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26092 responseshttp://running-advice.com/blog/?p=2609Video+--+Mental+Preparation+for+the+Marathon2009-07-02+15%3A53%3A53JoeEnglish so far, want to say something?

1. 1. Michelle July 19th, 2009 at 2:06 pm

   I am training to run the Chicago Marathon. Three week prior to that is another Marathon I would like to run. Is it a good idea to run them both or are they two close together?

2. 2. coachjoeenglish July 20th, 2009 at 5:29 pm

   Michelle,

   There are a lot of considerations that go into making a decision like this. The most important are your level of fitness and your goals for the two races. Let me give you a couple of things to think about:
   – If Chicago is the most important of the two races, doing another race thee weeks prior could impact your performance in Chicago. You won't be able to predict how that first race is going to go and you won't know how well your recovery will go from it. It may be that you'll race fine and recover fine, but you can't know this ahead of time — so again — if Chicago is the most important of the two then you need to consider the potential impact on your Chicago performance in making that choice.
   – It can take four weeks or more to recover from a run over 20 miles in length, so while three weeks may seem like a long time, it's likely that you'll still be recovering from the first race when it comes time to run Chicago. Also, if you were to taper for the first race (say two or three weeks to be recovered for that race) and then need two weeks or more to recover from the first race, then you're going to have at least four to five weeks of taper and recovery leading up to Chicago — meaning that you will not be doing high-quality training in that time to prepare for Chicago.
   – Although some people do run marathons in tight progression — perhaps on back-to-back weekends or even back-to-back days — they will moderate their pace goals to make this happen. Not all of them will be full-out efforts. Being able to back-off the pace quite a bit is required to be able to pull off multiple marathons. If you don't have the head-room to be able to adjust your pace (meaning you've only trained to run the marathon to get through it), then this will be challenging. To give you an example, I ran marathons on two back-to-back days two years ago and ran both marathons at about 4:15:00 pace — but I was capable of running a single race in about 3:00:00 — so that 4:15:00 pace was very comfortable to me. This is what allows for a quick recovery from a marathon.
   – If this is your first marathon, then I'd discourage you from attempting to run two marathons so close together. The recovery from a first marathon (both physical and mental) can take some time and you just may not want to run for a week or two after. I think after the first race, a longer break is warranted to reflect on what you've done, before jumping into the next one.
   – Your recovery from a marathon will be based on two things: 1) how hard the effort was in the marathon and 2) how well you take care of yourself in the hours and days after the marathon. In regard to the effort, the easier the effort (in terms of pacing), the quicker the recovery. Also, if you \”hit the wall\” during the race, you'll do more damage to the body and the recovery time will be greater. After the marathon, to speed your recovery, you want to immediately start eating and drinking to start the recovery process and you'd want to consider active recovery through cross-training and sport massage in the week after the race to speed the recovery process.

   You may also want to check out the video that we did on the topic of recovery from a marathon, which you can watch by clicking here.

   Good luck!

   Coach Joe

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