Whats wrong with multi-marathonning?

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Feb 2013
7:03pm, 28 Feb 2013
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FenlandFunRunner
Off-topic, but I find walking in the hills I can easily generate a heart rate that would equate to a serious quick flat running time. So does hill walking create similar physical improvements to say intervals?
Feb 2013
7:50pm, 28 Feb 2013
520 posts
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Canute
FR, I do not think that walking up hills it is quite the same as intervals because there is not the same repeated pushing yourself into the anaerobic zone followed by partial recovery, which builds the ability to cope with acidity. However, walking in the hills does build both muscle strength and aerobic capacity. In addition, keeping going for many hours develops the ability to metabolise fats. You also strengthen ligaments which reduces risks of subsquent running injury. So I personally think it is a very useful form of base building. I do not believe the Hadd theory that elevating the HR transiently during a climb damages aerobic development. I think it actually adds to aerobic development in the same way that HIIT does. This is confirmed in studies of both animals and humans.
Mar 2013
7:35pm, 10 Mar 2013
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Too Much Water
DG, have you decided what you're going to do?

Push for a sub 3 over a period of time or keep up the multi marathons?
Mar 2013
8:09pm, 10 Mar 2013
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DeeGee
Short answer, TMW, is I don't know.

I want to try a couple of different things this year. The plan was to go one-a-monthing until June and then train in the conventional style Jul, Aug, Sep - 12 week "traditional" training plan (possibly P&D, maybe a variant, maybe something else) in the build up to Mablethorpe. However, there are further alternatives creeping in, including consistent 70+mpw over the summer.

Much depends on whether I acquit myself well in Brighton. I'm in pretty good form atm...
Mar 2013
9:30pm, 10 Mar 2013
28,524 posts
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Foxy
I'm with Mr A - I'm pleased with my PB for a normal bloke entering the sport quite late in life I gave it everything i had for a respectable time (more respectable than i could ever imagine) but i wouldn't sacrifice a time on a stopwatch for all the great fun i have had the places i've run & the friends i have made.

That said life life would be dull if we were all the same.
Mar 2013
10:36pm, 10 Mar 2013
13,874 posts
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DeeGee
That's the crux of the issue, Foxy. I love getting out, travelling round and taking part in different events. I couldn't get away with that for a 13.1 mile "sharpener" 6 weeks before a target race, which leaves me otherwise ploughing my lonely furrow in the Lincolnshire Wolds or beside the Humber Estuary.
Mar 2013
10:41pm, 10 Mar 2013
4,644 posts
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becca7
That one-a-monthing then focusing on one event is pretty much what I did last year before spring and autumn pbs. Much as I like going to plenty of races I did not want to risk the possibility that they would prevent me getting GFA and Boston times, since those times were more important to me.
Mar 2013
10:44pm, 10 Mar 2013
13,876 posts
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DeeGee
At the minute I'd settle for 3:10. It's only when people insist on telling me that I'm better than that that I have any doubts on how best to proceed.
Mar 2013
10:46pm, 10 Mar 2013
13,877 posts
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DeeGee
Of course, the other option is to see just how much better Tony Hooper is once he's completed the 10-in-10. If he's running sub-3 after the sort of weekend mileages he's doing atm then I've got ammunition in favour of my way of working...
Apr 2013
8:17am, 16 Apr 2013
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DeeGee
I now have fewer answers. My clubmate Tony has just gone sub 3 at Blackpool on huge mileage for 10 in 10. However, I've just struggled round Brighton a spent shell of a man in almost exactly the same time as I ran the last day of the Quadzilla. I don't think I can cope with any more phone calls from my wife the night before a marathon telling me how my son's not doing anything except sitting on the sofa cuddling because I'm not there!

I had Sunday night booked in Brighton, paid for and everything, but I binned it, bought a ticket back to Grimsby and went home early. Didn't get home before the boy was in bed, but we had a lovely day at a farm park afterwards.

I've never had any success travelling to marathons and staying the night before, so I'm going to concentrate on Nottingham or Mablethorpe in the future, at least for the next little while. I've bought a copy of P&D and I'm going to follow a more traditional approach. Not sure what I'm going to do yet about the other events that I've entered - Windermere, Kent Roadrunner, Herts Hobble, Frankfurt and the Newcastle Ultra, as well as next year's Quadzilla. Might yet bin some or all of them.

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Maintained by DeeGee
There are a few multi-marathonners around, with some good times, and also some conventional marathon...

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