8 weeks marathon training

by Christine Goldsmith
(NSW, Australia)

It is advisable to add more training if you have 8 weeks until the half marathon/marathon ?

"I have 8 weeks until a 32km (20 mile)race - I last ran this distance 12 months ago.
On 14 February I commenced your training plan (for under 4hour marathon)- starting at week 7.

In the past, 7 weeks before such a race I would train 6 days a week and average 4 x 11km; 1 x 15km and 1 x 20km at this stage before the race before building up to 3 hour runs.

Is it advisable to add a couple of sessions each week - if so at what effort and distance should be considered?

Many thanks"

Answer: Hi Christine, thank you for the question.

The general answer to this goes like this :

I would keep the hard workouts in the schedule like it is. They are carefully planned to fit eachother and I would not add any distance or effort to any of them. The same goes for the easy runs - the longer ones.

However, if you'd like to do a bit more training I would add some easy Effort 1 sessions, about 45-60 minutes. That's it.

Point is to keep you fresh for those really hard ones - and this is an important (and often missed) point to running success. The effect of say running the easy runs a bit longer and harder is minimal compared to getting it all together through well planned hard sessions.

So, adding a few easy runs is ok (to make it 6-7 runs weekly). Other than that, stick to the plan and you'll see the results from it.

I wish you all the best with your 32 km race (and future marathons)!

regards,
Marius

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