MARATHON BEFORE IRONMAN?
I want to do my first full-distance Ironman next year, is it important to have run a marathon as part of my training? I’ve never run the full 26.2 before. PAUL EVANS, EMAIL
There are two schools of thought here. The first will say no, saying it’s better to save the marathon distance until race day. The other will champion over-distance work, recommending running perhaps a 28-miler before the big day. Both have their own advantages and disadvantages and both can work. For most of us, the best option is the former, not least because you’ll have done some big miles on the bike already.
I appreciate that we all think the best way to build endurance is to get some miles in, but shorter speed work has a hugely important role to play in building endurance. Probably one of the greatest distance runners of all time, nine-time New York City Marathon winner Grete Waitz, first won the Big Apple with a long run of
no more than 14 miles beforehand. She was, however, a world champion at cross-country and a very swift track runner. Similarly, an athlete I’ve worked with won the Snowdon Marathon a few years ago without venturing further than 13 miles in training.
I think a programme that contains a good mix of anaerobic work will help with your endurance hugely, whether in the pool, on the bike or running. That said, the long run is an important element, so building up to a single 20-miler, or perhaps a 17-miler after a longish bike ride will really help. A schedule that sees you put in five weeks of 17-mile runs or weeks of 13, 15, 17, 19 and 20 will produce fairly similar results.
Keep in mind that training is all about damage limitation. A 20-mile run is going to beat up your
legs, especially if you come at it from a transition, having ridden 10 to 20 miles beforehand. It’s without doubt better to come away from a 17-miler feeling you could have run more than a 20-miler feeling exhausted.
If, on the other hand, you’ve accumulated months of high mileage and you’ve got your head around pace judgement, getting a really long run in can also pay dividends. I’ve worked with an American runner who logs around 140 miles a week and likes to run about 28 miles before the marathon itself. However, he has run a 2:11hr marathon and he is more or less a full-time athlete, so his life is as much about recovery time as it is training (and he’s most definitely not a triathlete). Good luck and don’t forget… recovery is key!