3 weeks between marathons - What do do?

i'm not nearly as fast as you and i'm a low mileage guy, but i did the 3-week double twice last year. first one was Boston and Flying Pig. managed a 2:58 and 3:01. misjudged the effort on the hills in the Pig and slowed the last 4 miles, or it would have been a low 2:59. here's what i did in between

Boston was 417. Pig was 5/7

2 Apr 17-22

45 min easy on trails Friday,

easy hour on Sunday

1 Apr 24-30

Tues - 30 min easy

Thurs - 6 x 800 track

Sat 60 min, mostly MP, track and road

0 May 1-7

Mon - 4 miles MP

Wed - 4 miles MP

followed a simlar program for Chicago-Richmond, where i was leading a pace group - so i skipped the track repeats just to practice goal pace about 30 sec/mile slower than i ran in Chicago

when i did my first close double (4 weeks) in the fall of 2005, i did way too much in between and died much earlier in the 2nd race. IMO, err on the side of doing too little. do some VO max and/or tempo stuff and some goal pace work.. no need to go long - you're just doing another (3-week) taper

26-timer wrote:

when i did my first close double (4 weeks) in the fall of 2005, i did way too much in between and died much earlier in the 2nd race. IMO, err on the side of doing too little. do some VO max and/or tempo stuff and some goal pace work.. no need to go long - you're just doing another (3-week) taper

Sounds good. I actually like to take a shorter, steeper taper (like 2 weeks or 10 days) but in general I've found that a little too little is better than a little too much for me when it comes to marathoning.

Average_Joe wrote:

I have scheduled two marathons, 3 weeks apart

Haha you douchebag!! I ran 50 marathons with no rest.

i noticed with the mileage that you like a 2-week taper, that's why i put the "3-week" in paren.

still, i think the thing to do is stay sharp. i can't imagine there would be any need to go very long in between.

i usually do my last long run 3 weeks out, but the next week is still very tough. in terms of mileage it's a 3-week taper. in terms of intensity, it's more like a 2-week.

if the weather is good for Boston (always the huge IF) you looking to go sub-3:38 or just sub-2:40?

oops should have been sub-2:38

I've run three marathons within 3 weeks of each other. The first time I did it the second marathon was two minutes faster than first one though I was sick for the first one. I was extremely tired during the second marathon. Last year I ran three marathons in 12 weeks the last two just three weeks apart. All three were within 30 seconds of each other. The last one luckily was a downhill course because I was so exhausted while I was running and the weeks following the race. I was never really sore just very tired. Again last fall I ran two marathons just three weeks apart. This time I ran the second 13 minutes slower but the first marathon was my pr and didn't really care about my time for the second one plus I had a very upset stomach.

In each case I didn't run another long run after the first marathon (nothing over 15 miles). I actually took a fair amount of days off. It is almost like extending the taper for 5 weeks. I did continue some speed workouts and/or tempo runs between the two.

If you normally recover quickly from marathons it shouldn't be a problem for the second one though Boston is a course that can really beat you up.

My advice is to just take it easy between the two races and do at least one or two marathon paced runs to gauge a realistic time expectation for the second race.

Good luck at Boston and I'll see you at the Pocono race.