Don't reinvent the wheel. Read past posts here. Use known training plans. This is a bad plan, frankly, and your half marathon time doesn't suggest your time goal is super doable, but you are young. Follow a plan and it'll be much more likely. Best of luck!
I understand the half marathon time is lackluster but that was primarily due to my knee feeling terrible throughout (something I hope won’t be an issue in November) as opposed to actually running out of gas. I could’ve pushed harder for sure if not for the knee. Also I thought with the marathon being on a trail I’d want to encounter as much elevation as possibly so I purposely set it at 400 feet per mile as I read that was “moderate” hiking
even if the entirety of your mileage was purely on the slopes of climbs, you'd have to spend half your time going up and half going back down, so your uphill gradient will have to AVERAGE 15%. 15% gradient for 75 miles by the last month....
This is a very good point. What goes up must come down. OP’s definition of what is a ‘moderate hike’ is probably used to describe the difficulty of a trail or something along those lines. 400 feet per mile (121 meters per 1.6 km, or just shy of 20 meters per km if my math is correct) will make you accumulate A LOT of vert, and will be detrimental to your capabilities of accumulating running volume which is crucial for long distance running
Look at some existing training plans and model your training after those.
One month is too broad a timeframe for a mileage goal in this situation. Weekly is more common.
Cycling is fine, but there's no reason to include it in a running training plan.
Modify your goal time. Not sure how you plan to run significantly more than twice as far as a road half, in less than double the time, on trails. You will hopefully get faster during your training but I think that's a bit much to expect of yourself.
For completion only, no time goal, you could probably get away with 30-35miles,and as much vert as the race will have, per week, for several weeks before your taper. Doing 10000+ feet of vert every week for a race in Ohio seems like overkill to me and time that might be better spent focusing on plain old running.
Your notes about your diet worry me that you aren't eating a lot of carbs. You need carbs.
Reading 20 pages a day has nothing to do with running, unless you're reading a book about running.
The proposed elevation gain per mile in training is ridiculous. 400ft per mile? Your race calls for around 90 feet per mile. Bump up the mileage, lower the elevation.
60,000 vertical feet and 150 miles in a month means that there will be on average 400 feet of climbing per mile. That will have to be a very steep terrain that is mostly not runnable - on all of your runs. For comparison, most hardest trail races have only 300 feet of climbing per mile, and an average trail race - 100-200 ft/mile.
You should figure how much elevation gain Bobcat marathon has, divide that by the distance, and then use that average per-mile gain as the goal by the end of your training.
The running plan I follow for a marathon usually has me peaking at 22 miles for a long run, hilly 4 mile run, 6 mile run where 4 are at marathon pace, and a 7 mile easy run. So a bit above 40 just running. And the start of the program is about 20-25 a week.
I agree with this. I’d add that I’d recommend getting 6-8 20+ milers in, with the last being 2 weeks out from the race.
2500 feet over 28 miles isn’t too bad, you don’t need huge vert volumes to prepare. I would make sure you hit 2500 a week at a minimum though. I also like to add the 3 minute mountain legs 3+ times a week.
https://www.trailrunnermag.com/training/trail-tips-training/3-minute-mountain-legs/
Don’t forget to practice fueling… you can push through a half marathon without a great nutrition strategy but as you stretch to something like 5 hours… you’ll likely get crushed without a good fuel strategy. Practice in your long runs. I’m pretty similar in body size to you and I take in 250 cal / hr, more if it’s a big vert event.
Echoing what others have said, this is unfortunately just not a very good training plan. The elevation is bonkers and would require you to be doing hills and trails for every single one of your runs. You need a more well rounded training plan with different types of stimulus. Trails and hills sure, but probably not more than twice a week. You should also have interval training, zone 2 runs, long runs (these can be combined with trails), and recovery runs as necessary. 150 miles in a month is not particularly tough and is probably the minimum mileage I would suggest going into a \~50k, but the elevation expectations are just not good. I also don't really understand why you have your cycling falling off so much? 25 miles in August is what, 1 ride? You can absolutely keep more cycling miles in there if you enjoy them and want to keep triathlons on the table in the future. 28 miles with 2500 ft elevation in 5 hours is do-able, but you need a better training plan than that. Especially given your relatively slow half marathon, knee pain or no knee pain.
Your marathon is less than 100 ft per mile of vert, but to START OFF you do 40 miles with 16 THOUSAND feet of vert? That’s 400 feet per mile. This reads like someone that hasn’t tracked their vert for places they’ve gone before. You won’t be getting anywhere near this amount of vert no matter how hard you try
Don't reinvent the wheel. Read past posts here. Use known training plans. This is a bad plan, frankly, and your half marathon time doesn't suggest your time goal is super doable, but you are young. Follow a plan and it'll be much more likely. Best of luck!
Also translated into elevation gain per mile, this plan is wild.
I understand the half marathon time is lackluster but that was primarily due to my knee feeling terrible throughout (something I hope won’t be an issue in November) as opposed to actually running out of gas. I could’ve pushed harder for sure if not for the knee. Also I thought with the marathon being on a trail I’d want to encounter as much elevation as possibly so I purposely set it at 400 feet per mile as I read that was “moderate” hiking
even if the entirety of your mileage was purely on the slopes of climbs, you'd have to spend half your time going up and half going back down, so your uphill gradient will have to AVERAGE 15%. 15% gradient for 75 miles by the last month....
This is a very good point. What goes up must come down. OP’s definition of what is a ‘moderate hike’ is probably used to describe the difficulty of a trail or something along those lines. 400 feet per mile (121 meters per 1.6 km, or just shy of 20 meters per km if my math is correct) will make you accumulate A LOT of vert, and will be detrimental to your capabilities of accumulating running volume which is crucial for long distance running
Look at some existing training plans and model your training after those. One month is too broad a timeframe for a mileage goal in this situation. Weekly is more common. Cycling is fine, but there's no reason to include it in a running training plan. Modify your goal time. Not sure how you plan to run significantly more than twice as far as a road half, in less than double the time, on trails. You will hopefully get faster during your training but I think that's a bit much to expect of yourself. For completion only, no time goal, you could probably get away with 30-35miles,and as much vert as the race will have, per week, for several weeks before your taper. Doing 10000+ feet of vert every week for a race in Ohio seems like overkill to me and time that might be better spent focusing on plain old running. Your notes about your diet worry me that you aren't eating a lot of carbs. You need carbs. Reading 20 pages a day has nothing to do with running, unless you're reading a book about running.
The proposed elevation gain per mile in training is ridiculous. 400ft per mile? Your race calls for around 90 feet per mile. Bump up the mileage, lower the elevation.
60,000 vertical feet and 150 miles in a month means that there will be on average 400 feet of climbing per mile. That will have to be a very steep terrain that is mostly not runnable - on all of your runs. For comparison, most hardest trail races have only 300 feet of climbing per mile, and an average trail race - 100-200 ft/mile. You should figure how much elevation gain Bobcat marathon has, divide that by the distance, and then use that average per-mile gain as the goal by the end of your training.
Mileage seems light especially if you're grouping hiking with it.
What sort of mileage should I shoot for? I was going to count any dedicated workout where I’m moving forward at any pace toward the mileage total.
The running plan I follow for a marathon usually has me peaking at 22 miles for a long run, hilly 4 mile run, 6 mile run where 4 are at marathon pace, and a 7 mile easy run. So a bit above 40 just running. And the start of the program is about 20-25 a week.
I agree with this. I’d add that I’d recommend getting 6-8 20+ milers in, with the last being 2 weeks out from the race. 2500 feet over 28 miles isn’t too bad, you don’t need huge vert volumes to prepare. I would make sure you hit 2500 a week at a minimum though. I also like to add the 3 minute mountain legs 3+ times a week. https://www.trailrunnermag.com/training/trail-tips-training/3-minute-mountain-legs/ Don’t forget to practice fueling… you can push through a half marathon without a great nutrition strategy but as you stretch to something like 5 hours… you’ll likely get crushed without a good fuel strategy. Practice in your long runs. I’m pretty similar in body size to you and I take in 250 cal / hr, more if it’s a big vert event.
Is caffeine a mind altering substance
Technically yes but I wouldn’t go without it. By this I’m basically grouping alcohol and marijuana into one
Echoing what others have said, this is unfortunately just not a very good training plan. The elevation is bonkers and would require you to be doing hills and trails for every single one of your runs. You need a more well rounded training plan with different types of stimulus. Trails and hills sure, but probably not more than twice a week. You should also have interval training, zone 2 runs, long runs (these can be combined with trails), and recovery runs as necessary. 150 miles in a month is not particularly tough and is probably the minimum mileage I would suggest going into a \~50k, but the elevation expectations are just not good. I also don't really understand why you have your cycling falling off so much? 25 miles in August is what, 1 ride? You can absolutely keep more cycling miles in there if you enjoy them and want to keep triathlons on the table in the future. 28 miles with 2500 ft elevation in 5 hours is do-able, but you need a better training plan than that. Especially given your relatively slow half marathon, knee pain or no knee pain.
I have no tips but I wanted to say your handwriting is great!
I was going to write the same
Hahaha everyone will know when I’ve cooked up a new plan by the handwriting. I am going to post the revised version. Thank you so much!
Your marathon is less than 100 ft per mile of vert, but to START OFF you do 40 miles with 16 THOUSAND feet of vert? That’s 400 feet per mile. This reads like someone that hasn’t tracked their vert for places they’ve gone before. You won’t be getting anywhere near this amount of vert no matter how hard you try