With Coach Kelvin, offering Online Running Coaching for We Run and the We Run Virtual Running Club, and 1:1 Running Coach for Leeds and surrounding areas
Recovery and Training Strategy for Back-to-Back Races
In this little video, I’m going to share some thoughts on a great question I was asked in the Virtual Run Club Facebook group by Simone.
Simone has just completed the Manchester Marathon and has a half marathon in nine weeks, and then another half marathon in 21 weeks. The question was about recovery and then how to start training for the next event.
Making Assumptions to Create a Plan
So, the first event is in nine weeks’ time. I’m actually making quite a few assumptions here on Simone’s training because I don’t know exactly how Simone trains. I’ve got a rough idea.
I know she’s got a half marathon in nine weeks’ time, another half marathon in 21 weeks’ time, and she’s just done Manchester Marathon, which was quite a strain because it was really, really hot. So, recovery there is needed, and she would like to add strength training back in.
I’ve kind of presumed that the first half marathon is a bit more of a “B” race, and the second half marathon is going to be an “A” race.
A Sample Training Structure
I’ve popped together a rough suggestion for Simone’s training, and I’ll put that in the comments below as an image so you can take a look.
What I like to start with first are the things that we do know and then work around that. All of a sudden, things can start to make a little more sense.
We know the marathon’s going to need a recovery. We know the first half marathon is going to need a taper and a recovery. And we know that the second half marathon is going to need a specific phase of training, a taper, and a recovery.
So all of a sudden, we can start to sort of map out what training might look like.
Reverse Periodisation and Strength Focus
Now, this is very individual, so as I said, it’s just a suggestion or an example of what training might look like.
What I’ve done is go for a bit of a reverse periodisation – some strength as a bit of a focus all the way through the first half marathon and the recovery phase. So adding in some sort of top-end speeds, VO2 max, a reasonable amount of threshold work, increasing the reps as we move towards the first half marathon.
Building through that block up to two strength sessions a week, having a recovery, moving into some speed quite early – so again, another reverse periodisation strategy. Going from short, fast reps to longer, slower reps, bringing back in the strength, but easing the strength off as Simone comes into the peak phase for the half marathon that’s 21 weeks away.
Logical Progression Toward the A Race
I’ve just roughed out a logical build – VO2 max, threshold, and tempo, with also an idea of long run duration. Some of those long runs are just easy long runs, and some of them include intensity to prepare Simone in the best way possible for the half marathon that’s 21 weeks away.
There’s probably quite a lot there, so I’m just going to kind of stop talking and let you maybe watch this video again, take a look at the image down below. But it’s just a bit of an example of how I look at training in the longer term.
Fitting Training Around the Events
If someone says, “I’ve got an event here and an event there, and this one’s more important than that one,” we know what the demands of the events are, we know what the taper and recovery are going to look like, and we know what specific training for certain events is likely to look like.
There will be some gaps, and that’s kind of individual. That’s where working with a coach can be helpful. But all we have to do is fill in those gaps.
The Plan Should Follow the Runner
Instead of thinking, “A-race half marathon, 21 weeks away – how do I prepare for that?”, we look at the bits we already know, write those in first, and then build the gaps with our best guess to start off with, and then roll with it and see how training goes.
Because we should always remember – the runner shouldn’t follow the training plan. The training plan should follow the runner, if that makes sense.
If you’ve got any questions, please pop them in the comments below. And for now, happy running.
