I am preparing for my first full marathon. I did three halfs last year and decided I'm not getting any younger. Using MfM plan and today was the 20 miler. I finished, but the last few miles were tough. My pace averaged 12:22. I'd be really happy to see that for the race.
I haven't missed a training run. The wisdom is that the extra six are there. Are they?
Tell me about the extra six miles in your first marathon.
Ronda
My first of 20 was not very pleasant either, but it was the teens that were brutal from on on course injury.
Unlike the pp, it is truly a mental thing. Yes, there is a physical component to it that was set up be proper nutrition and hydration in the first 20. If you failed on the nutrition and are coming into mile 20 with little glycogen reserve, then the last 6 are going to suck regardless of your training.
What I find is that my runners tend to be running a little low on glycogen, not enough for a wall but enough for the brain to really push back hard. Since its sole food supply is glycogen it will try to convince you to slow down regardless of how well you feel.
Weekend long runs are important, but hard weekday work is even more important. Speed and hill work will increase speed, but they increase strength even more. The further you can run below a muscle threshold, the more fat it burns and the less sugar it burns. This leaves your blood glycogen at a higher level, longer.
I would challenge you to run hills once a week and speed intervals once a week. The effort on these runs should be near threshold or just above on intervals, or a point where you cannot say but a word or two per breath. Keep to you training plan and you will feel much better.
I would also suggest that for those who cramped in the 2011 event that you may have been overdressed for the first half. Runners should feel a chill while waiting for the start. In corral C there were several running in long sleeves and pants as far as 9 miles into the race. While they were a little more comfortable they were also pushing out more liquids and salts as a result.
My answer may be contrary to what you were thinking but my experience shows that we tend ot not push first time marathoners too hard during the weekday runs. Its something that I think I am going to work on as a coach. The traditional thought is to get to the line healthy. I think that hill work and long runs will produce a more healthy runner.
Note that if my runner were not running very long coming into my groups, I would still possibly not push the weekday stuff too hard.... but I would also suggest the Galloway schedule up to 23 miles for the longer runs. I do think that once you have 1-3 marathons under your belt runs longer than 16-20 tend to bring in more injury opportunities than enhancing training.
