Second chance marathon

The best thing you could do is prepare mentally to run a slower time after only two weeks (Not enough time to recover, and obviously not enough time to get better).

Otherwise this one will be disappointing too.

Fart Garfunkel wrote:

The best thing you could do is prepare mentally to run a slower time after only two weeks (Not enough time to recover, and obviously not enough time to get better).

Otherwise this one will be disappointing too.

Don't listen to this. The marathon is hard. You can definitely come back and still run well. I would treat it like a reverse taper. A couple days off/super easy. Run 12-14 range 1 week out then mimic a normal taper week heading into the race. You did some damage to the body in the first try. You're going to dig yourself into a ditch if you throw together some good mile repeats in anger.

I was fit a couple years back. Went out at what I wanted to run on a bad weather day and faded the second half. Grabbed a PR 4 weeks later. I honestly was a little disappointed even with the PR because I ran super even splits trying to just salvage a little something from the training block. I really wanted my fitness without the first marathon on the better weather day. So think about going out a little easier and thinking about what a realistic improvement might look like given your body will maybe not be as fresh as you'd like. You can definitely still put a good race together.

I don't think this is good advice...that is, the 12-14 miler 1 week out...what is the purpose of this? To get more tired? To lock in the damage/fatigue from the previous marathon? You don't need it. First, I'd take 4-7 days off. Then just some short easy runs in the week before (as in the last week of a normal taper) should baseline your fitness gained from marathon 1 and give you he best shot. The idea of "sharpness" is often made too big of a deal. You may not be optimally sharp with what would basically be a 2-week recovery/just-get-to-the-line strategy, but you will have your best chance of being fresh and uninjured. Rest, then easy and slow, with a lot of attention paid to how you're feeling in the 2-week window is what I would do.

NERunner053 wrote:

I was fit a couple years back. Went out at what I wanted to run on a bad weather day and faded the second half. Grabbed a PR 4 weeks later.

Big difference between 2 weeks and 4 weeks. I would suggest OP find a marathon 4-6 weeks from now.

Years ago, I ran three PRs within less than three months - 6 weeks between first and second, and 5 weeks between second and third. 2:47, 2:45, 2:40.

That allowed time for recovery, a solid two weeks of training, and a taper.

I saw significant improvement from first to third marathons, although not quite as much as it appears. First one was warm and hilly, and the second had brutal headwinds. Last one was cold and rainy, but calm winds, only one major climb.

+1 to Allen1959's post,

I would like to add that if you are a higher mileage runner (say 80+ MPW) it should be easier to recover from the first marathon. I'm not sure I'd advise a 45MPW runner to run another marathon 2-4 weeks out.

Hugo2 wrote:

I'm looking for advice. I ran a disappointing marathon yesterday and I am considering giving it another go at a local race in 2 weeks. Can anyone suggest a good way to recover/maintain shape over this 2 week period?

My advice is to find a marathon 4-6 weeks from now (see previous post). By then you would likely see fitness GAINS directly from last weekend's marathon.

But if you are committed to running the local race in two weeks, I wouldn't worry about losing fitness. Your challenge is to recover and not injure yourself. And if you're like me, avoid weight gain.

This past weekend was your "long run," so just easy jogging between now and the next marathon is probably best. Hard to say, not knowing your background, or what pace we're discussing.

Here's a similar situation from a few years back:

2 weeks is fine. If anything I feel better 2 weeks out than 4-6 becuase of lost fitness, and more importantly, the race in 2 weeks is local and convenient.

Hardloper wrote:

2 weeks is fine. If anything I feel better 2 weeks out than 4-6 becuase of lost fitness, and more importantly, the race in 2 weeks is local and convenient.

That's impressive. Looking at other races I've run within after a marathon, it's clear I need more than two weeks to recover.

For example, two weeks after setting my masters marathon PR, I only managed 18:16. That was significantly slower than the 17:30 I had raced a week before the marathon.

Five weeks after the marathon, I set my masters 5K PR -- 17:10.

Allen1959 wrote:

Hardloper wrote:

2 weeks is fine. If anything I feel better 2 weeks out than 4-6 becuase of lost fitness, and more importantly, the race in 2 weeks is local and convenient.

That's impressive. Looking at other races I've run within after a marathon, it's clear I need more than two weeks to recover.

For example, two weeks after setting my masters marathon PR, I only managed 18:16. That was significantly slower than the 17:30 I had raced a week before the marathon.

Five weeks after the marathon, I set my masters 5K PR -- 17:10.

Depending on how the marathon went it may be harder to recover from a truly maximal 26-mile effort vs. a disappointing race where he may have packed it in and jogged the last 6 (or in my recent case, a more cautious start and a big negative split).