The other day I linked to this page, 5 Strategies to Nail Back-to-Back Races, when I was looking for advice on running multiple marathons. Most of the guides out there seem relate to the traditional plan of planning for and running a single marathon, then entering a period of rest and recover - and either stopping there, or waiting at least 6-12 months before training for/running the next.
But now there's a trend for people to push themselves further than just one marathon - and running multiple marathons is the latest thing! In my case, it will be 4 marathons in 2 months, with 2 of them being with a week of each other.
Others may run 2 races in a day/a weekend (the Disney marathon has the Goofy Challenge option, where you run a half one day and a full the next). Or how about 10-in-10? People who are looking to achieve a high number of recognised official marathons, such as the 100 Marathon Club in the UK and the 50 States Marathon Club in the US will want to squeeze in as many as they can over the year - often doubling up on the weekend if races are a feasible drive from each other.
They might not all be marathons - I'm sure there's plenty of people who do a half marathon every few weeks, and bling-chasers such as myself just like to do as many races (whether 5ks, halfs, triathlons or even ultras) as possible for the fun of it!
Seems there's loads of options out there, and everyone's multiple or back-to-back marathon schedule is going to be slightly different. Plus everyone has a different goal when it comes to finishing time and whether or not a PB or strong finish time is important every race.
So looks like there's more and more articles out there which acknowledge that you are not just training for a one-off marathon, which is great because I really need some advice, and the regular "do's and don't's" including the usual advice never to run a full marathon in training, make sure you take 6 months off, and taper your training, well they just aren't going to be possible each time.
This is all quite new to me, and food for thought, but here are some interesting points I've learned so far.
For regular non-professional marathon runners, (running one every 1-2 weeks all year round), looks like the thing to do is keep at a very high mileage all year, but it might be a slower pace. No "peaking" - just run, recover, and run again. Training might be little more than 2 or 3 short runs over the week, with the race as the long run every weekend. With 2-3 weeks between marathons, there's no need to do anything more than that. Their bodies should be so used to running long distances often that they will always be ready to run.
The opposite might be a "long weekend" or "tour" style challenge where someone will training in the normal way i.e. start training, peak, taper, race and recover, but instead of one marathon there will be 2, 3 or more, back to back for several days.
Biggest advice that I've ready everywhere is RECOVER!
And the other one is not to expect a PB every time. Either run one "seriously" and one "for fun" (like I did with London and Prague, or do them all at an average effort.
So what's my plan? So far it looks like this:
Autumn marathons
Berlin, 29th Sep and Eden, 20th Oct - 3 weeks apart
Train as normal for Berlin. I've done plenty of long runs, and am going to do a final 20 miler before tapering. Run Berlin at a good pace.
For Eden, this is going to be a "fun" marathon. I won't do much more than 5-6 miles in-between the two, as I'll just need to keep my fitness from dropping of and staying mentally ready. Mostly I'll rest or do cross training. Eden will be very hilly, which I've not really trained for, so I will just take it has it comes, walk when I need to and hopefully finish unbroken.
Spring marathons
Marathon 1 - Brighton (6th April)
4 week gap until Milton Keynes on 5th May
3 week gap until RnR Liverpool on 25th May
(London 10k on 26th May)
1 week gap until Kent Roadrunner Marathon on 31st May
(1 week gap til Blenheim Palace triathlon and St Albans Half long weekend).
Train as normal for Brighton, but schedule in fewer rest weekends (a shorter long run every 4 instead of every 3 weekends) This will get my body used to running long runs on consecutive weekends.
Run Brighton as normal (5.05-5.20 time) and have a full week off to rest. Short runs and cross training in between.
3 weeks after Brighton, do 6-8 slow miles, then taper for MK. Try and stick to cross country instead of hard tarmac.
Run MK at a reasonably good pace, but don't worry if not at normal pace (would like to get in under 5.30).
Do no more than 3-5 miles at the weekend between MK and Liverpool, and short 3-4 miles during the week or cross training.
Run Liverpool at an easy pace - they'll be bands along the way so good excuse to walk/dance/watch the music every mile! (5.30-5.45).
The London 10k is just 24 hours after Liverpool so will have to be extremely slow with regular walking breaks. Allow at least 90 minutes (it's a massive London charity run - they'll be people taking over 2 hours anyway).
Rest between the 10k and Kent - do some light cross training but in general just rest and recover.
Run Kent at a very easy pace with regular walking breaks (5.45- 6 hours?).
Do the triathlon working hard in the swim and cycle, but ease very gently into the 5k run.
For the half marathon, easy pace with walking breaks (allow 2.45 mins). I think this may have been a mistake signing up for this, but now I have, the challenge remains!
Hopefully that will get me round the Grand Slam Marathon challenge and earn a few awesome shiny medals!
I may wear each finisher's tee-shirt for the next race so people can see that I am running back to back marathons..... hehehehe.
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