Dopey Challenge Training Strategy


We are into March 2023.  The first day of Spring is just around the corner.  The runDisney Marathon Weekend is less than 10 months away. Given where my running ability is today, I feel I need to map out a long-range plan with some milestones along the way.  At this point in time, run/walking 7 miles takes a lot out of me aerobically and takes me more than a day to recover.  My hip pain is an unknown.  The strength exercises, which I have been regularly doing, seem to be triggering a transformation in the muscles around my hip, but a significant amount of discomfort remains, especially after running.  

Given this state, I need to plot out the road ahead to ensure I maintain a reasonable balance between strength training and cardiovascular training.  Too much of one will sacrifice progress in the other.  But at some point, I am going to need to transition to less strength training and more running.  The purpose of laying out this plan is to determine when that needs to occur.
Where to start?  Let’s look at the two popular runDisney Dopey Challenge training plans:  the Jeff Galloway Plan and the Hal Higdon plan.

Jeff Galloway Plan

For those of us who have been running long distance for decades, Jeff Galloway is name familiar to us.  Jeff is an Olympian (1972) who pioneered the idea that anyone can run a marathon with the proper ability-based training.  He has introduced thousands of want-to-be marathoners to the run/walk method, and the notion that it does not matter how fast you are, there is honor in simply crossing the finish-line. But his training methods scale from sub-3-hour marathoners to 7-hour marathoners.  So regardless of how fast or slow you are, you can tailor Galloway training methods to your abilities. 
 
I personally learned from Jeff’s methods that it is okay to walk.  I have completed my fastest marathons by incorporating walking breaks early and often.  The idea that you must keep running the whole time will most likely negatively impact your finishing time, except if you are an elite runner for whom 26.2 miles is a daily jog.
Galloway’s Dopey Challenge plan is 29-week plan (actually 28, week 29 is for recovery after the event).  The complete plan can be found here:


The first 11 weeks call for just 3 running days.  Usually two 45-minute weekday runs (or run/walks) and one increasingly longer weekend run.  Week one is just three miles, week 10 is 11 miles.  It is notable that the weekday runs are time-based, and the weekend runs are distance-based.  Run or run/walk as far as you can comfortably in 45 minutes during the week, but on the weekends, you got to go out and put in the miles, regardless of how long it takes. 

Starting in week 12, he adds a second weekend run in alternating weeks.  This starts to simulate race weekend with back-to-back runs of significant distance. For example, week 16 is 7 miles on Saturday, 17 miles on Sunday.   And then in week 22 he adds in another run such that you have 4 days, Thursday through Sunday, of increasing distance, otherwise known as Dopey Simulation Week.  

Week 25 is the second and last Dopey Simulation week with 45-minutes on Thursday, 5 miles on Friday, 12 miles on Saturday, and 26 miles on Sunday.  One detail I have left out is that for many of those consecutive days, Jeff prescribes walking, not running.  I’m not sure how I feel about that.  I would think you need to at least run/walk those days to really experience how race weekend is going to feel.
The weeks I highlighted in the Galloway Plan become milestones in my long-range plan. The table below maps out where I need to be fitness-wise on specific dates.  For the purpose of my training plan below, I translated the 45-minute walk/runs to 5-mile runs, except in the high mileage weeks toward the end.  For those weeks I use 3-mile runs. The rows in bold italics are weeks in which I have a personal milestone independent of Jeff’s plan.


When I insert my personal milestones and races (in bold italics), there becomes a discrepancy between the Galloway rate of buildup and where I want to be.  So, I would probably do my own thing until Galloway week 12, when his plan reaches a long run of 13 and weekly mileage of 27.
In the next section I will explore the Hal Higdon Plan and see how that maps out to my milestones.

Hal Higdon Plan

At first glance, it appears the Higdon Dopey Training Plan is not for the faint of heart. The plan assumes you already have a good base and starts off week one with a total of 27 miles including a 13-mile long run. The Higdon plan has you running 4-5 times a week with back-to-back Saturday/Sunday runs starting from week one.  Hal’s plan also includes a midweek run of 7-8 miles in most week.  


However, compared to the 28-week Galloway Plan, the Higdon Plan is 18 weeks.  If you compare the plans starting at week 10 of the Galloway Plan, the strategies are similar except that the Higdon plan adds the additional midweek run of 7-8 miles. 
The table below is how my plan would map out based on the Hal Higdon Dopey Training Plan.  As in my Galloway table, my personal milestones are in bold italics.

My Plan

My personal buildup strategy to prepare for the races that I plan to do flows perfectly into week 1 of the Hal Higdon plan.  The total weekly mileage of the plans from then on (Galloway week 11, Higdon week 1) is very similar.  It seems then, that my strategy should be to prepare of each of my planned races through August and then switch to either plan in September. 

What is the answer to my original question, at what point do I need to transition to less strength training and more running? The answer, I think, is that I need to have a base of 20 miles per week by the end of April.  So, I have time to continue focusing on strength training.  If I can get up to 15 miles per week by the end of March, I should be in good shape.  That would allow me to continue doing strength training 3 times per week.  On April 1, I will need to reassess and potentially update my plan.

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