Hansons Method

Exciting stuff.

My one tip would be to zone in on the importance of Wednesday.

Get into the mindset that the week begins on Thursdays and ends on Tuesdays. You'll smash each of those tempo sessions if you rest and recover well on Wed.

Get to bed early on both Tue and Wed.

I found the Tue sessions pretty tough going, because they were at the end of a tough week, but I always felt fresh and good to go on Thursdays.

The very best of luck with it.

This. The plan starts on a Thursday after three days rest for a reason. It's amazing how many people don't notice the significance of that.

Hi P (we met at the expo) - if you can pace 3:30 in Dublin with the usual buffer you can race it far faster than 3:16, as I suspect you know. For you (like everyone), it will be all about computing the right training paces based off an honest appraisal of recent racing history. Get that right and the Hanson approach will pay off - as will any reasonably scientific approach, to be honest.

I don't think any well trained runner should fear a marathon paced session, and certainly not a long 'fast easy' run - expect it to be tough, yes, in the context of everything else you are doing, but anything under LT effort should always feel achievable if you've got the paces right. If you're training even a second per mile too fast, it's a different story of course.

Good luck!

Your strength paces are off. Should be around 4:20.

I targeted 3:10 too, here's my own paces.

Easy and recovery I went by HR and were generally slower than yours, averaging about 5:40 for easy, and 6:00 for recovery. 5:08 seems too hot I think.

Long was 4:55 - 5:00

Tempo - 4:30

Strength - 4:20

Speed - 4:00 - 4:05 (I went closer to 10k pace with these rather than 5k)

Cool, thanks for pointing that out. I must have read from the wrong line in the table. I would tend to agree also on the easy and very easy paces. 5:08 seems a bit fast to be easy.

Interesting. I have been wondering how I can fit a bit more mileage into my week generally. One of the options is to up my easy pace a tad and therefore get a k or so more in for each run as I am maxed out for time and I'm going to dedicate a day to go to the gym from the new year.

I had always though I took my easy days on the slow side of easy and I had the scope to up it a bit. Similar to you I would be somewhere around 5.40 for easy in Z2. I was thinking, based on HR that I could probably go to 5.15/20 looking at the stats but since you are faster than me and you are still working off 5.40 it's made me think a bit.

The calculators all tend to give quite a wide range, strava for example says I can be just sub 5 min/k for easy....... If I keep to effort like I do then there is the wriggle room..

I used Hanson for my first attempt at a marathon (Waterford) in June.

I thought training had gone well but in reality a newborn had put enough of a dent in the plan.

I made a complete hames of my pacing in the hot weather, cramped up on mile 18 and hobbled home in 4hr 05mins.

I decided to take a few weeks off to recharge the batteries during the summer.

I got some good consistency going at the end of August and decided to give the Waterford AC half marathon a shot with a target of somewhere around 1hr 43mins based on a 10 mile race I finished in 1hr 18mins in September.

I used week 6-10 of the beginner programme and finished off with the taper week.

The main thing I tried to focus on was keeping my long runs slow. As a complete novice, the penny finally dropped that I was going too fast on my long runs.

It felt great arriving at the start line feeling fresh and strong.

I managed to get home in 1hr 38mins. Absolutely delighted with that.

The plan did require a lot of discipline, lots of early morning starts which free up the evenings for baby stuff.

I’ve entered the Edinburgh marathon next May and hopefully I can go into a decent 3hr something.

From the book:

There are many options for adding strength training to a running program. Our basic philosophy involves three main ideas: (1) It should complement the running regimen; strength work should never replace running. (2) It should improve weaknesses, muscle imbalances, and running form; in essence, strength training should help to improve running performance. (3) It should be short and simple.

Humphrey, Luke. Hansons Marathon Method: Run Your Fastest Marathon the Hansons Way (p. 213). VeloPress. Kindle Edition.

The book doesn't prescribe any particular strength training regime, although there are specific dynamic warmup and stretching exercises.

Sounds like a good execution so far. 👍

They were OK. 4:04 average pace, felt like puking at the end. Looking forward to a day off

Periodic update:

Training for Boston, goal time is 3:10 with a B goal of under 3:15. PB is 3:15:00 from Dublin 2015

Into Week 12 of 18. Finished Tuesday speed sessions two weeks ago, hitting pace targets for 3x1600. Started strength sessions last week with 6 X 1600 at 4:20 (was closer to 4:16 avg) and today was 4 X 2500, also avg at 4:15. The long runs have been great, the last two 25/27k coming in around 4:45 avg, including a few laps of Booterstown/Mount Merrion Avenues Sunday just gone for hill practice). Hardest sessions continue to be the Thursday MP tempos. The pace and energy seem to be OK, but the tiredness really kicks in and calves/hamstrings have been very tight for these runs the for last four weeks, to the extent that I had to stop to stretch calves on a few occasions. Seeing physio tomorrow for a loosen out (also had one 4 weeks ago and have some scheduled for before the big day).

Overall, I would say it's going well. The major tiredness is starting to ease a bit, or maybe I am just used to my legs being mashed all the time.

I am still a touch anxious about not doing a "long" run before the end. I might stretch the last 27k run to 30 just to ease that anxiety, but I don't want to deviate from the plan too much.

Regards the strength session, it doesn't matter. Do whichever one most appeals to you.

As for extending the runs, you should just trust the plan. If you're going to do so I'd say extend the easy long run rather than the steady one. Sixteen miles at that effort is more than enough and of you're managing niggles as it is then it doesn't make sense to push your luck.

That makes absolute sense, but I don't think the problem is too bad. Saw physio last Tuesday and she said it was fine, just a bit of stress caused probably by doing a couple of the Thursday sessions on predominantly downhill routes. I was able to do last week's Thursday session but did it about 10s per k slower and did 16/18 on Saturday and Sunday with no real reaction.

I think my real issue is probably lack of trust in the plan and the thought of hitting mile 20 on the day and running out of gas.

Yes, plenty of them but this is the first with this plan. Logically I know the plan works, but irrationally I am still sceptical. Maybe my one time running boston was not the best time to change plans, but maybe it was the best time. I'll know for sure this time four weeks

I've only done Hanson once, and that was on my third marathon (last year). Looking back, regardless of what I think of the long run tapping out at 27k, I'd be of the mind that you've followed the plan so far and you shouldn't start messing with it 4 weeks out.

The only advice I would offer at this stage is see the plan out but be careful of the 10 day taper. I read loads that suggested my legs would feel fine on the day, but they didn't. I think that's ultimately what got me, not the lack of distance in my long runs. Hopefully it won't be an issue for you.

Regarding paces, I am pretty crap at those. I tend to bank pace, so my tempo runs, which were supposed to be at 4:30 were pretty uniformly 4:27, the 4:55 long runs were between 4:45 and 4:50 and the strength runs were 4:15 instead of 4:20.

Of those, the hardest runs I found were the tempos

Boston is a tough course, and one of the things about it is the deceptively easy downhill start, gentle drop for six miles as far as I remember it. So it's easy to get carried away - super important to have a conservative start on that course. A brilliant race and experience, enjoy the taper and the pre-race.

last 16k tempo before boston done today. I really hope the next ten days sees an amazing recovery 😂

that's a hard no from me on the hansons method. Waited and waited for the legs to come good during the taper but they just felt dead the whole time. I knew from the first km today that it was going to be a struggle and it was. Legs had nothing from the start and got worse from there on. Trained for a 3:10, finished 3:37. Luckily it was a great day and the experience was fantastic, but HMM will be not considered again for future events.

Gutted to read that. Really thought you were going to smash it.

looking back over the splits, I had two KMs that were on PMP and they were both in the first 5k. After 3k I knew I wasn't going to get anywhere near the goal so resigned myself to that and decided to just enjoy the run, but legs felt so tired I didn't even enjoy that. I did, however, enjoy the occasion, it was amazing from the time we got here. The heat was a possible factor but mainly the issue was the legs.

We live to fight another day. With a different plan 😂