Olympic Trials Marathon Training

Just to clarify, I'm not suggesting that the OP do weekly sessions of 12 x 400 or anything along those lines. Even if he takes your advice and cuts out all intervals and real rep workouts (which I actually think would be fine), doing 4-6 100-200 meter strides and/or some short hill sprints a couple times a week will cause very little musculoskeletal stress but will go a long way towards keeping him mechanically sound and actually help him better handle the increased volume.

Also, there is a difference between high-volume aerobic training (that includes some progression runs, tempos, aerobic fartleks, etc) and simply running easy all the time. I wasn't sure which you were advocating. I obviously think including aerobic work that goes beyond easy running as he ups his volume will get him to his goals faster, and I believe adding a few strides and hill sprints will actually help him up his volume with less risk.

Beavus wrote:

I generally hover at 50 miles a week at about a 5:40 pace. I can run 5:40's comfortably for my normal training runs (9-10).

I see no reason for running your entire weekly mileage at 5:40 pace. It is counter productive. If you were running 170 miles a week and 2:05 then that would be different.

Also I agree with A's # again, and would stay away from any 100 yard sprints or anything similar. First get up your mileage, then add anything else. Work from the top down, not the bottom up, or you'll always be hanging around on the bottom. I'd go from where you are, to drastically easing off the pace and increasing your mileage. Check out what some of the top marathoners are doing, like Wanjiru and Kibet.

Your normal training pace is 5:40 and your long tempo pace is 5:30? Slow down.

After seeing what you've been doing, I see you should be able to handle the high mileage along with faster paces already. So I would go ahead directly to a marathon schedule including faster long runs and races. What I would do is (1) up your mileage to at least 100 miles a week, and (2) focus on extending your distance at marathon pace.

In addition, you could (3) alternate races with your extension runs at marathon pace, and (4) the rest of the week run easy and keep building your mileage. I used to run 13 miles at marathon pace at midweek, then run 4 miles in the afternoon at a faster pace, building on the 13 miles. Also I usually ran 25 to 35 miles a week at marathon pace or faster, including races, raced usually once a week, and the rest all easy running for mileage and recovery, only running fast twice a week. I'd check Wanjiru's training and also comments by Renato Canova.

This morning I was reflecting on my running a fairly hard 21 miles twenty days before my fastest marathon.

Until this morning, I had considered the effort was too hard, and was concerned it took away from my preparation for the marathon. The run was much faster than I ran for that distance in practice at any other time.

Instead of being a hindrance, perhaps it was a good reason that my fastest time came soon after. Thus I could have benefitted by doing that type of run more often.

Beavus wrote:

Anyone have any miracle Marathon Training plans which would drop me under 2:19. Just finished my 2nd Marathon in 2:35:56. I maxed out my weekly mileage at 60 (I realize I need to run more), and had run a marathon 7 weeks before this last one leaving me only 6 weeks of training. I am only 20 years old, and am running Boston in April. I also plan to run Chicago next year, which is where I hope to make a run at the Trials. If your name is Alberto Salazar, you have an excellent plan for Marathon training, or you like to express yourself online; please give lend me your ideas.

Thanks

Avocado has the best advice. You need to pump up the volume with a point of singularity type focus. You can train through Boston, but you need to start doubling, getting to a point of sustainable mileage, and add some longish tempos. Start slow, given your history of injury. The fitness will come naturally as you adapt to running more miles. The miles will themselves become faster on their own as long as you listen to your body. And when you have achieved this level of sustained mileage, you can start taking some "runs to the barn" as Malmo would put it. You can sharpen and run some 10ks as you approach Chicago, but what you are lacking is volume, pure and simple. And you already know this.

Bump. Hows that OTQ going?