Train of Thought

In my Episode 4 video I talked through my marathon build heading into the Melbourne Marathon. The plan that I displayed in that video differed from what I actually ending up doing. Below is my training log for the 10 weeks heading into Melbourne.

The first 2 weeks are standard NSA (while gradually extending the long run).

Weeks 3 and 4 are transitional weeks, with 2 Sub-T workouts and quality in the long run.

Weeks 5, 6 and 7 were aimed at marathon specificity. In week 5, I stuck to my original plan, but found that the medium long run wasn't really adding a lot. I then had a bit of a lightbulb moment, where I realised I could squeeze in an extra sub-threshold session if I did it the day before my steady long run (and I relaxed the pace of that long run just a touch). I felt that I needed at least 2 easy days either side of the marathon specific workouts, due to the sheer volume (that I just wasn't used to).

Other notes: the highlighted blue numbers after the shorter reps with a "^" refer to max heart rate for the session, whereas the number following the medium and long reps simply refers to average heart rate for the reps. I also ignore the first rep of each workout when calculating the average. 

At this stage, I plan to repeat a similar build for my next marathon, but I'll extend the structure of weeks 6 and 7 out to 4-5 weeks, with slight increases in volume across the board - while also shortening the taper to 2 weeks. I'll also put the sub-T/Steady Long Run back to back days on the weekend (due to a changing work schedule).