I am in base phase (Hadd's phase I), aiming to a fall marathon, and I plan to post here my progress, doubts and thoughs, hopping others will join me. In spite of the inevitable trolls, the idea is to exchange experiences valuable to others.
First time I did almost everything wrong. I started last March, aiming to Berlin marathon in September, and I was improving a lot. But one day, after 12 weeks or so, my pace slowed down dramatically, and I felt really tired. I took a couple of easy days, but my resting HR was too high and I keep feeling completely exhausted. I thought it could be anemia.
After 10 days my HR stabilised in normal levels and I went back running. Two weeks later I ran a HM, and I was slower than ever. I was taking lexatin those days, and thought that maybe it was due to that. But Berlin was only 18 weeks ahead, so I changed to faster stuff, even though I was only in the beginning of Hadd phase I (able only to run 60min@140bpm=80%HRmax). To make the long story short, in Berlin I wasn’t feeling so fast as I expected, and, even though I was running very relaxed (actually under 140), in km 11 I suddenly felt kind of dizzy again, and had to gave up due to a tacquicardia.
I'm planning to come back in Berlin 2010, doing strictly Hadd training structured -more or less- as 18 weeks of pahse I, 8 weeks of phase IIa, and 8 weeks of phase IIb.