Wednesday, December 16, 2009
That McMillan Article
I knew I could find that article by Greg McMillan on marathon recovery. It was in the December 2007 issue of Running Times. Thanks Clay for saving all his back issues. His article restates everything I said in my last post. He adds that "research indicates that the muscle damage from running a marathon can last up to two weeks" but that "soreness (or lack there of) is NOT a good indicator of muscle healing." What this means is that even though you feel good, it doesn't mean that your muscles are fully healed. I know this is a little late for you CIM runners, but here is his Optimal Marathon Recovery Program given in the same issue. We are on day 10 today!
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5 comments:
After reading your post on marathon recovery and Greg McMillan's article, I do not feel so bad about my time at CIM. I gave it my best effort, but my legs were dead. Now I have a much better understanding of why I felt this way. I am now concerned about running the Vermont Marathon only three weeks after the OC Marathon this coming May!
Thank you for taking the time to find the article and posting it.
Chuck, this type of recovery program should be done after "racing" a marathon or at least an all out effort. You certainly don't need as much recovery if you are just taking it easy out there and completing the distance, especially for someone with your level of base training and experience. There are people that do marathons every weekend. They just don't run them all out. I did a 14 mile progression run 6 days after my 30 mile birthday run without any problem. Your race history this year proves that you can run frequent marathons in the 3:20 range without too many problems. If you were 5-10 minutes slower than that, your recovery would be even quicker and your injury risk less. If you were going to pick one of those spring marathons to race I would suggest racing in Vermont and using OC as a long training run. You just can't get ahead of yourself and go too fast or your Vermont race will be spoiled. My advice would be to run most of your marathons at around 3:25-3:30 and then pick 2 a year that you try and run around 3:15 or less!
Karl, I really respect and appreciate your advice. Thank you.
Accomplishing my goal of finishing a marathon (sub-4 hours) in all 50 states by the age of 60 requires me to run four states a year. What makes the scheduling all the more difficult is keeping my Los Angeles (20 consecutive) & OC (all 5) marathon streaks going. Your advice to run 5-10 minutes slower is what I should be doing, but it is very difficult for me. My problem is, that come race day my competitiveness always gets the better of me. This coming year, at the LA Marathon I would like to run sub-3:15, and get my revenge for the butt kicking that I got from Dale at CIM. Hopefully I can control myself at the OC Marathon & then run a fast time in Vermont. I am still undecided on the other three marathons that I will run in the fall of 2010. Once I have decided on the marathons, I would appreciate your help in trying to run a post 50 year old PR. My PR is currently the 3:15:44 in LA this year.
Chuck, 4 new states per year plus LA and OC...that makes 6 marathons per year! Yikes!
Here is my advice on how to make it easier on yourself but still stay competitive. You have two options. First you could turn each one into a workout. For example, a fast finish long run: Run the first 16 miles at 8:30 pace and the last 10 at 7:30 pace! You could also run negative splits. Run the first half in 1:45 and come back in 1:40! In both cases it allows you to be competitive and you will be passing many people in the second half.
The other idea is to find someone a little slower than you to come with you with the goal of pacing them to a PR! Maybe someone wants to run 3:30 or even 3:40! Then you would have to be a good pacer and run 8:20 pace with them! You would just have the understanding that you would maintain that pace even if they started to slow. That way you continue your sub 4 hour streak!
The last option is to just stay with a 3:30 pace group and don't let yourself go ahead of them!
Do you like any of my ideas?
Karl, They are all good ideas! Thank you.
My first choice would be to pace a friend to a 3:30 marathon, but unfortunately I do not know anyone that is trying to run that time. You were so fortunate to be able to run Twin Cities with Andi! Running the first half in 1:45 (with the 3:30 pace group) and then picking off people in the second half sounds like a fun idea. It is always fun passing people! That is how you ran the OC Half this year.
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