thinking about second marathon

[marc_read]

Having completed the manchester marathon earlier this year....well why not do it again next year. So I have booked my place and am looking forward to it....although if you had asked me at mile 20 my thoughts on completing the current race let along going for a second you might have got several expletives. I've got plenty of time and have started looking at on line tips for second marathons...wondered how other people have prepared and trained for their second marathon.

[ancientrunner Half Marathon]

So the required time has gone by. We all do/think it - and for me it's sometimes at Parkrun.

Good luck.

[misswobble Marathon]

Good luck with the training. 😃👍

[Tomas Marathon]

Well done for wanting to scratch that itch a second time.

For my second mara I started by browsing through my notes on Garmin Connect for the training runs for the first one. I wanted to understand what had hurt (apart from the obvious "every muscle in my body") during the training. I remembered it had eventually all felt like a huge slug where I came back knackered from most runs, but when did this start? How accurate was my recollection? Which patterns could I see with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight vision?

This gave me a pretty clear idea about what had not worked well for me. I spent some time reading various standard marathon plans and books on planning, and tried to decide what would overcome the issues from the first. How could I borrow ideas and concepts, but roll them together into a plan that addressed my issues and seemed more suited for me.

I eventually settled on a number of phases. Planned the first in some detail but the remaining ones only very sketched.

As I went through the training I added details to the later phases as I got closer to them, and I tried hard to tread the balance between not blindly doing stuff just because it was written in the plan vs changing nilly willy.

In the end things worked a lot better than for the first mara, but there were still things I should have done differently. I will feed them into the plan for the third (signed up to Paris and in the lottery for London).

I think a marathon is such a major undertaking that planning needs to be a personalised thing. At least after having had the opportunity to learn from th first one.

Good luck, and I hope you will shar your progress and look forward to following your journey.

[marc_read Marathon in reply to Tomas]

Thanks for your input much appreciated food for thought

[roseabi Ultramarathon in reply to Tomas]

That sounds really good, Tomas! I think I will use your hybrid approach for my next marathon plan

marc_read I think my second marathon was too different from my first for me to be able to provide much insight for you. But here are a couple of useful things I learned: it's really helpful for race strategy if you know the route (which you do!); and you will get a massive boost whenever you remember that you have already beaten those 26.2 miles!

The most important thing is - enjoy your training!

[ju-ju- Marathon]

Brighton was my second marathon in 2016. My first was Paris in 2014. The first broke me a bit mentally and physically too. However my focus on the second was in enjoying it, getting round and finishing strong. I covered more miles a week and added in a a variety of cardio and strength work. My time wasnt much different but I finished strong and didnt have that emotional and mental dip I have seen people experience afterwards. I would say get your strength up, mentally prepare and most of all enjoy it. also allow downtime in your training plan, I find I have a 4 week cycle and the fourth I take very easy..... good luck and keep us posted