The 2023 Graduates Thread - What's Next?

Slowly (in more ways than one) I'm getting back into a better routine. Had a few days sick a couple of weeks ago which was a minor blip in upping the weekly KMs. Hit 40km last week with 6 days running, which was mostly easy and then two runs with intervals. I am yet to get around to anything over 10k since the marathon and want to get better at making the time to get a proper long run in each weekend, especially with the weather getting a bit better. Also looking forward to a parkrun but something keeps getting in the way each Sat morning. I'd really like to get back into them as when I was doing them regularly, I could see slight improvements over time, and it's a good way to push yourself that extra bit when surrounded by a few others. I usually squeeze in a strength and conditioning workout and yoga once a week too. For the running plan, I'm still using the Garmin watch suggested runs. It's convenient and simple to follow so does the job for now.

Hi all. The 15 week marathon plan in the spreadsheet starts around mid July. Should I just follow the base plan and repeat weeks 5/6 until then? Since DCM2023 to the end of April I've just being doing 2x 10k's a week + the odd park run. In May I've been on the base plan. Or are you supposed to have started this months ago and work through the tabs?

Thank you

Thank you Mr Guappa! So Monday 10th June it begins :)

Did a slow 20k on Sunday and felt grand so it looks like the legs still remember which is encouraging.

Hey all,

I have been tipping away for the last few months keeping a steady mileage of 35km a week. I joined a running club and did knock 2 mins of my 10k time. I am running Dublin again and hoping for a big improvement on last year. I can't believe its nearly time to start those long long runs again….

I am looking for Running plans at the moment if anyone has any excel recommendations I saw the boards one with times but I do prefer distances targets. Running the Killarney HM on the 8th of June and planning to base by training plan of that time.

How is everyone getting on?

I actually can't believe the marathon training should start again next week! I have a race next Sunday so I'll probably start a week late.

It definitely feels much different this time around for me, everything was new, I only ran my first half in July and started training after that so every training run longer than that was my longest run, there was a certain amount of going into the unknown.

Ignorance was bliss in someways, but now I have 1 marathon under my belt, one that didn't go at all well, so thats the only point of reference I have!

I'm feeling good though, I've been running consistently 5 or even 6 times a week since the end of April and have been focusing on losing some weight. Down 8kg or so, unfortunately I'm only down 2 or 3Kg from my Marathon weight, but I'm pretty sure I'll be able to lose a few more during the summer.

Haven't been running very long distances in these few weeks though, 10 miles has been the max, so it will be interesting to get back into the swing of things.

Still haven't picked a plan though! I liked Hal higdon intermediate 1 last year, but I think there would be no harm incorporating some speed sessions, so if I'm modifying plans I probably should be just finding a different one! Will take a better look over the weekend.

The Runkeeper app is quiet good and it has speed sessions in the traing plan. It also guides you on your run, which is very handy for speed sessions.

I had a look at the Runkeeper plan it gave me today, my initial thought is I'm not sure about it.

A lot of the long runs, including the only 32k on plan, is at race pace. That race pace 32K is also only 3 weeks prior to DCM. Maybe race pace long runs would work for me, but it definitely feels like a leap of faith to change my approach that much!

The weekly mileage seems a little lower compared to what I did last year, despite putting down I'd run a 6th day (I only did 5 last year).

HH intermediate 1 went very well for me for last year other than the race, but thats kind of an important part of a plan :)

Will have to ponder some more

Thanks to Mr. Guappa for setting this thread up. I'm a bit late to the party. I was part of the 2022 novice group. I briefly joined Lazare's graduate thread too but not for very long. I ran consistently to the end of 2022 but then between one thing and another I didn't run much at all for nearly a year. Consequently I lost all of the gains made in 2022. But for the last months I'm back at it and have a spot in this year's Dublin marathon. I've decided I'm going to follow the Boards Novice plan again. Doing this mainly because I know it works but also I don't think I have the fitness levels just yet to take on anything more advanced. TBH I'd be really happy with a similar performance to 2022. I plan to train with a goal time of 3:59, though I think that might be beyond me atm and will adjust as necessary after a few weeks. I have signed up for the Marathon race series, so looking forward to that too. Back in March I did the Skerries 10k in a time of 49:31. I hope to post some updates in the coming weeks and look forward to seeing how others are getting on too.

Hope everyone running is going well!

How terrible of an idea would it be to just combine two different plans?

I'm thinking of doing the the boards grad plan for the midweek runs: 60mins easy on Monday and Wednesday and a speed session on Tuesday

And then following hal higdons intermediate 1 for my weekend runs: up to 14 K on a Friday (sometimes at MP) and long run Saturday

Both plans (adjusted forward a day, to bring the long run to Saturdays) have a rest day Thursday and rest/cross/recovery on Sunday, so structure wise they are pretty similar

The boards plan step back weeks seem to be all looked after by shortening the long run, the HH plan also shortens the weekend runs so it should look after the step back

The boards plan only has me doing one 3 hour long run, which for me wouldn't be 20 miles. I know there is a school of thought that anything over 3 hours is too much, but I'm not sure I'm ready to take that leap!

It's a lot harder to plan long runs, especially if out with the group , using times runs rather than distances. If I'm on my own I can keep a fairly consistent pace overall so I can predict what distance a time would be, but not so much with the group.

I haven't drawn up exactly what the plan looks like in terms of distances per week or whatever.

Would be interested to hear what you think!

I think time based is probably more relevant for the faster (less than sub 4hr) runners. I prefer distance over time based myself as I wouldn't be that fast.