Monday: Cruise an easy 3-miler. Don't run farther or harder thinking it will get you in better shape. More isn't always better. Evaluate how you felt after your first week of marathon training at the Advanced-I level. Good? Okay? Awful? If the last, you might want to reevaluate whether you should be following this Advanced schedule rather than remaining an Intermediate runner. It's not going to get easier! 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. And you need to train with a purpose. 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 run 3 miles today and afterwards do 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: Five miles today. This is your first "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 Tuesday 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 Tuesday in Week 11. It's all part of my Grand Plan to get you in shape for the marathon. And trust me: it will! 

Wednesday: An easy day: 3 miles at a comfortable pace. You will remain at the 3-mile level for Wednesday workouts until Week 7, when I'll bump you to 4 miles, and that distance to Week 11 when you will take a final bump to 5 miles. This is an "easy" day, sandwiched between two "hard" days featuring tougher training. Today would be a good day to do some stretching after your run and possibly some strength training too. The best time to stretch or lift is afterwards, after your muscles have warmed up.

Thursday: Speed day. Last week, you ran hills. This week, do a tempo run of 30 minutes. A tempo run is a continuous run with a buildup in the middle to near 10-K race pace. A tempo run of 30 minutes would begin with 10-15 minutes easy running, then building to peak speed for the next 10 minutes (15-25 minutes into the run), then finish with 5 minutes easy. In any tempo run, the pace buildup should be gradual, not sudden, with peak speed coming about two-thirds into the workout and only for a few minutes. You can do tempo runs almost anywhere: on the road, on trails or even on a track.

Friday: This is a rest day. 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 and/or strength training. Don't feel you have to run seven days a week to achieve success as a runner. Often you can achieve more success by doing less.

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. This advice is even more important for Advanced runners, because of the much harder training you are asked to do on other days of the week. You can't show up on a Thursday and expect to do speedwork at maximum effort if you ran to hard during your long runs.

 

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 to spend on 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 © 2001 by Hal Higdon. All rights reserved.