Hanson Marathon Method Success Stories

Thanks for the advice. Did a great 14 miler on Saturday 13 miles to 26.2 then added on to the Boston Common. Ran a steady 6:49 pace up the four Heartbreak Hills. This was two days after 8 at 6:39 and a few day after 6 x mile 6:13 with a short reast. Hit 58 for the week. Feeling good. This week includes 4 x 1.5 in 9:15 with a short rest on Tuesday; 8 at 6:30s on Thursday; 16.3 at marathon goal pace on Saturday. You sleep well even with some 8 min. runs in between and almost 60 each week. Pressures on...my buddy and high school rival ran 2:53 at Napa Valley. Thanks for the input!!!

Nope...read it cover-to-cover. I carry it around like a running Bible. The charts are fantastic and I know what the plan is every day. I'm impressed and I've been running and coaching for over 20 years - but the marathon has been a puzzle for me. I ran NCAA Div. 1 - 4:14, 8:25, 14:47, 24:50 but never took a shot at 26.2 until I was 38. This plan makes sense for me - I'm really enjoying the process and looking to improve on my 3:07 at 41. I have hit the wall at 21-24 in all of my marathon attempts especially the 2nd 1/2 of Boston in 2011. I ran 1:21 at New Bedford 1/2 and completely fell apart after going through in 1:30 at Boston. Hoping to RACE well this year. Mostly mental. Thanks!

Hansons is spot on as its about the work at moderate paces and long hard work at high end aerobic pace.; I've been personally coached by Daniels, Tinman. Daniels program is good, but too much emphasis on turnover work which is overrated for the marathon and tinman is way too pace specific much like Daniels. I ended up doing nothing but Lydiard based running, lots of doubles and moderate running with my heart rate monitor utilizing Maffetone's principles. I took six weeks off in November after running a 2:55:56 marathon in late October, started back in December, off of nothing but solid miles and harder aerobic runs, I did a 2:42:47 marathon, huge PR (2:55:56 was my pr). The marathon is all about getting your body to burn fat as fuel so you don't bonk, the wrong kind of work or running too hard will kick your body into burning sugar as fuel which causes the crash. The best book out there on marathon training is healthy intelligent training by Livingstone. Excellent read and detailed about Lydiard. Fastest long run I did was a 21 miler in 2:30, and 22 miles in 2:46 if that tells you anything.

What happened to Colby Lowe?

Sub-3 at Forty wrote:

Nope...read it cover-to-cover. I carry it around like a running Bible. The charts are fantastic and I know what the plan is every day. I'm impressed and I've been running and coaching for over 20 years - but the marathon has been a puzzle for me. I ran NCAA Div. 1 - 4:14, 8:25, 14:47, 24:50 but never took a shot at 26.2 until I was 38. This plan makes sense for me - I'm really enjoying the process and looking to improve on my 3:07 at 41. I have hit the wall at 21-24 in all of my marathon attempts especially the 2nd 1/2 of Boston in 2011. I ran 1:21 at New Bedford 1/2 and completely fell apart after going through in 1:30 at Boston. Hoping to RACE well this year. Mostly mental. Thanks!

You'll do it. We have very similar backgrounds. I went sub3 a few times using this method after trying others. The 26.2 was tough for me to figure out. It still has a degree of "surviving to the finish" that no other race has. That 18-20 mile mark is still a bit of a wild card to me.

Good luck, but with your background I think you can kill it.

Michigan.......

Ran 2:37 last year with longest run being 18 miles.

I do not think the issue is whether to run 16 mi long runs or 22 milers. The issue is whether you are doing a lot of long, marathon specific work. Too much fast track stuff will not prepare you for the marathon. I think limiting long runs to 16 mi is good if you do not recover well from long runs. But, if you can recover well from 20+ milers and can have good long marathon specific workouts in between, then there is plenty of benefit to 20+ milers (just look at Canova's training plans).

I have run 2:47 and 2:48 as a master with lots of 20 milers. But, I am very light and recover well from long runs. I have friends who carry more weight and need a lot of time to recover from 20+ milers.

I think Canova and Hanson are pretty much on the same page in that they both emphasize extending your specific marathon endurance over crushing 800s and mile repeats.

Hit 16.3 at 6:41 pace. Went out faster - 1:26:20 for the 1/2 up the first two Newton Hills. Not racing at all but a hard tempo effort. Legs were tired from the 8 mile @ 6:31 effort on Thursday and 4 x 1.5 on Tuesday in 9:13. I have New Bedford in 8 days and the legs feel fine tonight. 55 for the week - I've had several weeks between 55-66.

I am extremely pleased with the results! Weather was fantastic - sunny, 40s. Roads were not bad and horrified my wife who saw me sprint through at least one red light. New Bedford next week. One more long run the week after then we start the taper. Must work on fueling and a little more strength!

By the way, I am loving the process. Just need to execute on Marathon Monday!

I'm inspired by this thread, and think I will give this thing a shot.

I clicked on the Garmin link, and thought it was an amusing coincidence that your 16.3 mile training run came out to 26.2 KM!! Ha!

Inspired wrote:

I'm inspired by this thread, and think I will give this thing a shot.

I clicked on the Garmin link, and thought it was an amusing coincidence that your 16.3 mile training run came out to 26.2 KM!! Ha!

it's probably not a coincidence. The Brooks-Hansons group pros do a marathon simulator of 26.2k before their major marathons. From what I've read, Keith and Kevin try to make the course specific to the race, including hills and a mock Citgo sign.

Felt like the real deal on the hills. I had logged 8 miles at 6:30 on Thursday for my tempo then to come back and run 16.3...man that's close to a marathon with a five mile recovery in there at 6:35 pace. I had some cumulative fatigue going with the 4 x 1.5 workout at 6:08 pace on Tuesday. These are not extraordinary times...I'm 41...but if you aiming to break 3, I feel like I'm training ahead of pace. Ideally, good weather, good taper, I'd love to have a big P.R. in five weeks.

Sub-3 at Forty wrote:

Felt like the real deal on the hills. I had logged 8 miles at 6:30 on Thursday for my tempo then to come back and run 16.3...man that's close to a marathon with a five mile recovery in there at 6:35 pace. I had some cumulative fatigue going with the 4 x 1.5 workout at 6:08 pace on Tuesday. These are not extraordinary times...I'm 41...but if you aiming to break 3, I feel like I'm training ahead of pace. Ideally, good weather, good taper, I'd love to have a big P.R. in five weeks.

I'm interested to find out how this came out in the end. Did it work for you, and were you using the plan from the book, or a bespoke plan from Hanson's.

I'm in no mans land after completeing NYC. I am looking to have a lighter 6 months before going back to high mileage. I was thinking of skipping a spring marathon but it is hard not to... So I've been toying with the idea of doing something totally different - a plan I've been skeptical of such as Furman or Hanson to see how I go. My sub 3's all came off higher mileage and a lot of 20+'s. Currently reading Hanson out of curiosity

I'm a middle-aged, low 3 hour marathoner. I've run several marathons and crashed and burned many times.

I used Hanson's program (from the book) for Boston this year. I tried following as closely as possible to get a reference point and modified it according to guidelines discussed in the book when necessary.

The Advanced plan peak mileage (60s) was about what I run as base/unstructured training, so most Wednesdays I added another easy run and hit a couple of peak weeks around 80 miles. I also was ready for 16 milers quickly, so I went ahead and added more of them sooner in the program. I got hurt in week 7 with a PF flareup and took 4 days off to let it heal. I had stomach flu at one point and missed a workout. I raced a couple of half marathons and missed tempo runs those weeks. Finally, I blew a couple of the workouts here and there because of weather or not being focused because of work. However, whenever I encountered an issue, I adjusted according the book.

Results: 7 minute PR at Boston this year with an even split.

looks like this guy came undone late. shame.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/298798436

Congrats.

He didn't come undone, he ran like a dope the first 12 miles.

kadoo wrote:

looks like this guy came undone late. shame.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/298798436

Was that the OP? Shame. With his talent from college, he must be doing something way wrong. Precious Roy is spot on with his advice

I always felt like the 20 milers were an insurance policy. You can run fast without them but it injects more risk into the equation. Especially on a tough course.

I am a 39 year old female and ran my first marathon last fall. (Twin Cities) I trained using Hansons and ran 3:11.

I hope to run Chicago this fall and will use the same plan. I thought it was to the point and not complicated. Hopefully, this program will help me run under 3 hours.