Galloway Dopey program starts tomorrow!

[dburg30]

How many are going to follow the galloway program? I have it on my calendar, but wont be following it til after my first marathon in October. I've been following his program for marathon and am up to 13 miles now. After the marathon I am just going to pick up the dopey program and follow it for the rest of the way. Anyone else doing anything like this?

 

[RnbwSktles]

How many are going to follow the galloway program? I have it on my calendar, but wont be following it til after my first marathon in October. I've been following his program for marathon and am up to 13 miles now. After the marathon I am just going to pick up the dopey program and follow it for the rest of the way. Anyone else doing anything like this?

Sorry, I am not running the Dopey so I can't comment on the rest of your training program, but I am curious how your marathon training is going. Assuming this is your first marathon, have you been following galloway's marathon program exactly? How do you feel it's working for you? I ask because I posted a question about his program and received some criticism on his methods. I am a little concerned now I won't be marathon ready if I only follow his plan. I am looking for a little reassurance!

 

[dburg30]

Sorry, I am not running the Dopey so I can't comment on the rest of your training program, but I am curious how your marathon training is going. Assuming this is your first marathon, have you been following galloway's marathon program exactly? How do you feel it's working for you? I ask because I posted a question about his program and received some criticism on his methods. I am a little concerned now I won't be marathon ready if I only follow his plan. I am looking for a little reassurance!

At this point it is going very good in my mind. I am aiming to finish, with a smile on my face. Not worried about times.. well.. you know. Right now it appears if I keep it up it will be around a 5:45 marathon. Maybe a bit faster, but again, not worried about it. One thing, the weekday 30-45 minute runs, make SURE you do them religiously! There were a few weeks in there that real life happened and I slacked, when my 11 mile run came, it sucked. the last 2 weeks then i was sure to get out and do my time. Then sundays 13 mile run was pretty uneventful.. I did 13.1 in 2:49. It is my first marathon, but if the program keeps going like it has been, I think I will be fine. I keep looking at the long runs as "it's nothing more then the last one... plus 2 miles" I think some folks would like to see more miles during the week, then not as long of long runs.. THere are programs out there for that. The run walk IMO, works great! After a 13 mile run, with a nice cooldown and stretch after, I was stiff a bit, but NOTHING like I was afraid. So at this EXACT moment in time, I am a believer. After I get this one under my belt, then complete dopey, perhaps I'll continue and look at other stuff and work on getting 'faster'. But I'm in this to have fun, not worry if I'm going to PR or not..

 

[ZellyB]

Sorry, I am not running the Dopey so I can't comment on the rest of your training program, but I am curious how your marathon training is going. Assuming this is your first marathon, have you been following galloway's marathon program exactly? How do you feel it's working for you? I ask because I posted a question about his program and received some criticism on his methods. I am a little concerned now I won't be marathon ready if I only follow his plan. I am looking for a little reassurance!

I ran both a half and a full marathon using Galloway training. There are numerous programs out there about training for endurance races and not all programs work for all people. I'm not sure what the criticisms about the Galloway method were specifically, but it has worked successfully for me. I'm using his program again in prep for another half in the fall and the Disney full again in January. I agree with dburg30 that you just have to stick with the program and be sure you are getting all your runs in. Galloway doesn't call for as many miles and time during midweek runs as some other programs and puts more emphasis on the weekend long run. But, those midweek runs are important. If you follow the program, there's no reason you shouldn't be prepared for a marathon. Thousands of people have trained and completed marathons using Galloway's program. No reason you shouldn't be successful as well.

 

[dburg30]

And also things like eat right, hydrate, get your sleep, you know, general healthy things also helps a lot.

 

[J3nn78]

I used Galloway to train for my first full. I followed exactly, except my longest preface run was 22 miles. I wanted to save the full distance for race day. It worked very well for me.
I am following the Dopey plan, but again, I don't see a need in doing more than 22 miles prerace so that will be my max distance. I will also likely not just walk on the walk days...light jogging those days.

 

[RnbwSktles]

Wow, thanks for all of the reassurances!

The criticisms I received on the Galloway plan were mostly that A) The midweek runs are not long enough and B)The long runs get to be TOO long towards the end and that the "recovery" long runs are too short. By recovery, I mean the 6-7 mile runs in between the 20 milers. I have actually decided to peak at 20 miles. Maybe I'll go 1 or 2 more, but I will not do the full 26.

Thanks for emphasizing how important the 30-45 minute runs are. They seem so insignificant in the big picture that it would be easy to justify missing one here and there. I plan to join a gym in the near future so that I can't use weather as an excuse.

Good luck with everyone racing in the near future and during the 2014 marathon weekend!

 

[JoeKir]

We're planning on following Galloway exact as this is our first race ever and don't want to over think it, switch plans, or psych ourselves out.

We're also really focusing on strength training throughout the week. Hoping that the combination of strength, cardio, and Galloway runs we'll be in top shape come January!

Btw interesting point on only doing 22 miles during training. DW really wants disney to be the first time she hits the 26.2 mark so she'll be pleased to hear this worked for you!

 

[dburg30]

Yea, I am really rethinking the whole full distance thing now. Like I said, if it keeps going like it is, I may top out 22 or 24 or something like that so a race can be my first 26.2 miles. If I have some issues or I just think I need the mental hurdle already crossed, I may consider the full distance before.

 

[TigerTown]

Yea, I am really rethinking the whole full distance thing now. Like I said, if it keeps going like it is, I may top out 22 or 24 or something like that so a race can be my first 26.2 miles. If I have some issues or I just think I need the mental hurdle already crossed, I may consider the full distance before.

I've been thinking about this and although my current training plan has me maxing out at 26, I might just drop it to 25. I really want that Marathon run to be my first actual 26.2 run as well. It’s a fine line because if I don’t do the full 26.2 during training then I might be a bit nervous about doing it on race day. On the other hand, is an extra mile really going to make that much of a difference? I will probably wait until later in my training to make a final decision.