With the London Marathon well and truly behind me it is now on to summer training.
While I could just start the same P&D schedule again to prepare for the Chester marathon I think I am ready to try something a bit different. Step up Hansons' Renegade marathon method!
The plan uses the word "renegade" as the longest run is only 16 miles long, defying conventional wisdom that your longest marathon training run should be at least 20 miles.
However the Hanson brothers are of the opinion that your long run should not comprise more than 25% of your weekly mileage. Therefore doing a 20 mile run as part of a 50 mile week like some Hal Higdon plans proscribe is disproportionate and can result in a 20 mile "misadventure" rather than a run.
The idea is that you start the long run on tired legs and are therefore simulating the last 16 miles of the marathon rather than the first 16.
The other idea is that you do you speed work in the first half of the plan and then "lock" in the benefits by doing slower and longer "strength" workouts. I haven't quite worked out the scientific basis behind this but am willing to give it a try.
I have already done my first speed workout - 12 * 400m with 400m recoveries. Thanks to the nice long recoveries and the use of 5K pace this was not too much problem. 3 * 1 mile with 600m recoveries in a few weeks will be a different matter!
The first 6 weeks are all under 50 miles in volume so I am currently adding easy miles to get each week up to 50.
Apparently the most important part of training is consistency. If I can keep my weekly mileage around the 50 mark for the rest of this year then I should be well placed for another serious marathon push in 2015.
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