P&D - 70-85mpw - 18 week plan support thread

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Dec 2010
9:24am, 13 Dec 2010
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MattTheRat
Today is the start of my 18 week training campaign for London, for which I shall be following the P&D 18 week, 70-85mpw plan. I've previously used the 18 week 55mpw plan for London 08, the 24 week, 55mpw for Abingdon 08, the 18 week 55-70mpw plan for London 09 and the 18 week more than 70mpw plan for London 10. All of these were from the 1st edition of the book, this time, I have upgraded to the 2nd edition. I've had some success with these plans, and I thought it would be fun and possible interesting and even helpful for others to report on it via a thread. There may well be others following this plan (or one of the shorter distance ones)

My goal is a PB at London. Ideally in 2:44:59 or faster. I've run about 2500 miles a year (50mpw) for the last 3 years, and gradually ramped up my training. I have just finished an 8 week base phase since my aborted Abingdon marathon of 50mpw, including an 18 miler yesterday.

This week is week 1 (or week 17 in their nomenclature). The mesocyle is endurance, for the next 6 weeks. The plan involves running pretty much every day, and this phase builds the miles from 65 this week to 78 in 5 weeks time, before a recovery week. Each week is a Long run, a midweek long run, and either a tempo run or a longish run including 10x100m strides.

This week the plan is:

M: 5 miles recovery
T: 9 miles inc 4 @ HMP
W: 12 mile MLR
T: 6 mile recovery
F: 10 miles easy
S: 6 miles recovery
S: 17 miles long run

My plan is to do all of these, except that I have a cross country race (Met League) on Saturday, so I might shorten the Friday run to 7-8 miles.
Dec 2010
9:38am, 13 Dec 2010
12,636 posts
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Merry Christmas & a HappyNewG(rrr)
\o/

That's me supporting you Matt! ;-) Seriously, good luck - I managed the 55 mile schedule last year and went up to 75 miles some weeks and it went well for me. Good luck all the P&Ders! :-)G
Dec 2010
9:52am, 13 Dec 2010
4,553 posts
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Son of a Pronator Man
Hi Matt, I'm on that schedule too but at a slightly slower pace. I'll be happy to get 3:05 at London.
It's going to be tough getting the tempo runs done on icy pavements and also fitting in a high level of training around christmas partying.
But here goes....
Dec 2010
11:56am, 13 Dec 2010
677 posts
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MattTheRat
I normally find the Christmas period good for training. I take the whole time off from Christmas Eve to after the New Year, plus work starts to wind down from the 21st or so. I will probably exceed my mileage plans in that period if anything.
Dec 2010
2:14pm, 13 Dec 2010
1,988 posts
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abdou
Hi Matt, I'm trying the up to 55 P&D for London, so I'll be following your thread closely if sadly not your footsteps. Good luck.
Dec 2010
5:30pm, 13 Dec 2010
678 posts
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Tiger
I'm planning the up to 70 P&D for Brighton, although first week has been well disrupted with a cold (typical the moment the ice clears ...)

I've got the first edition of the book, although I've noticed when I downloaded the plan on Fetch it's been tweaked, I guess this must be from the second edition. Matt, do you think there's much difference between the editions if you've seen both? Is it worth me asking Santa for the update for Christmas?
Dec 2010
6:21pm, 13 Dec 2010
678 posts
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MattTheRat
There's not a lot of difference. The 24 week plans have been dropped from the 2nd edition, but there is now an extra mileage band. And the plans have been tidied up a little. In the 1st edition there were some oddities, in the timing of sessions week to week. Now they are much more regular. And the recovery weeks are fewer than before, normally just at the end of each meso-cycle.
Dec 2010
10:27pm, 13 Dec 2010
679 posts
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MattTheRat
Finally managed to get my run done at 7:45pm. No time at work for a lunchtime run so I has to go out when I got home. Felt OK, trying to keep the heart rate down.

5.2 miles @ 7:43mm @ 134bpm (70% MHR)
Dec 2010
10:28am, 14 Dec 2010
680 posts
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MattTheRat
9 miles inc 4 @ HMP today. Not sure when I'm going to fit it in. I have meetings:

10:30-11:30
12:30-1:30
2:00-3:00
4:00-5:00

Might have to be a run in the dark this evening again!
Dec 2010
10:36am, 14 Dec 2010
5,693 posts
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Keefy Yuletide Wreathy
Matt - do you (and did you) stick the amount of long runs in their plans? If I'm right, only 3 in the 55 plan? And quite well spaced out in the 5 weeks leading to the taper if I remember....

About This Thread

Maintained by MattTheRat
This thread was initially about the 70-85mpw 18 week training plan from Pfitzinger & Douglas's excellent book Advanced marathoning. It's since widened out to include all the plans from P&D for any marathon. Maybe one day we'll get the thread title changed.

Current and planned P&D plan followers include:

MtR 55-70mpw London
Mrs Jigs 55-70mpw London
TripletDad up to 55mpw Edinburgh
Alexv 70-85mpw London
Crave 70-85mpw Vienna
thechunkygentleman 55-70mpw Edinburgh

Related Threads

  • marathon
  • methodology
  • plans
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