Should there be more recovery days in my plan? I seem to be picking up injuries and illness often. I’m 45 and aiming for a sub-3:30 marathon.
Rachel
Running coach answer: Should there be more recovery days in my plan?
Mike Gratton:
The thing about training is that no runners are the same – the volume that one runner can absorb may cause many problems for another.
There are many factors that, in combination, give you an understanding of where you are on the running continuum – in my mid-20s, I could run 140 miles per week, but now, in my late 60s, 30 to 40 miles a week is enough otherwise I get too sore.
One of the things we know, regardless of age, is that the marathon requires a high volume of aerobic training.
It feels like the marathon distance was set deliberately beyond our bodies’ usual ability to supply energy, and to get past that 15 to 18-mile ‘wall’ point, you need to have run a lot of miles to develop the various energy supply systems that take time to go through adaptations.
I was an excellent schoolboy athlete, but not the very best. I grew up competing with some outstanding natural athletes who would beat me consistently. Over time, I improved – from my first national event result of 144th in the English schools intermediate boys cross country to eventually rise to the top and win the national schools 5,000m as a senior boy. This was to continue after my school years and help me take a Commonwealth Games medal and win the London Marathon.
I had found an ability to increase the volume of my training, to be able to run more than most of my contemporaries without ever getting more than a minor niggle. I was blessed with a very robust body that allowed me to train harder and overtake those more gifted than me, who broke down with increased training loads as seniors.
So, your ability to train without breakdown is essential.
The difficulty is finding that point so that you can level off before you get hurt – that point has so many variables:
I often find runners saying that they can’t do the volume or run every day because they get injured – usually, when I look at the training, they are doing most of it too fast.
The body needs rest (even if it is active rest) and a less intense regime overall to enable increases in training volume. Once adapted, you can add intensity back in gradually.
When I have managed to persuade runners to slow down their steady runs and balance them out with one or two hard days each week, they find they can run more frequently and thus increase the volume.
Without fail, in the long term, they make improvements in their race performances.
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