The Plan: How Do You Train For a Seventy Mile Run?

I’m now two weeks into my training and the old familiar feeling of flow I get when I start to improve my fitness is coming back. My running seems to feel more fluid again, rather than the clunky uncomfortable unpleasant and atrocious runs I was doing a couple of weeks ago.

I’m not a runner and when in between challenges I don’t keep running to maintain fitness so when I start training for a challenge I literally start from scratch. Please understand this is not ideal - for anyone this approach comes with an increased risk of injury and a HUGE feeling of frustration when you don your running shoes and start up again. Yes - I get that too!

I’m not quite Ricky Hatton - I don’t put on three stone in weight between races - I just don’t run as part of my weekly routine.



I haven’t really trained for a running event in over a year. I realise my ironman had a marathon on the end of it, but this was small fry to me seeing as I couldn’t swim over a mile and didn’t own a bike (let alone have any proficiency on it!) before I started to train. Therefore for the 32 weeks of Ironman training I only really did 1 or 2 runs a week and that’s not really enough to develop marathon fitness.

I digress. The point is this - I don’t run and so I’m starting from scratch.

I now have just under twenty weeks to go and I know you guys want to see my training plan. The truth of the matter is the running part is simple for me. Being a fitness expert who is well versed in advanced anatomy and physiology, biomechanics, psychology, program design, blah, blah, blah, I suppose I should give you a complicated intelligent explanation about what I’m doing and why. I’m sorry to disappoint you...

The truth of the matter is despite what you read on the running forums, running is a low skill activity and it’s perhaps the stuff I do around running which is more important.

Please don’t confuse what I just said. Running might be simple, it is not easy. You still have to train. But, it’s just not as complicated as ‘experts’ make out.

To build a program I find a plan that has worked for me well in the past and amended it. The simplest best plan I’ve found is on the Runner’s World website and is free.

I’m planning on running this race doing only three or four runs per week. This goes against the grain a little. Most endurance training plans require you to ‘get time on your feet’ which basically mean running five or six times per week. I want to do it as part of a reduced volume plan for experimental reasons.

In the past with endurance training plans as the demands become greater I become hopelessly addicted to caffeine and chocolate. By running at a lower volume I hope to keep my diet in check and substitute the extra runs with strength training and soft tissue work (massage and foam rolling). This way I will be strong and healthy.

It has always crossed my mind that you only need three runs to be a good marathon runner. One fast run, one moderate distance run and one long run - anything more seems to be less meaningful practice and more junk mileage. What is a recovery run anyway?? (cue a series of angry emails from runners...)

Therefore, I printed this off the program from the website and highlighted the runs I wanted to do. I am building up to doing 22 miles in about 10 weeks time and from there I will build up my moderate run to a similar amount. With good nutrition, strength and adequate recovery I be able to manage this. It will culminate in me doing back-to-back 22 mile runs six weeks out from the race.

Sounds insane, right? :-)

I plan on taking little baby William with me for some of it. This will give EJ a rest and William some fresh air. This will mean it doesn’t effect family life too much... Maybe.

I’ll keep you posted.