An Integrated Training Program

How I trained for a marathon and 5K at the same time without killing myself

April 1, 2002

The Problem and Analysis

Clearly my 1994 crash and burn disaster was a case of overtraining—too much mileage, speedwork, racing and not enough rest. For awhile, I decided to take the approach of dividing the year into spring shorter distance racing and fall marathon training. However, as I went through the dedicated 18-20 weeks of marathon training, I was always disappointed by slow race times in the shorter races that I did enter.

I revisited the concept of training for both the marathon and shorter races at the same time. Somehow I had to integrate the two training programs so that they worked together without burning me out. I turned to one of my favorites for training programs, Bob Glover, who has authored a number of books. In Chapter 15 of his Competitive Runner’s Handbook, Glover indicates that individuals can and should write their own program based on the guidance in his book, because you are the only one that knows which race goals you want to pursue and what levels of training intensity you can tolerate. You need to come up with your personalized training program that balances racing, speedwork, long runs and rest.

My goal was to devise a plan incorporating shorter distance races but still leaving me tuned and ready for the big marathon. I will show you the logic I used and you can apply these lessons as a template for creating your own integrated training schedule. My rationale was that by analyzing running schedules for different distances and written by the same running expert that I would be able to spot commonalties in the training as I blended them together.

Examine the table at right, partially abstracted from tables in Glover’s book, for the basic competitive runner.

There is no getting around the fact that marathon training requires longer runs and increased mileage whereas 5K and 10Ks require short but fast speed training. However, there is also overlap in the two types of training. For example, long runs for the marathon will more than cover the long run requirements for 5K and 10K training.