Help me run two marathons, 42 days apart

September 18, 2009 11:30 AM

Marathoner Filter: I'm running the Oct. 11 Chicago Marathon and the Nov. 22 Philadelphia Marathon. Any tips on what I should be doing between these two races in terms of recovery and training?
posted by timnyc to sports, hobbies, & recreation (3 comments total)

What are your goals?

I routinely run a long run of 20 miles or more per weekend, and I train normally during the intervening week.

If I want to push myself in a long run, anything from marathon-50 miles, then I take the next week almost completely off, and then resume running normally.

If I want to push myself in two runs at the marathon distance I need at least a month in between. I take a week off after the first one, I start training normally, and I run long on the second weekend and every weekend after, although I might take it easy the weekend before the next race.

But a lot of this is predicated on what I mean by pushing, what my base is, how hard I run my training long runs, and all that kind of stuff. Information about your variations on those things might help folks answer this question.
posted by OmieWise at 11:50 AM on September 18

I peaked at a 30-mile training run a couple weeks ago. Now I'm into my taper and probably won't do anything more than 13 miles until Chicago. After that, maybe I'll take a week off then start in with the long runs again, building until a taper a couple weeks before Philly. I expect a better time in Chicago -- for one thing, it's a lot flatter.
posted by timnyc at 12:16 PM on September 18

I've never run the Philly marathon but I'm pretty familiar with the area. I can't imagine where there is a 'hill.' Along the River drives? It's as flat as a billiard table.
posted by fixedgear at 1:11 PM on September 18