[shway]

Hi,
First of all, I wanted to thank you. I’m a 53 year old man. I just ran my first ever Marathon. Trained for it using your Level 2 Pace Based plan. Finished with a time of 3:18:40, far exceeding even my wildest expectations. I had intended this to be a one and done thing; but I’ve been told that I actually beat the BQ time for my age/gender by 6:20, so I might have a shot at Boston next year. Not sure if I’ll do it; but, if I do, my question is:
Do you think I should repeat the Level 2 training plan again? Or should I consider moving up to Level 3, or maybe even down to Level 1? If I do Boston, I won’t be trying for any sort of time. It would just be an honor to participate. By the same token, I guess I’d like to finish somewhat strong and healthy. I travel a lot for work, and frankly, it was tough to keep up with the Level 2 training plan at times, especially since I was trying to strength train 2 days a week on top of that. (And I ended up having to extend my training by 5 weeks, due to a scheduling conflict with the original marathon I signed up for.) Also, because of my age, perhaps a higher level wouldn’t be advisable even if I had the time? A lower level seems tempting due to the lesser commitment; but I did feel overall that the Level 2 prepared me very well. I’m not sure what Level 1 entails, but I do think that the various structured speed workouts were very important to my overall fitness and success on race day.
Sorry to ramble on.
I’d really appreciate any suggestions or observations you might be able to offer.
Thanks,
Josh

[David Warden]

Shway, first, let me say first-time marathon at 53 with a time of 3:18 is impressive.

The next level you choose depends on two factors: 1) how important your Boston time will be and 2) how much time yo have to commit to train.

Based on your own assessment, it seems the Level 1 might be the best fit. Boston is not critical, and you struggled with the Level 2.

The other thing to consider is that you can always move from Level 1 to Level 2 within the plan, and it is much harder to go from Level 2 to Level 1, so start lower if you are not sure.

David

[shway]

Thanks so much, David!

A few quick follow ups:

1) If I already have purchased Level 2 (from last time), then to do Level 1, I would need to do a separate plan?

2) Honestly, one of the biggest struggles commitment wise was to do Level 2 along with the twice a week strength training. With that it mind, if I could more easily commit to Level 2 without strength training, would you then recommend that? Or would you still recommend Level 1 with strength training over Level 2 without?

3) It sounds like you would advise against considering Level 3? (Level 3, as with Level 2, might be doable for me time wise, IF I could consider dropping or backing way off of the twice a week strength training.

Thanks again,

Josh

[shway]

Sorry, to clarify. My first question was whether I would need to purchase Level 1 if I wanted to switch to that for my Boston training instead of (already purchased) Level 2.

[David Warden]

You don’t need to purchase again. Our Level Guarantee covers a switch between levels within the same plan distance. See https://www.8020endurance.com/contact/

David

[shway]

Thank You!

And, at the risk of repetition (and annoyance!), here again were my other 2 questions:

2) Honestly, one of the biggest struggles commitment-wise was to do Level 2 along with the twice a week strength training. With that it mind, if I could more easily commit to Level 2 without strength training, would you then recommend that? Or would you still recommend Level 1 with strength training over Level 2 without?

3) It sounds like you would advise against considering Level 3? (Level 3, as with Level 2, might be doable for me time wise, IF I could consider dropping or backing way off of the twice a week strength training.) If I could commit to Level 3 without strength training, would that be a recommended option (in pursuit of a good time)?

[David Warden]

woops, sorry, my mistake, I did not see one of the posts.

2) I’d recommend Level 1 with Strength training over Level 2 without strength training for sure.

3) I would still recommend Level 1 or 2 with strength training over Level 3 without strength training.

Research shows that endurance athletes perform better when they replace a significant portion of their endurance training with strength training. Of course, high volume + strength training is even better, but if you have a limit to the time you can commit, never drop strength training.

David

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