girlmarathoner wrote:
Training for my first marathon right now. For most of the summer, have progressed from 55-75 miles per week, running 75 miles the past four weeks. Went on my first 20 miler last week, ran really well, but felt horrible this week. I decided to take a day off, and cut down my miles a lot. I ran about 45 miles this week, since I was super tired and I have had a lot of aches and pains. Is this normal in marathon training, to cut down a lot? I feel like my body really needed it, as all summer i have been doing a good amount a mileage with three or four hard runs each week. Any advice?
20 miles is much too far for your long run, especially as you are only running 55-75 miles a week. The long run will leave you too tired to do the rest of your training. Basically what it does is try to fit all your training into one day, instead of spreading it out through the week.
If you insist to do 20 miles at one time, I would take breaks in between, or else take a clue from Rosa Mota and run no more than 90 minutes at a time.
Personally I found that one 2 hour run and 1 run of 1 hour 40 minutes gave me plenty of endurance for the marathon, along with consistent mileage the rest of the week, though I feel the consistent mileage is more important than long runs, the latter of which can be a detriment.