I received my copy of the book last week and got my first chance to read on Saturday afternoon. I admit I had doubts, but I am intrigued by what I read. I admit that the “long” run of ONLY 16 miles caused most of my doubts. Well. . .
1) The book points out there really are no studies on the best long run distance in marathon prep. 20 may be a nice round number, but no one has looked at what is best.
2) I agree with the points the book makes that your long run should not last over 3 hours and be more than 25% of your milage in any week to avoid injuries. Makes sense to me. As someone who ran a 5+ hour, 20 mile training run for his first marathon and then finished the race feeling horrible, I think another way is worth a look.
3) Hanson brother’s uses Lydiard’s concept of “cumulative fatigue” as part of their plan. Instead of “rest days” before and after the long run, they use easy days to make the training plan simulate the LAST 16 miles of a marathon, rather than the first 16 (or 20), like my previous program did.
Their plan components are:
1 Mileage
2 Intensity
3 Balance
4 Consistency
5 Recovery
Finally, the structure is based on training near, but not over the fatigue threshold. Basically, it is an attempt to derive maximum benefit without going over into injury, missed training days, etc. I think I need consistency in a plan I can trust so I can focus on turning my mind off and just running the plan.
I still am only ⅓ of the way through the book, I will report more as I read farther.
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