3k of racing, you need 1 day of rest/recovery. So a HM needs 7 days. A M needs 14 days. Then it takes equal time to rebuild from that recovery phase. So a HM race's impact is 14 days, and a M race's impact is 28 days when either are done as an "A" race. For me, when I monitor the relationship between my HR and Pace (a secondary assessment of my current fitness), it usually takes 42 days for my fitness profile to return to normal after a M.
Hope that helps!
oh well, I’ll be back in June 2020 for a family vacation.
You got this!
