Coach Jay,

I recently completed my first marathon at the NWM in San Francisco. Now that I'm up to the long runs and higher weekly mileage, I want to know the best training schedule to maintain my progress for the running season. I have a couple of 1/2 marathons I'm doing this month and next month and I'm planning a full marathon for April 2010?

Thanks for you guidance,
Terry

Terry-

Thanks so much for your question. First, I love the fact that you're identified a marathon that is months away and that you have a couple of half marathons on the docket between now and then. Good job on those two pieces.

Training volume, the amount you run each week, should be an important aspect of your training. You want to run more in the coming 4-5 months than you have in the past. However, the real key is this: do workouts that you've never done before, recover from them for 1-2 days, repeat. For instance, you said you will bump up your long run volume. Great! But make sure you give yourself at least two days of easy running, or even an easy day of running then a day off or a day in the pool before your next workout. And the next workout should be something from your old training, perhaps your "favorite loop" run in the time you always ran it in the past. The problem most people face, myself included, is that when we set a running goal and get serious about training we try to do a longer long run on the weekend, then we try to do workouts during the week that are also challenging. Do one challenging thing per week for 4-6 weeks before you move to two challenging workouts per week. That's the general advice.

In terms of specific workouts, I suggest the following. Each week I do a weekly tip and for the coming weeks I'll devote that section to workouts that will help all runners, but specifically marathon runners. But the key to a better marathon is consistency with weekly volume and a nice progression of long runs, ending with either a run that is 20 miles in length or a run that is as long as you plan to race the marathon (yes, I know, this is hard, but it's a key workout in a marathon build-up).

Take care Terry and best of luck with your training.

Jay-

Is running a good way to lose weight? I walk about 4 miles a day (up from the 2.5 I was walking), but I never lose any weight. I am about 240lbs, 6'2" and 42 yr old male.

What is your advice as I would like to lose like 20lbs but I'm not sure if running will do it. Thanks!

-Adam

Adam-

I really appreciate your question and I'm answering it in part because I have an interesting corollary that I'll share in the end.

I think running is a great way to lose weight, yet a run/walk program is what I would recommend for you at this point. Why? Because you can get in a longer workout if you ran a mile, walked 5 min briskly (i.e. about as fast as you can walk) and repeat until you get in 4 miles of running. You're a big guy and you don't want to stress your bones, ligaments, etc. with the pounding of trying to run 5-6 miles every day.

Second, you are a prime candidate for the General Strength exercises (click here for my videos) as they will challenge your body physically, yet metabolically they will change the way your body uses fuel/food because you'll be rebuilding muscle after each workout (more so than just running alone).

Those are two thoughts, the but here is the biggest issue. Losing weight is a simple equation, with caloric expenditure (i.e. running) needing to slightly outweigh caloric intake (i.e. eating), so even if you're caloric expenditure goes up you still need to be mindful of your caloric intake.

And guess what. The elite athletes I work with struggle with the same issue, especially this time of the year. I work with athletes running 60-110 miles a week, yet none of them are as lean now as they will be in the spring and summer, their primary racing season. Why? Because even they have to watch what they eat to be really lean and this time of the year I tell them to blow it off (plus the fact that the metabolic demands of the workouts in the spring tend to help them lose the last couple of pounds). And if I'm totally candid that's my biggest frustration with my own training. I'm training more than I have in years and more consistently, yet I'm hungry more often and I don't have much discipline when it comes to eating, which means I'm leaner than I was six months ago but not as lean as I want to be.

So there you go, caloric intake vs. caloric expenditure. Simple equation, but not a simple one to manage day to day.

Thanks so much Adam and good luck!

Coach Jay coaches athletes at RunnersCoach.com and blogs at CoachJayJohnson.com. And don't forget, if you have training question for Coach Jay, email him here: coachjay@nike.com.

Interested in Coach Jay's General Strength videos? Click here to check them out.

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