In the Sep/Oct 2006 issue of Marathon & Beyond, I came across an interesting article by Guy Avery. The artical talks about how succesful marathoning begins with a releastic goal that will put us "in our zone". In the article, I read about this table where we can use to set a releastic marathon-zone target. Basically, it proposes the following:
Level 1 (35-45 miles/week) = double your most recent half-marathon and add 13-22 minutes
Level 2 (45-55 miles/week) = double your most recent half-marathon and add 9-18 minutes
Level 3 (55-65 miles/week) = double your most recent half-marathon and add 7-14 minutes
Level 4 (70-100 miles/week) = double your most recent half-marathon and add 5-11 minutes
The author advised that these are very just flexible guidelines with lots of gray areas, just like any truly balanced approach. The guideline ranges may overlap as they are still dependant on many individual differences between runners as well as factors other than training. Thus, determining a manageable training commitment and selecting a goal time are the first 2 keys to marathon success. And these steps are essential to finding our own individual personal marathon-training and racing zone. The author also advised that other guidelines, (like how challenging a marathon course is compared to the half marathon; weather differences; how much time we have to train for the full and half marathon etc) could be considered for fine-tuning a releastic marathon-zone goal time. I will attempt to digest the article before using it to forecast the finishing-times of my upcoming marathons.
Level 1 (35-45 miles/week) = double your most recent half-marathon and add 13-22 minutes
Level 2 (45-55 miles/week) = double your most recent half-marathon and add 9-18 minutes
Level 3 (55-65 miles/week) = double your most recent half-marathon and add 7-14 minutes
Level 4 (70-100 miles/week) = double your most recent half-marathon and add 5-11 minutes
The author advised that these are very just flexible guidelines with lots of gray areas, just like any truly balanced approach. The guideline ranges may overlap as they are still dependant on many individual differences between runners as well as factors other than training. Thus, determining a manageable training commitment and selecting a goal time are the first 2 keys to marathon success. And these steps are essential to finding our own individual personal marathon-training and racing zone. The author also advised that other guidelines, (like how challenging a marathon course is compared to the half marathon; weather differences; how much time we have to train for the full and half marathon etc) could be considered for fine-tuning a releastic marathon-zone goal time. I will attempt to digest the article before using it to forecast the finishing-times of my upcoming marathons.
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