NY Times writer does Hanson's marathon training - PRs by 16 minutes

Improved to 4:19... 16 minutes is the least I would expect from sticking to ANY reasonable marathon plan.

Their training book sounds interesting, “Hansons Marathon Method: A Renegade Path to Your Fastest Marathon" and the whole thesis of the article seems to be how she didn't have to do 20 mile long runs - only 16 but on tired legs.

There certainly is something to be said for that. That being said, the takeaway for us is simple - if you run a lot, you normally do well. She admitted despite the 16 mile long runs, she ran way more than before and therefore PRd by a lot.

At end though, she's not sure if she'd do it again.

"I’m not sure if I’ll put myself through the Hansons method again. I like to run, but I don’t want it to take over my life."

16 mins is a small PR when you have that much time to work with.

If you think about it, 16 Mile long runs is plenty for a 4:30 marathoner. Those would have taken about 3 hours. If she did 20 Mile long runs they would have taken about 3:30 maybe 4 hours....and that would really take over your life!

This woman is crazy. I went from 4:18 to 2:52 in 2 years just by actually running and not jogging.

"I walked a lot of the last 10 miles, but I finished in 4 hours 35 minutes 31 seconds and didn’t require immediate medical attention, so I considered it a victory."

Wow, I didn't need medical attention, so I'm happy?

I've always run faster with lower mileage and 2 quality workouts per week.

"There are a lot of training plans, but one in which the main feature is 'doing long runs on tired legs' would seem to lead to excess injuries. And that's exactly what the author reports. So it may work for some, but the design itself is troubling."

"“At 40 to 50 miles a week, I think people are putting their health in jeopardy unless they’re at a higher level,” said Dr. David Webner, director of running medicine at Crozer-Keystone Health System in Pennsylvania. “That’s a lot for the recreational marathoner.”

Dr. Webner recommends that casual marathoners run three days a week, mixed in with non-weight-bearing exercises like elliptical workouts and swimming, to minimize the risk of injury."

I'm speechless. I'm so opposed to so many aspects of this, it's hard to know where to start.

Let's take it in order...

40-50 is NOT a lot if you work to that point gradually. If you spend a few months at 20, 30, 40 miles per week, then you should be able to maintain 40-50 for a training block. The problem isn't the 40-50 miles; it's probably the instant gratification people want by just jumping into that mileage to finish a marathon. If you don't have that running mileage base... guess what: don't run a marathon!

Which brings us to the next point "casual marathoner". WTF is that? You can be a casual runner, but if you don't want running to "take over your life", then don't plan to train for a 26-mile race. Any doctor recommending that someone run 3 times a week to prepare for a marathon is an idiot.

As others have said, a 16 minute PR, when you've started with times in the mid/upper 4-hour range is really nothing - especially when you admit to not training much for those attempts. It's like we're supposed to be amazed she cut 5% off her PR by actually training for a few months and "only" doing a long run of 16 miles.

And as far as "taking over your life". I hardly think running 40-50 miles takes over your life. Either committing to training for a marathon is a priority of yours, or it's not. Either you can brag about your 4:19 because you put in the work, or you can not train and run 5 hours again. You can't have it both ways.

I had a 40 minute PR (3:20) last year just by running 40 miles a week. It's not that hard, about 6 miles a day with a long run on Saturday morning.

She seems to think that running 6 days/week with a 12 mile mideweek long run is part of what makes the Hanson's plan "convtroversial". That's every plan, honey.

I have friends who are using the Hanson's plan, and it's not really all that different from a traditional 60 MPW plan. My 20 mile runs end up being an easy four or five followed by a steady 15 or 16, but they just do 16 miles steady. I find it safer to run a few easy before doing slightly faster long run work, so I prefer LRs of 18 to 21, but it's not like it really matters all that much.

The article reminded me a piece in Runners World a couple of years ago by Adam Buckley Cohen about running a 2:38:49 at Chicago using the Hanson's method.

http://www.runnersworld.com/race-training/new-year-new-you-way-renegades?page=single

"Despite the fatigue, my legs seemed to agree with the plan. I was running 65 to 70 miles per week—my highest mileage since college—yet I remained injury-free. As much as I would have loved to back off a little, I had no excuse. Still, my brain longed for one, so I kept bargaining with it: Get to the end of the week, the month, through the tune-up races.

Those tune-ups began just over a month before Chicago. I raced a 5-K and a 10-K on successive weekends. The efforts felt a bit flat, but when I plugged my times into pace charts, they offered hope for a 2:40. Fifteen days out, I raced a final 10-K to shore up my confidence. But when I accidentally veered off course at mile four and trashed my time, my fragile runner's ego began to crumble. Was I really in shape to run 26.2 miles? I had to know. The next morning I found another 10-K and tried again. My effort was strong, and I felt good about my performance. That is, until I spoke to Kevin.

"Races on back-to-back days?" he said, his voice rising half an octave. "If I'd been in the car with you, I would've locked the doors and not let you out." He remained quiet for a long moment. "But you probably didn't hurt yourself." "

I used Hansons to lower my marathon PR from 3:06 to 3:05 at Boston this year. Yeah, only a minute, but I'll use the approach again because really liked the 16 mile runs instead of 20+.

I will say congrats to her, but really I don't think it was the Hanson method that changed her performance ability, it was prob that she was just running more then she had before hand to train for it.

I Know what its like to have a huge PR in a marathon' as in 2007 I ran a 3 40ish then exactly a year later I ran 2 59 at the age of 20. note( was 6 foot 150 pounds both years and an experienced runner) And really the only thing I did different was adjust my training plan and Run "EASY" On the Easy days. And that's one of the biggest keys to success is running EASY on easy days and WORKING HARD On the track/tempo/hill type days.

I know its not common for such huge PR's to occur but I am not to to impressed by that drop at all, considering she was using the HANSON method, I have heard a lot of people tell me that they would never use that method again but yet then I hear about people that like that method, I guess its all about what you prefer.

Now if I heard that a person dropped from 2 30 to a 2 14 marathon, then I might believe it was the training program that helped them out.

In order to achieve, you need to believe, happy training all!

Last year I ran Edinburgh marathon following the plan from "Advanced marathoning". I went out at 3:15 pace and blew up in the last few miles to finish in 3:22. It was an extremely hot day, maybe I should have gone out a little slower.

This year I followed the Hansons plan. Weekly mileage is somewhat similar, but obviously the length of long runs has been less. In 9 days I run Edinburgh marathon again and will once again go out at 3:15 pace. It'll be interesting to see how I get on... although if it's significantly cooler than last year then maybe I won't have really learned anything about the relative merits of the training plans.

I was really hoping this would be someone running a bit faster or someone that had actually trained hard before.

dude really? you really think a 16 minute improvement for a 4 hour marathoner is due to the hansons training method?

anyone with legs should be able to get under 4 with decent volume.

No hospital, I win! wrote:

"I walked a lot of the last 10 miles, but I finished in 4 hours 35 minutes 31 seconds and didn’t require immediate medical attention, so I considered it a victory."

Wow, I didn't need medical attention, so I'm happy?

Potential Hanson's marathon plan new slogans:

"You won't need medical attention!"

"Walk a lot the last 10 miles!"

I PRed (2:48) using the Hanson's program for marathon #40 after a trying a lot of training methods, including logging 100 mile weeks, doing plenty of speed and tempo. I'm 40 and I beat time I had run 10 years ago at more optimal age. It was a revelation to feel so strong after mile 20 of the marathon. So I'm a strong believer in the Hanson's method, just wish I had started earlier when I wasn't battling the headwinds of an aging body.