Monday: Monday remains an easy day, even though you just finished a "stepback" week, backing off your training. Three smooth miles, and don't forget to do some stretching afterwards. It's always a good idea at the beginning of each workout week to take a few minutes to both evaluate Running Past and contemplate Running Future. This week your total running mileage will be about 35 miles, the long run on the weekend 13 miles. In Week 15 (peak week before tapering begins), you will run 52 miles for the week, 20 on the weekend. Is that enough to insure success? I think so, but if you want more mileage you could consider adding a mile or two to some of your easy runs.

Tuesday: The Tuesday "sorta-long" run today is 6 miles. You're now into the first week of your second 3-week cycle and ready to resume the mileage buildup that is integral to successful marathon training. Subtle increases in distance (both daily and weekly) will pay off at the end of our 18-week program. If you're feeling good--and we hope you are after the stepback week--push the pace a bit today. Maybe for a mile or two toward the end of your run, increase your pace by about 15-30 seconds a mile. You still can converse, but you become more out-of-breath, and your training partner will say, "Hey, what's your hurry?" Smile and ease back. In terms of heart rate, you probably would be closer to 75 than 65 percent.

Wednesday: An easy day: Three miles at a comfortable pace. There are several ways to judge "comfortable." If you are running with a partner, the two of you should be able to converse without getting significantly out of breath. Or, if you're running alone, you could even talk to yourself--although people will think you're crazy. If you train with a Heart Monitor, you would be running somewhere between 65 and 75 percent of your maximum heart rate. Particularly after a day's rest on Monday, you should finish this workout feeling better than when you started. If you're doing strength training, today is a good day for it. If you feel you need more mileage than I have prescribed, this is another day when you could add a few miles to the run.

Thursday: This is your speed day. Repeat the workout you did on this day during Week 1, only with one more hill. Warm up with a couple of miles. Go to the hill you ran three weeks ago. Run 4 uphill repeats, jogging back down between. Cool down with a mile or two. One way to do this workout is to run to the hill, stretch briefly, do the repeats, then run back.

Friday: This is the one day of the week when the workout never changes. It's "rest." Take the day off. How can doing no running be considered a workout. I count it as such, because your day of rest is designed with a purpose. It's to get you ready for your weekend workouts, which generally are harder than weekday workouts. People who work 9-to-5 jobs--or have other obligations with children--often find it easier to locate time to train over the weekend. Want to add more miles to your weekly total. You could do some running today. One option would be to jog a mile or two to a soft golf course, then run a half dozen "strides" near 10-K pace, then finish with a mile or two. But rest may be the better option.

Saturday: Run 6 miles at marathon race pace, the same distance as last week. This is the third Saturday "pace" workout in the first four weeks of your program. Please be alert to the fact that I sometimes say "pace" and I sometimes say "run." The former means marathon pace; the latter means run at any pace that feels comfortable that day. Should each mile be run precisely at race pace? If you're planning 7:30 miles, should each of the 6 miles done today be done exactly in 7:30? Not necessarily, but you should be close both in training and in the marathon itself. External factors may cause variations. Your first mile, for instance, might be somewhat slower since you aren't fully warmed up. Your last mile also might also be slower, since you're starting your cooldown--or faster because you feel inspired and want to kick the last quarter. If there's a wind shift because you turn around, tailwinds or headwinds may cause you to go faster or slower. An uphill in one mile may slow you; a downhill in another may speed you up. This will be true in the marathon itself. These Saturday workouts are all about "learning" pace, not necessarily hitting each mile split right on the head.

Sunday: We're back into the mileage progression. Run 13 miles today. Your total mileage for the week should be about 35 miles, or about three times the length of your longest run. As the length of your long run increases, your total weekly mileage also will increase--but we don't want you to overtrain and run too much. This is not a mega-mileage training program! A runner from Argentina recently posted a question to one of the V-Boards in Virtual Training. He was running 50 miles a week going into the 18-week program and wanted to drop his time from 3:20 to 3:10. He felt the early mileage of the Advanced program might be too low for him, and wondered where he might add miles. Well, as I've indicated above, he could add 2-3 miles to his easy runs on Mondays and Wednesdays, and he could warm up a few miles more before fast runs on Thursdays. He could even run instead of rest on Fridays. Would this allow the runner from Argentina to run a faster marathon? Maybe, but it also raises the risk that he might fail because of injury or overtraining. Sometimes runners seeking to improve should be ready to assume some risk; other times, they should not.

 

Tip of the Week: If you are training through the summer, one way to avoid hot weather is to run early in the morning. The days are longer. Use these extra hours of daylight to get out before the sun rises too high. Temperatures are cooler, the air cleaner and the scenery prettier in the hours around dawn. If work schedules force you to run midday, be sure to wear a cap to protect against the sun--and drink plenty of water! If you are training through the winter, midday may be the best time for you to run.

How to Improve: If the advice encountered here is helpful, you should consider obtaining a copy of Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide. It will help get you to the starting line and, most important, get you to the finish line. 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.