Marathon training

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Mrsbridgewater Jul 2012 11:57am, 10 Jul 2012 324 posts	0 Mrsbridgewater So, I've taken the plunge, signed up for Abingdon, and despite a cr@ppy foot I have started my training. What I can't get my head round is the fact that in all the plans I've looked at the longest run is 22miles. There is no way I would have entered a half without running more than 13.2 miles - just to make sure I could do it. What is the reason behind not running a full mara distance in training?
runner duck Jul 2012 12:03pm, 10 Jul 2012 8,377 posts	0 runner duck the theory seems to be that going over 22miles takes too long to recover from hence ruining the rest of the week's training. i have done off-road marathons as part of training for a road marathon and not suffered too much from the consequences. although i walked all the hills of them. and, hand on heart, i'm not convinced they had a greater training effect than a continuous 22 mile run on road.
runner duck Jul 2012 12:04pm, 10 Jul 2012 8,378 posts	0 runner duck just read that back - dreadfully written - hope it makes sense!
DeeGee Jul 2012 12:12pm, 10 Jul 2012 12,295 posts	0 DeeGee If you run longer than marathon distance in training, especially if you haven't done it before, it will take you the best part of a week to recover. You really want to be able to pick up normal training on your normal day after your LSR. And personally for me, part of the magic of completing my first marathon was crossing the finish line on the day having run further than i had ever run before. A bit of the shine would have come off it if I'd done a 28-miler in training. Fifteen marathons in I still haven't run further than 26.7 miles.
becca7 Jul 2012 12:12pm, 10 Jul 2012 3,978 posts	0 becca7 You will run the 22 at a slower pace than you run the marathon at so the amount of time that you spend running that day will be similar to, or longer than, the marathon race time. Time on feet is as important as distance with the long runs.
sheri3004 Jul 2012 12:23pm, 10 Jul 2012 12,890 posts	0 sheri3004 If you can run 22 in training, then (barring mishap) you can run 26 in the race.
Fenland Runner Jul 2012 12:26pm, 10 Jul 2012 13,647 posts	0 Fenland Runner Forget about miles and concentrate on time on feet. Therefore the 22 miles should equate to the on the day 26.2 miles.
Fitz Jul 2012 12:34pm, 10 Jul 2012 175 posts	0 Fitz And in the week before the mara you'll do very low mileage (on taper), compared to a 22-mile LSR on the end of a "normal" training week which might add up to 30+ miles. So total weekly mileage during training can be significantly higher than mileage in the week of the mara. So you know you can handle "distance!"
Mrsbridgewater Jul 2012 2:58pm, 10 Jul 2012 325 posts	0 Mrsbridgewater Thanks all! I think I'd heard the time on feet thing from a friend of mine before and it makes sense. I just need to get my head around the 'running an unknown distance in front of people I know who may laugh at me if I fail!'
AdminLiz Jul 2012 3:07pm, 10 Jul 2012 1,014 posts	0 AdminLiz I like what DeeGee said, I loved the fact that when I finished my first marathon (only just done my second) it was the furthest I had run. My longest run was 20 miles and only did that in a "race" as I couldn't stand going that far on my own!