Aimed for a perfect 15 week block immediately after a Half Marathon race to lead into my goal marathon for the year, the Sunshine Coast Marathon in Australia. Started the block with some runners knee (a recurring fault of mine) that I worked on for two weeks with a little less mileage than the plan wanted but played a bit of catch up through to week 4 as I gradually caught up with the plan. Kept on the plan solid until week 10 where I wasn’t recovering enough (my fault) and during the end of a 113km week my Achilles tendon inflamed nastily. With physio help I got to the start line keeping the plan structure and swapping most runs for bike sessions, including intervals which I tried to make somewhat similar to the run sessions as well, and got moving really solid again with two weeks to go.
Race day came and the original target was 2:48:40, smack on 4min/kms and despite running the entire race solo (the only pack nearby went out way to hard for me to keep up with) I still ran a 2:49:57. So even injured, more difficult a race than expected the plan got me through to very close to my goal. I’d certainly buy a plan again and will be next year for Melbourne, aiming for sub 2:40. I’ll be a little better prepared so hopefully I can give Ben an even better review.
Only improvements I would make would be including gym (weighted) options on the strength side of the program, instead of just body weight. Personally I believe gym work is the only component worth going heavy on to help avoid injury, and personally it’s a massive help. While I had my own program I still opted for the strength plan addition out of curiosity and it was well carved out, just wish it had weight options for runners that need that help!
Regardless I was stoked, will be buying the level 6 again and I’m extremely keen to give it a crack.
Thanks Ben for the help and especially for the price there’s really no reason not to buy these plans. If you’re reading this, just go and buy it, rip and tear your way to your goals and GET IT DONE
