VANCOUVER BMO MARATHON TRAINING PLAN

My Vancouver Marathon training plan. Similar to Portland and I will be flexible with the weekday workouts.

After I realized how close the Vancouver BC Marathon actually was and posted about it, I immediately had to create a training plan. What I came up with is pretty similar to my Portland Marathon training plan. Weekly mileage tops out at 38 and averages 33. I'll get three 20 mile runs in, the same as with Portland (and the first two will be with the Coach Jim group, so I'll have company).

Many training plans out there will have you running more miles with weekly totals in the 50s. I believe those are good plans if you are an experienced marathoner or you have the ability to recover very quickly from high mileage. I am neither at the current moment. I believe this plan is the best for my body at this point in time.

I think back to training with the Portland Marathon Clinic. One guy we trained with was doing his first marathon and was really going all out doing 50 and 60 mile weeks. When I told him my schedule he seemed surprised. He was the athletic type and made those runs look easy. Come race day he completely explodes at mile 18 and I finish well ahead of him. It's all about getting to race day healthy and rested with the ability to run 26.2 miles at a good clip.

This plan will be super flexible. I've put down the mileage and workout type for each day but those will change for sure. Basically the goal is to get 17-18 miles in during the week with a mix of easy, tempo, race pace, and interval/fartlek runs. Feel crappy on Monday? Fine, do five easy miles and rest up for Wednesday and Thursday. Feel good Monday? Great, attack a 7 mile tempo run and get that out of the way.

I was able to incorporate all my races and slot the twenty mile runs into weekends that work well. Not terribly excited about trying to PR at Shamrock bookended by two 20 mile runs, but I'd rather do those two Coach Jim runs with people than save up for a 15k race. Big picture here people. Another focus will be the "Cross Training" on Sunday. These can even be later in the day Saturday after my long run. Just some other activity to stretch my legs and help them recover more quickly.

I officially start next Monday. Wohoo?