making a schedule?

L

laura35

Cathlete
I am going to be doing a 1/2marathon in april and may. I am trying to workout a schedule to follow. I will be doing my bootcamp class 1xweek on tuesdays, and will be taking a spin class as well(dont know which day of the week yet) hal higdon suggests one day of speed work also. so I am trying to figure out where in the week to put the speed work along with the crosstraining days and running. I did my speed work this week on friday and ran my longer run today and my legs felt fatigued the whole way. so obviously it wasnt smart doing speedwork the day before my longer run. I just dont know which would be the smarter way of setting up a schedule to fit it all in so my body will feel good on my longer runs. I plan on doing the longer runs on saturday and like i said bootcamp on tuesday,so those two days are set but any advice on where to put the speedwork in as well as the other runs to benefit me the best. I really want to feel good and do good this time around for my 1/2marathon. I wasnt going to do a 1/2marathon in april only in may, but hal recommends a 12-13mile run about a month before the may marathon anyway so I thought might as well do that race then since I need to run that amount anyway,but the april one will be for training purposes only . any suggestions would be appreciated. thanks!!!:)
 
Hi Laura,

I'm in no way an experienced runner like Carole and others on this forum but I'm in training for a 1/2 marathon so I'll try.

I don't do any (hard) leg work on the day before my long run. I do a tempo run once a week and a playful fartlek. And a shorter easy run.

I prefer to do my leg w/o's after my runs except for my long run, now that it is really getting longer.

In general, my schedule looks like this:
Mon - AM: total body w/o endurance
PM: as of this Monday I'll take a spinning class
Tue - short easy run + LB endurance
Wed - fartlek run + LB endurance
Thu - UB endurance + 30min Imax (2 or 3)
Fri - temporun (usually 6-7K) + LB endurance
Sat - UB strength + poweryoga
Sun - long run + yoga (at least 20min)

I don' plan any restdays as they happen by themselves (life gets in the way sometimes).
 
when you say lower body endurance what exactly do you mean by that? its hard trying to figure out how to arrange my schedule to workout the best for my running.I felt so fatigued yesterday,however I didnt eat much either. a piece of toast and 1/2banana and that was at 8:00, I didnt run until noon and felt hungry but was afraid eating right before hand would make my stomach upset. I guess I will have to play with my days a little to see what works. thanks for your suggestions.
 
LB endurance for me is a w/o like L&G or MM-legs, PP-legs.

To be honest, I couldn't run on toast and a banana by itself.

I always have a good breakfast: usually oatmeal, something with complex carbs to sustain me for a few hours. I usually run within 90min-2hrs after breakfast. And I have a smoothie before going out on a run: soymilk, banana, proteine powder and ground lineseed. I can have it about 15min before my run. But it takes a bit of experimenting to find out what agrees with your stomach.

On any run over 15K, I bring a 1/2 banana with me.

After, I usually have a huge lunch. I need food, I like food :)
 
Hi Laura...don't let Dutchie fool you, she knows her stuff and gives good advice...:)

How many days are you running per week? Definitely do NOT do speedwork the day before a long run! Try speedwork wednesday or thursday and either a rest day or light workout the day before the long run. I used to not eat much before a run, but when I started running longer distances...I would eat oatmeal or like now I have toast with peanut butter...it has never bothered my stomach...:)...Carole
 
I am trying to incorporate 3-4days of running per week. I thought maybe me not eating since 8a.m. might have been my problem also yesterday. I usually feel better when I run. I also have done speedwork the day before and felt better than I did yesterday but my friend also included 3hills which I am not use to doing. My regular run has a little incline but not much so any hills added definately helps tire me out sooner.

Carole, how would you schedule the workouts? I am doing bootcamp on tuesdays and long run on saturdays. i need to fit spin class in once a week and my other runs also. After bootcamp I usually will run another 2miles at a comfortable pace just to get more running in. I thought after spin class I could do the same,low miles maybe just 2 just to get extra run time in. I want to do 1 day of speedwork or hills. I figured I might alternate every other week with those. So I have mon,wed,thurs,fri, and sunday open to somehow arrange the rest of my workouts. I thought maybe monday run, tues bootcamp, wed speedwork, thurs spin class, fri off, sat long run and sunday easy run. what do you think?? any adjustments would be great if recommended. thanks ladies for the advice, I am knew to settting up my own workout schedule for something like a 1/2 marathon.What do you guys think of gels for the longer runs?
 
I don't think you need gels for a 1/2 marathon if you're properly fueled before running. I never used them (longest run was approx. 21K) and never felt I needed it. But that's just my opinion. And like I said before, I eat a good breakfast before a long run and bring half a banana along.

Carole is a marathon runner, she'll probably know better how it works with those gels.
 
Hills can definitely tire you out if you did speedwork the day before. Try eating about an hour before a long run, that gives your food time to settle. I think what you have planned out will work, try it for a week and see how you feel. I'd say speedwork on monday or wednesday. I also think a stretch or yoga workout might be benificial on sunday. I don't know how long your long runs are, but you really wouldn't need gel until about 10 miles into a long run if you had breakfast. You do need to experiment with gels if you want to use them in your long distances. How many miles are you getting per week and when is the half marathon?...:)..Carole
 
I am doing the 1/2marathon one in april and one in may. i have never done this before .I usually only do one half marathon a year but a friend of mine said hey wont you do the 1/2 in april four weeks before the one you have scheduled in may. First my thoughts were, I dont know if I could do that but then I looked at my training schedule and it actually calls for a 12-13miles run around the same time as the april 1/2 so I thought might as well. I was only planning on using the gels for the actual 1/2. I have used power gel and gu before. dont know if I really felt a difference with the gu but the power gel seemed to help(or so I thought). I am over distancing myself this time around where as before I only went up to 11miles and felt like crap come race day. I am hoping this approach will make a difference. I also cut back on bootcamp to 1x week and substitute it with spin instead. That bootcamp class really works your legs, somedays I am sore for days after the class. plus I am trying to get extra time in for running this time around. Last time I only ran 3 days and didnt feel like that was enough so even if I run an extra 2 miles after bootcamp and spin class I figure that is extra mileage that I hopefully will benefit from.
Carole- do you recommend speedwork for getting ready for a marathon? I just wondered if it was necessary . I want to better my time this year and figured that was the only way to do that. Hills also you should incorporate too right? which is best? I am hoping for a 2hour time this year, I am not that fast but this is what I am hoping for, my last one I finished in 2 hr 11min. I dont know if a person can cut a minute off per mile in a year for a half or not. any tips or suggestions I would surely appreciate. I am fairly new to all this training for races. I have been running almost 2 years but have always followed runners world programs which I find hasnt prepared me the way I want. Is one day of leg work with weights enough? I might incorporate yoga or pilates, I was just thiking that today. sorry for being so long winded here but I am excited to do this right this time!!!!
 
Speedwork is only necessary if you want to improve you time. You can do speedwork on hills which is referred to as hill repeats. There are a few different versions of speedwork, I do intervals and tempo runs. I follow alot of advice from www.runners.world.com you can look for speedwork suggestions there too. It is a great site besides a great magazine! One day of legwork is a great way to start, but strengthening your legs will help with running. When I ran my best I worked my legs 3 days a week. But, that might not be true for everyone. A general rule of thumb I followed when I did half marathons (I do more marathons and 50K's these days) was to get in weekly double the distance of the race. So for a half marathon I would try to run about 26 miles per week...:)..Carole
 
what interval runs did you do? I thought about one week doing sprints ,like 400's or 800's and then the next week do hill repeats which basically run up the hill then walk down, run up etc.... right? do you think alternating them would work for increasing time? I only ran 15miles this week, so I have alot more to do. thanks carole!!
 
When I do intervals I don't use a track. I just use my regular running course. I run to warm up about 12 minutes, then I push hard for 90 seconds, then jog for 3 minutes and repeat that 4 or 5 times depending on the distance I am doing. Alternating intervals and hill repeats would be good I believe, and yes most likely would increase your time. Happy to help Laura...:)...Carole
 
Oh, I forgot to ask, what about running up and down stairs,would that be the same as hill training? sorry, this was my last question along with the ones on the above post!!!! Thanks again!!!!;-) :) :)
 
You know it could be...:)...I know women that do that like in a stadium and it is great for leg strength...:)...Carole
 
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