Queue up the Scooby Doo ending from Wayne's World!
My mistake was believing that every training run had to be at race pace. While that mentality helped me finish every race I signed up for, it also left me tired and pretty much done with running on the long runs. Training was the thing that I hated doing, but needed to do in order to have the fun of race day.
A similar thing happened with me. I used to need 2 or 3 days to recover from my long runs when I was only running 3 days a week. Once I started running 5 days a week at a slower pace, I started to feel back to normal on my rest day following the long run.
I used to think this thread was only for serious runners. Instead I found that it's a place where runners of all speeds, abilities, and goals share our own experiences, triumphs, disappointments, and such.
My
@DopeyBadger plans consistently had me running in the 20s per week for Dopey. I have finished both marathons just fine despite very hot conditions during both races unlike anything I had ever trained in or raced in before. The accumulated volume and consistency over time really adds up.
I shared the same concerns you have outlined here. Two factors helped me. First off, I knew from previous training experience that following a well laid out and properly designed plan works. I knew that the time spent training reaps the rewards in the end. Secondly, I tested the plan on a half marathon. I had been used to 14 mile long runs for a half marathon. The new plan had me with an 8 mile long run for the half marathon. Despite being an absolute mental wreck and very sore come race due to outside circumstances that contributed to an absolutely terrible start, I wound up crushing my PR by 3 minutes.
I was a mixture of this. I had many runners here share their own experiences with me that helped me begin to wrap my head around the concept. As I began to want to attempt the marathon, I also did not really want to devote 5-6 hours every Saturday with the long runs necessary under the plan I had been using. It was less difficult to put the miles in over the course of the week instead of in one day. At the same time I also came to recognize that even though I could ask the same question 50 different ways, I had to choose to trust the plan and see if it worked. It did. Spectacularly.
I'm one of those plans. I put in more miles than the Galloway plan, but spread them out over 5 days instead of backloading them into one really long run. Despite getting a nasty chest cold 10 days before the race, I was just fine come race day. During each Dopey race, I knew I was feeling stronger after coming off the cold and knew I was exactly where I needed to be when I felt infinitely stronger than usual during the last 3 miles of the half with the full the next day. I will not pretend that the training plan is easy. It was not. I had to give up some things to get the miles in. I had to find new ways to persuade myself to go out for the run when I wanted to do thousands of other things more. But it all paid off.
That to me is biggest benefit of a more weekday volume and shorter long run plan. It's much easier to run 4-6 miles during Monday through Friday and then have a 2.5 to 3 hour run on Saturday than to have to carve out 5-6 hours on Saturday alone.
You may want to get fitted at a local running store. Mine helped me identify what exactly I needed. What works for one runner may not work at all for another. Personal experience works best and as others have shared, you get that through training.
