Spacing a marathon and 70.3

[Eric R]

This years goals include my first marathon and first 70.3. I'm trying to choose races, and want to time the marathon so I can focus on run specific training before the marathon and then have enough time to get the biking and swimming in shape while maintaining the running base. Any suggestions for how much time I should leave between the marathon and the 70.3 would be most appreciated. Comments as to specific race combinations would also be more than welcome.

Thanks.

[Kim Zepp]

Well, I'm hoping to run my first marathon in the spring (prob the Cleve Mary in May) and then Rev3 Cedar Point 70.3 in Sept.

[Eric R]

Thanks Kim. I've heard good things about Rev3.

[philjolliff]

Spring marathon and fall 70.3 would work great. April/May Mary, August/September 70.3. Exactly what Kim is doing would work very well. One of the best things about doing a marathon in May is that you can race Olympics no problem all summer as well as you ramp up to the 70.3.

The other way to go is to do a 70.3 in June or July then hit up the marathon in the fall. If you are doing the marathon first, leaving yourself about 10-12 weeks should be plenty to get ready to rock a 70.3, considering how good your running base will already be.

[Eric R]

Thanks Phil. How run specific do you think I can afford to be leading up to the marathon? I was thinking of putting swimming on hold until post-marathon and putting in 1-2 days per week on the trainer while marathon training.

[Brandon]

I would say that you should plan for at least 3-4 weeks to recover for the marathon. Then, perhaps a 2 week transition phase. Next, factor in any tri specific training you would like to do before the half ( i.e. one or two training blocks of 3-4 weeks apiece), and then your taper period (~2 weeks). This thinking puts you 10-16 weeks between events, pretty close to what Phil suggests.

If it were me, I'd race tri's all spring and summer and then do the marathon in the fall. Your recovery time for the half should be shorter than the recovery for the marathon, so you could get back to productive training more quickly. That said, it would be tough to choose between Rev3 Cedar Point and the Akron Marathon though.....both great local fall races.

[jimdehner]

I agree with Brandon - for your first Mary at least - you might do well to do an early summer half-iron - like mussleman followed by a fall mary - that would allow you to focus the entire summer on the run

If you really want to do the mary first - you might want to consider Ciny - flying pig in May the followed by a half iron in the august september time frame -

[philjolliff]

Nov 26, 2010 19:44:53 GMT -5 Eric R said:

Thanks Phil. How run specific do you think I can afford to be leading up to the marathon? I was thinking of putting swimming on hold until post-marathon and putting in 1-2 days per week on the trainer while marathon training.

That's a tough question to answer. I think a lot of it depends on how much experience you have in the sport. I think those that have a very good swimming/biking background could afford to focus on running more than those of us who don't have a long history in the sport.

If doing a spring marathon, I would probably try to swim 1-2 times a week and bike 1-2 times a week, just to keep myself in halfway decent form for the summer tri season. I am not a very good swimmer so I could not afford to not swim if I planned on doing triathlons that summer. This is where the advantage of the fall marathon lies - if you want to completely forget all about swimming and biking during your marathon training, you can do this if you are doing a fall marathon. Because then you have all winter/spring to focus on biking/swimming before you have to race a triathlon again.

[Janet E]

I have found that a very focused run program such as Furman's FIRST program (http://www.furman.edu/first/fmtp.htm) works well for me to build for the marathon paying close attention to key runs and pacing while still leaving time to still get in some swims and bikes. I think if you are building to a first 70.3, you would want to make sure you are hitting at 2 bikes and 2 swims a week, even if they are short unless you are already strong there.

This program is essentially 3 very structured runs (interval/tempo/long) a week and then leaves time to cross train (or run easy) all the other days (swim/bike as necessary...key being not to bike too hard the day before a key run).