Monday: Monday is an easy day. Continue to remind yourself of that fact. Do some cross-training, but only at a very easy level. It may not seem like you need to rest that much after a 10-miler over the weekend, but you will be thankful for this day of relative rest as the program continues. Also, evaluate how you felt after your last week of training. A lot of people play at running, working out three or four days a week, doing a long run on the weekends, entering an occasional race, sometimes gearing up for a marathon. For a while, they'll improve just on accumulated mileage, but after several years it becomes increasingly difficult to set Personal Records. To do that, you need to train. Training is when you follow a schedule, such as this one, where each day has a purpose. If the weather is bad, you still run. If you have important business, you simply rise an hour early to run. Why? Because I told you to! And if Hal tells you to cross-train today, maybe including some strength training, please do it! Not this one workout, but the accumulation of workouts over a period of a dozen weeks, should make you a better runner.

Tuesday: Today's workout is a run of 3 miles at a comfortable pace, the same as last week on Tuesday and the same distance you will do Thursday as well. This workout shouldn't take a great deal of your time: a half hour or less if you run at a 10:00-mile pace or faster. But forget I said that! I don't want you to go out and time yourself for 3 miles. In fact, your course doesn't need to be precisely 3.0 miles. It can be about that distance. The easiest way to pick a course of 3.0 miles would be to get in your car and figure out how far you need to run to go about half that distance (1.5 miles), either from your home, from your office or from wherever you plan to run on Tuesdays. Then run this 1.5-mile course out and back. Don't wear a watch, at least for the time being.

Wednesday: Five miles today. This is your "hard" day of the week. If you want to run a bit faster than yesterday toward the end, do so. Today's 5-miler is the same as last week's Wednesday workout, but next week you move up to 6 miles. As the program continues, the Wednesday mileage will increase 1 mile every second week until you reach a peak of 10 miles on Wednesday in Week 11. It's all part of my Grand Plan to get you in shape for the marathon. And trust me: it will! 

Thursday: Run 3 miles at a comfortable pace and do some strength training afterwards. Consider using several different courses at this distance--and for other road distances. Tuesday I discussed how to find a 3-mile course, suggesting that you simply get in your car and measure approximately half that distance, then run it out and back. For a second course, you might measure a "loop" course, meaning you circle around without retracing your steps. But as you run this and other distances, consider utilizing completely different courses, perhaps one in a scenic area frequented by other runners. Be inventive. You might as well make running as pleasant as possible.

Friday: A day of rest. Seemingly, you don't need this now, but wait until your weekend runs start getting longer in another few weeks. If you feel you need to do some exercise, limit it to stretching. I've been focusing on course measurement for most of this week. You might even call this the "Theme for Week 2." So if you're looking for something to do with your extra time while not running today, go out and measure a series of courses from 3 through 10 miles. You'll use them during the remaining weeks of this Marathon Training Program.

Saturday: Run 5 miles. Last week, I asked you run "marathon pace" (the pace you hope to run for the full 26 miles of the marathon). Next week, you will be asked again to do "6 m pace." Today, simply run at whatever comfortable pace suits your mood, keeping in mind that tomorrow is your long run of the week, and you don't want to compromise your ability to finish it comfortably by running too hard today. When you see the word "run" in my training charts, this is what I mean.

Sunday: Today is long-run day, and I'm asking you to go 11 miles, one mile further than the week before. One mistake you want to avoid is running these long runs too fast. Never do your long runs faster than marathon pace or even at marathon pace itself. That creates too much stress, coupled with your other training. Generally, I advise runners to do their long runs 45 to 90 seconds or more slower per-mile than race pace.

 

Tip of the Week: Easy days are as important in your training plan as hard days. You won't get the full benefits of the progressive long-run buildup on the weekends, unless you rest before and after. Resting on Fridays and Mondays allows you to run harder on Saturdays and Sundays, when you will have more time for your workouts. The marathon is 17 weeks away, but your success depends on the steady base that you are building now.

How to Improve: Hal Higdon's How To Train offers training schedules and advice on everything from fitness walking to running the marathon. Plus there's information on nutrition and recovering from injuries. Add a copy of this book to your collection. To order an autographed copy of this and other books by Runner's World's best writer go to Books by Hal Higdon.

 

Copyright © 2000 by Hal Higdon. All rights reserved.