 Alright, so greetings fellow runners. It's been a while since the last video today I want to take you through my marathon build-up. I'm doing my first marathon in November I want to show you guys my plan Types of workouts that I'm doing why I'm doing them Mostly just an overview of the planned Training over the next few weeks and also what I have been doing for the last few weeks So as you've probably noticed I haven't posted that many videos lately that is because I have been working on my new Coaching business for runners all over the world, but also here locally in Norway So if you're interested in online running coaching customized training programs anything like that You should head over to my website. I'll put a link to it here there's also a link in the description where you can buy a training program or Schedule a consultation with me anything like that go over there and check it out and please do let me know in the comments of this Video, what do you think about the website? I'm pretty happy about it. I built it all myself Got some help from a friend in Nis France with the pictures and I think the result is really awesome Anyways, let's jump right in to start talking about my training. So first of all, let's take a look here So here unfortunately a lot of it is it's sort of like a mix of English and Norwegian language in this plan But I'll explain. So here's my plan basically this one started back in Week 23 so that would be the third to the ninth of July So what I did was before that I was sort of just building up my volume You know getting up to a hundred kilometers per week At least for one of those weeks. I if I remember correctly and sort of just laying the foundation before I really started a more focused training plan if we take a quick look here in Strava, we can see that My training has been pretty consistent lately pretty good. You know, this was my Race back in May the half marathon took a rest week Let's start building it 70 90 k per week 100 k per week in June and you know some long runs, etc Back down a little bit and then up again 95 100 as you can see here. Just generally it's consistent, right? There's a lot of running not that much, you know, here's a few breaks probably because of Small injuries. I've had, you know, a few needles here and there throughout this last few weeks But it's been all right. I've been able to get pretty consistent training done some epic marathon Sessions like this one today was awesome 31k long run on the road Progressive effort from 5 20 per kilometer down to 4 20 per kilometer Of course my goal. I'm not gonna get into that today too much But I'm dreaming of going sub three, right? I want to go to 59 on the marathon Possibly three three or five three ten is probably more realistic Maybe I don't know we'll see as the months go by or as the weeks go by actually actually because we're getting closer and closer But anyway, of course, you can follow me on Strava There's a link in the description of this video to see all these details Anyway continuing fairly consistent 97. This was last week 82 but some quality sessions though, you know the yellow stuff is Workouts and I did sort of like a race almost last Sunday. It was a time trial very hard effort So pretty consistent and this is where we're at today This week. All right, so back to the training plan. So with that being said, so we're actually now in August, right? So we are in the Where are we here this week 33 week 33? That's where we're at right now So we're actually sort of halfway through this plan and we're entering into the most important part of the build-up So let's take a look at the plan from the beginning and not really think too much about Where we are at the moment and just talk about the plan in general Of course, you got to remember with training plans that they are always evolving Okay, so this actually is my August revision plan and then I had another one in July and June So I make the plan before I start to build up and then I pretty much modify it and adjust it Here and there as I go along possibly, you know, every three to four weeks I go over the plan again I might change a little bit here and there and it's really, you know A plan needs to be evolving because your fitness is unpredictable Sometimes you progress faster sometimes slower sometimes you get an injury you get a setback Sometimes you, you know, you learn things during the build-up so that you want to add in elements, etc So it's it's it's really a matter of being flexible with your plan So this is an outline, you know There's never been an athlete in the history of mankind probably or probably has been a few but very seldom Does a training plan? Happen the way it's planned out. Okay, so training typically happens differently than what you plan But whatever Let's start here with the first few weeks is base training and then we go here We got a race build-up and those are the two main macro cycles base training and race specific build-up Within those there are some meso cycles first the volume and introductory phase That's what I called it just getting up to that hundred K volume then a speed and preparatory phase You know adding in a little bit of faster paced running a little bit of intervals and Getting a little bit more familiar with the marathon pace and Then we get into the phase that I'm in now that I've just started really the fundamental capacity type phase where we're talking about Really just laying down that foundation Quite specific to the marathon. So doing a lot of marathon pace running doing a lot of long runs Doing a lot of fast long runs at marathon pace and sort of building that capacity And finally we get into the final phase, which is final quality race prep You know really really dialing in the specificity for the marathon before the taper All right, so the races, you know, here's the race miss on November the third that's the marathon and then I have a tune-up race sort of like it's actually more of a workout Also half marathon on the 21st of September where I'm gonna just run the half marathon at marathon pace similar kind of thing a few weeks before that and then this week I have a short little Six and a half K local just fun run On Sunday, so a few races mostly or all of them are just workouts really not real races because I'm putting, you know I want to get everything Perfectly ready for this race, which is my marathon race in Nice, France so I'm not gonna go through all the details here, but there's a lot of sort of talk here and there about my V dot which is my pseudo VO2 max it's a concept that the Jack Daniels developed coach Jack Daniels. It's basically a Performance score you could say so that you can use to sort of estimate your training paces and predict your marathon times or whatever race that you're doing actually and So I went through some weight loss in the beginning so these first few weeks here in the base phase were also at a calorie deficit, so I lost four kilos and Now I'm back at maintenance calories and that was good because that means I was also getting faster just because I was shedding fat and so These are just my personal notes at how much I should increase my V dot per cycle and you know what my V dot would be at certain points and currently now we're in August and So my current V dot should be something like 53 or 54 Which gives me a marathon pace of about 418 down to 415 of course 416 per kilometer is sub 3 Marathon pace or 3R marathon pace so I want to be at that high end of my predicted V dot But it's difficult to say if that's actually accurate or not So I use those numbers to guide me as to what sort of range I should be in in terms of my different paces, but then at the end of the day It's really about the feel, you know, I go out and I do a workout and I see how does it feel at this pace? It's this pace is sustainable That sort of thing Now here we got the long run. Here's the weekly kilometers. Okay. This is the total Kilometrage 80 90 100 60 90 100 80 100 right I'm topping out at 100 K and I have a few Periods here where I'm doing 100 K Just one time that I'm doing it 200 K weeks in a row and that's here in the final phase I'm doing 200 K week back-to-back other than that. I'll do I'm doing 80 90 and 100 Alternating a little bit with recovery weeks in between, you know, next week is gonna be a well actually this week Is a recovery week and I have a race at the end of the week and then Here's my long run So obviously if you want to look at the details, you can pause this video and analyze away, but Here's my long run. So different distances there and either it says like here for example says 22 E That means 22 K easy Here's this 34 E plus that means like 34 K easy, but not really easy Just like pushing it a little bit, but still easy and then here's like 30 M Which basically means 30 K long run with a substantial amount of marathon pace in there And then how much of it will be marathon pays? Well, that depends on the workout itself Which is something that I plan on a weekly basis So I'll actually each week at the beginning on Monday I'll sit down and I'll make my weekly calendar here and then I'll plan out the workouts Based on what I've done before what feels most appropriate and I'll sort of play around with different Types of workouts, etc. But here's the you know, it's supposed to be a marathon long run that day and here there's the details for the sessions with the different letters referring to marathon pays threshold interval Repetition these are Jack Daniels running formula type Abbreviations so if you don't know about those abbreviations you can just well, I suggest you read Jack Daniels running formula It's a good book Anyway, I'll put a link to it in the description and affiliate link to Amazon so you can buy it if you wish But yeah, I don't think I'm gonna go through all these details That's a little bit too much for this video, but needless to say I'm doing, you know, I'm doing repetition work I'm doing marathon pace. I'm doing thresholds and strides. I'm doing long runs at marathon pace I'm doing easy long runs and I'm mixing it up from week to week And I'm typically focusing on two workouts per week So, you know this week for example, we're doing marathon pace plus a long easy run Tuesday Saturday, right? Next week threshold and then marathon pace Wednesday Saturday So I sort of I do two main quality sessions a week and the rest of it is more or less easy mileage I'm feeling good and I'm you know, I'm not recovering from the day before I might, you know start running slightly harder than easy But still holding back in order to make sure that I can finish the important workouts when they come Whether that be the next day or the day after that so Training is really a matter of balancing training and recovery. It sounds so basic and obvious But it's really a lot of people make the mistake of sort of racing and training And doing too many hard sessions not really focusing enough on recovery So, you know after a hard session the next day you should take it really easy for some people it would mean complete rest For others maybe going for a run is a good idea, but it needs to be like really really easy So I just have two quality sessions and I make sure that I'm really recovered for them and able to execute them with top-notch quality Yeah, some more, you know details here just like questions should I go longer on the long run this long run this week is 32 M so that means 32 K with some marathon pace in there We're we're just like one two three four weeks out from the marathon 32 K. Maybe that's enough. That's a 20 miler essentially Should I go longer should I go 35 K? Just you know just a little question for myself I'll see when I get there. Perhaps I will go longer on that particular run We'll see thinking about doing a video to max lactate test in the lab Perhaps I don't know when I would do it, but perhaps I will and then the rest of this is just as I said talking about You know my different, you know V dot stuff and just basically just notes or comments for myself So that is the training plan in a nutshell just generally Progressing through the mileage getting comfortable at 100 K per week, which is the peak mileage for this build up Working on those long runs really focusing on the long runs. That's really key in a marathon build up long runs are You know, they're the most important workout you do and particularly as you get closer to the marathon The hard long runs, right the long runs where you were actually practicing running at a pace close to or even at your marathon pace Is very those workouts are very important You know a Marathon is a very long distance. So you're not gonna, you know, you're not gonna run a marathon in in training at Marathon pace that would be like racing a marathon. So you save that for race day and what you want to do in training then is to a Simulate the time and the sort of duration time on feet Fatigue that you experience in marathon by going for a long time At a slower pace and then closer you get to the marathon You want to be able to run for longer and longer at your goal marathon pace So at the same time you're sort of both working the duration but at an easier pace and also working at Marathon pace but a shorter duration and then as you get closer to the marathon Those sort of meet in the middle and you start extending your ability to stay at marathon pace for longer And the the easy long runs that go for the race and they become they become less important as you come closer to the the race itself anyway, that was a little bit of a spiel I guess on Paradiseation which is a topic in of itself, but I'm happy about the build-up so far It's been a lot of fun. I really love marathon training so far. It's really cool I'm heading in now to the important part, which is from here and down So how many weeks do we have here? We have one well one two three four five six seven eight nine ten 11 so 11 weeks out from the marathon and Yeah, I think for the next few weeks the the focus of course according to the plan and according to my own Predictions is that I'm going to focus more on the long marathon pace runs. I'm gonna do more long runs in general I'm gonna hit a 34k long run pretty soon Which is gonna be the longest run I've ever done. Will I hit the 35k long run at one point? Perhaps It's a good idea to do so. I think however I Need to balance the risk with the benefits because it is pretty far for me at this point So you don't want to overcook yourself and so it's a balancing act throwing in some recovery weeks in there just for for well for obvious reasons and Having fun with some races along the way. So when I built the plan, of course I started with my you know my marathon race date and I Worked backwards from there adding in the taper adding in the most important sort of final phases first and then sort of building it From there and in terms of knowing what workouts to do each week Like should I do a marathon paced run here? Or should I do a easy long run or should I do a threshold session like how do I know where to put those sessions? I'm working on What I would consider a two week cycle really here where there's like two week cycles This plan is a little bit messy because I've revised it a few times So it's not perfectly lined up with the two week cycles But as you can see here the idea is that there's like two week cycles and within that two week cycle I'm definitely having Typically an easy long run one week followed by a marathon paced long run the next week And I'm also touching on another type of energy system for example It could be threshold could be interval training as a view to max session or whatever and Trying to spread it out as evenly as possible So the most important workouts like marathon paced long runs, etc They go in first and I spread them out so that I'm not missing a few weeks without a marathon paced run You know, I mean like I want to be able to at least every 14 days hit that sort of Give my body a stimulus like that and then I Down prioritize things like interval like view to max intervals because they're less Specific to the marathon, but I still want to keep them in there Perhaps every four weeks or so and touching on threshold also ideally around every Every two weeks ideally perhaps every three weeks sometimes It's also something that I do so as you can see here marathon if you just look for the ends, which is marathon pace I'm doing marathon marathon. No marathon then marathon. No marathon No marathon no marathon marathon So most weeks or at least every other week. I'm touching on marathon pace if you're looking at the t letter That's threshold. So I'm touching on threshold there again next week Then a week off threshold and back at threshold there threshold no threshold No threshold no threshold and then so that's a few weeks there without any threshold But I'm doing a race which is going to be fairly Stimulating to the lack that threshold regardless. So, you know, you need to really think about a lot of things it takes Probably took me about 10 12 15 well 10 hours, I would say to build this plan because it's not it looks like it's just like just Everything is just put in there, but you actually have to sort of think of okay When was the last threshold session when is the next one when should I fit in another one? Oh, no, that's too close to a marathon session and how far along it has been since I did a an easy long run I should throw one of those in here and you want to balance all these things together And that's one of the challenges of making a training plan, but it's it's a lot of fun for sure If you like this video, of course give it a thumbs up And if you like my plan and if you're thinking perhaps you would like to try a marathon as well or Maybe a shorter distance 5k 10k. Maybe you're a beginner or an intermediate doesn't matter remember that I do now offer Customized training programs, okay on my website the link is in the description so basically that means that we'll have a talk on Skype and I'll be building your training plan based on our talk To fit exactly your needs your starting point your goals and we'll sort of get you Train optimal for whatever you want to achieve So I think training plans are important because they give you a structure and I also think it's really important to have a personalized custom training plan rather than just a generic one because There are so many individual differences to consider and that's what I wish to do and watch that's what I wish to offer With my new coaching business MGJ coaching So you can go to mggcoaching.com and learn more about that and in the meantime leave a comment If you liked this video, let me know what you think about my build up Give it a thumbs up if you liked the video and of course subscribe if you haven't done so already Thank you for watching. Wish me good luck for the marathon. I will be back soon with more videos I promise and I'll see you around