Anyone ever used Pfitzinger's Advanced Marathoning Book?

I used it as a guideline. I didn't follow it for every workout but took in its general ideas. I suck but it got me the best results I have had.

I like it. Used it as a guideline to my first marathon and ran 2:34. I followed about 80% of it. I am using it again for my next marathon.

It is probably the best book on Marathoning around. Just make sure that you actually read all of it, including Chapter 2, so you understand why you are doing what you are doing. It is a solid framework for training.

I followed it fairly religiously - did probably 90 to 95% of the workouts called for in the program I followed. Led to an 8 minute marathon PR, but in all honesty I was a better runner when training for that marathon than when training for ones a year or two previously.

The program made me believe in the importance of a secondary midweek long run of up to 15 miles, marathon paced work, and tempo runs. All good marathoning staples.

This book is excellent. Pfitzy knows his sh*t. Read chapter 2 of the book, and then read it again. The only caveat is not to be a slave to the schedules.

Thanks for the replies...To those who said they used most but not all of his workouts, were they just modified versions of the ones he recommends, or were they something entirely different?

I'm a disciple of The Book. I use it each year, with success that is surprising to me. It's like having a coach. Just about every question that might come up is answered therein.

Definitely read the chapters, but get it right away & begin to do the workouts.

Part of the program is also recognizing that nearly nobody ever is able to do every single workout, so yeah, you gotta niggling thing for a couple days here, a trip out of town there, life happens over 18 weeks ! The book is almost a lifestyle.

Those programs are all laid out for you, from the most basic "finish the race" level @ 50 mpw right thru much greater mileage. Go much beyond this book's scope, and you would probably be wise to actually hire a real coach.

The book is awesome. Get it.

Also, yeah, the mid-week "pretty long run" can be daunting. Sure you can run 15 miles on Wednesday, you just 20 miles on Sunday. (that stuff brings the freaks right out of my head - can I really finish this run ? The entire program pushes me right to my limits. I love that.) Sorry about that - was I thinking out loud again ? I gotta get out the door to do my Pfitz run.

I'm not ready for Pfitzinger. But I've heard great things about the book.

I think his books are excellent. I like Road Racing for Serious Runners a little better than the one for marathoning. He really doesn't go into the depth that Daniels goes into, not as verbose as others, but covers what needs to be covered in a straight forward fashion. Easy read at a perfect level, gave it to my daughter to read. She's a high school runner and I think it will benefit her to know why she is doing what she is doing.

Interestingly

Pfitz. has you doing a max vo2 w/oright up to your tapper or cycles it in every other week

Canova in his marathon book has the last 6-8wks as marathon specific training where the w/o's are geared more to race pace. (it's the idea of training the body to use fat more effeciently as opposed to sugar)

I recommend it. The mid week runs are tough, as are the longer marathon paced runs. But you will strong come race day.

sisu wrote:

Interestingly

Pfitz. has you doing a max vo2 w/oright up to your tapper or cycles it in every other week

Canova in his marathon book has the last 6-8wks as marathon specific training where the w/o's are geared more to race pace. (it's the idea of training the body to use fat more effeciently as opposed to sugar)

This part of the plan wrecked me. It has some killer stretches towards the end. I remember one that went:

tempo-recovery-long run-recovery-VO2 max-medium-long run.

Other weeks went:

race-long run-recovery-VO2 max-medium-long run

I got overtrained--not enough recovery for me. I'm a 40-y/o male who was training for his first marathon. Counting long and meduim-long rins as hard days, sometimes you'd have 4 hard days in a week.

Like some others said above, don't be a slave to the schedule. I was, and I paid for it.

I have followed the Pfitz 18/70 plan this spring in preparing for Grandma's in Duluth. It will be my first race effort marathon and I've never trained over 60 mpw before. The program is deceiving is that it's 70 miles over 6 days so the volume is in my opinion more like running 80 miles a week.

That said I have not missed a single day or workout. I have even hit all paces in workouts except for a little trouble at the end of the second M pace workout because of stupidity (too fast)early on.

I did have to swap a few weeks because of race schedules, and that put the two toughest weeks back to back which about killed me. I do feel better now that we are tapering and with a little luck will break 2:40 on June 17th.

The program is tough. It looks tough on paper and is even tougher than it looks in the 14-16 week range...ouch.

First time marathoner wrote:

Thanks for the replies...To those who said they used most but not all of his workouts, were they just modified versions of the ones he recommends, or were they something entirely different?

The biggest change that I made was doing mile intervals instead ok 1K. This was partially because I like doing my workouts away from the track, and have several routes around with every 1/2 mile marked. They also work well for me when it comes to building strength, which is what the Marathon is all about.

I used his 24 week 70+ mpw schedule for a marathon recently. I like his book because it explains why you are doing certain workouts during the different cycles (endurance, endurance + LT, race specific, taper). After going through the 24 week schedule, I think the recovery weeks (75% normal mileage and cutting back on intensity) were beneficial. I'm also a fan of the weekly 15 mile medium-long run. I think his 3 week taper plan is excellent.

Here are the things I did not like:

- running twice on a day that calls for a medium-long run. I tried putting in 5 miles AM and 14 miles PM one time because it was in the schedule. That nearly killed me. My long run on the following weekend was slower than usual as a result of dead-tired legs.

- running twice a day (6 miles, 4 miles) on recovery days. In my experience it's a lot easier on the body to just run the 10 miles at one time.

bump

keep the info coming boys and girls...great stuff

Another nice thing is you actually do have easy days - at least in the 70mpw program - either a day off, or a day of 6 miles easy or 6am and 4pm - so you don't have to push through 10 miles everyday. If you work, consistently doing the midweek long run takes dedication but it pays off.

Any women use Pfitzinger's book?

I am thinking of using the 24 week- up to 70 miles plan as the outline for my training for my second marathon and (hopefully) OT qualifier. The plan is pretty close to the training that I did first marathon (2:50) in terms of mileage, but it's a bit more intense. I don't want to increase my mileage too much for the second marathon-- due primarily to lack of hours in the day since I work full time!

Out of curiosity, have any low-mileage runners (of both genders) tried any of the 55 mile plans?