Training for Cebu Marathon

Finally, after a long hiatus from marathon running, I’m finally on the road again training in earnest for the Cebu Marathon on January 12, 2014.

I am following the traditional 16-week newbie training format based on a 7-day cycle, similar to the Smart Coach program that’s available for free over at www.runnersworld.com.

The program involves four days of running in a week with mileage ranging from a low of 24 KM to maximum of 64KM. Super newbie and a far cry from the monster mileage required when training for an ultramarathon. But when you have very little time to train, what you need to do is to make sure you get quality training runs and make each mile count.

There are two important runs in a training week – the long slow distance and the speedwork.

The newbie training program still has three weekends of 32KM long runs because there’s no escaping the long slow distance which is the bedrock of marathon training. The LSD is purely for the purpose of endurance. It increases your aerobic fitness, teaches your body to run efficiently and helps build mental discipline. The long run pace should be 1 to 1 and ½ minutes slower than your marathon pace. Try running the last 3 to 4 miles (5 to 6 KM) of the long run at your target marathon pace to train yourself to have the “negative split mentality” or running the second half of the race slightly faster than the first.

For speed, I’ve decided to follow the Yasso 800’s, the speedworkout developed by Runnersworld Editor and the Mayor of Running, Bart Yasso.

In his book “My Life on the Run, Yasso explains how the Yasso 800 workout can be a useful tool for developing speed and for predicting your marathon finish time. —

“If you want to run a 3:30 marathon, then train to run a bunch of 800-meter repeats in 3 minutes 30 seconds each. Between the 800s, jog 400 meters. Begin running Yasso 800’s a couple of months before your goal marathon. The first week, do four or five. Each subsequent week, add one more until you reach 10. The last workout of Yasso 800’s should be completed at least 17 days before your marathon.

As a rule of thumb, runners who have done only three or four marathons should add about 10 minutes to their projected finish time, and more experienced runners should add 4 or 5 minutes. For the most part, adjustments depend on how extreme the temperature and the terrain are. The actual marathon finish time also depends on the runner’s ability to handle heat or steep hills. Yasso 800’s don’t work miracles. You still have to do long runs, hill workouts and tempo runs.”

The biggest challenge for me so far is finding the time between breastfeeding schedules and my work at the Court of Appeals, to do all my training runs, not counting the weight training twice a week for cross training. So far, I’m able to rack up mileage by running when the baby is asleep. Vera who sleeps at 8PM now sleeps through the night until 5AM. This window of marathon training opportunity has turned me into a night runner. I run from the house to Cebu Business Park of IT Park where it is safe to run even at night because of the presence of security guards at every block. So far, this running on borrowed time has worked, with baby still asleep when I sneak back in sweaty after my night runs.