About the Alternate Marathon Program
What do you do when your marathon gets cancelled? This Alternate Marathon guide is designed to help you navigate your training routine for marathons when plans change unexpectedly.
At a glance
Author: Hal Higdon Length: 3-6 Weeks Typical Week: 4 Run, 2 Days Off, 1 X-Train Longest Workout: 16 miles
Hal on his Alternate Marathon Program
Runners sometimes have to cancel marathons for various reasons, everything from illness to family or business situations. Often, the logical thing to do is shrug and rationalize: “There are more important things to life than racing 26 miles 385 yards.”
That’s true, but that doesn’t make the decision to postpone your marathon any easier. What do you do? First, you cry. Then you begin to consider your options. I’m going to suggest several options and also provide some training programs if you have to postpone your marathon one or two or three weeks or more. Here are the options:
Assuming that you choose options 3, 4 or 5 above, here’s what to do. (The following schedules all begin with Week 16 of my 18-week program. The postponed marathon, thus, would have come at the end of Week 18.)
Alternate Marathon Training Schedules
Let’s begin with the last three weeks of my training program, the taper following the final 20-miler in Week 15. If you have been using one of my training programs, you already know what these three weeks look like. If you are using another training program, I’m going to suggest that the numbers may be different and in different boxes, but that pattern of gradually decreasing effort will be about the same. This is the Novice 1 schedule, so runners using my Intermediate or Advanced schedules may need to compare and interpolate the numbers with their last three weeks.
Week | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
16 | Rest | 5 mi run | 8 mi run | 4 mi run | Rest | 12 | Cross |
17 | Rest | 4 mi run | 6 mi run | 3 mi run | Rest | 8 | Cross |
18 | Rest | 3 mi run | 4 mi run | 2 mi run | Rest | Rest | Marathon |
Postpone your marathon one week
This is both easy and difficult to do. Easy, because all you need do is add another easy week by repeating one done before. Hard, because if you are into the final week, it may be too late to make significant changes. (Those running the canceled DC Marathon learned only Thursday morning.) For the sake of the chart below, let’s assume you have one week notice on your canceled race, two weeks notice on your substitute marathon. If so, repeat Week 2 of your taper, then do Week 1. But in all honesty, following a schedule of 3- to 4-mile workouts every other day will allow you to maintain both your fitness and sanity. Intermediate or advanced runners can follow my usual advice to maintain the quality of your workouts (same pace) but hold or lower the quantity (number of miles).
Week | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
16 | Rest | 5 mi run | 8 mi run | 4 mi run | Rest | 12 | Cross |
17 | Rest | 4 mi run | 6 mi run | 3 mi run | Rest | 8 | Cross |
18 | Rest | 4 mi run | 6 mi run | 3 mi run | Rest | 8 | Cross |
19 | Rest | 3 mi run | 4 mi run | 2 mi run | Rest | Rest | Marathon |
Postpone your marathon two weeks
This is a tougher stretch, since you now will have five weeks of what I sometimes refer to as “Taper Madness.” That recognizes the fact that when I ask runners to cut their mileage and rest, they begin to suffer withdrawal symptoms. They miss that daily run, and they’re unhappy when I tell them to cut that 6-miler back to 3 miles–or even to take a full day of rest. So the problem is psychological more than physical. Nevertheless, my approach would be the same as above. Simply back up in your program two weeks. This means doing a second 12-miler for a long run and a second 8-miler as well. You should have no difficulty maintaining your fitness using this approach. If you feel a bit “overtrained” because of being forced to extend your marathon program from 18 to 20 weeks, cut back even further on the miles. But to try to maintain quality.
Week | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
16 | Rest | 5 mi run | 8 mi run | 4 mi run | Rest | 12 | Cross |
17 | Rest | 4 mi run | 6 mi run | 3 mi run | Rest | 8 | Cross |
18 | Rest | 5 mi run | 8 mi run | 4 mi run | Rest | 12 | Cross |
19 | Rest | 4 mi run | 6 mi run | 3 mi run | Rest | 8 | Cross |
20 | Rest | 3 mi run | 4 mi run | 2 mi run | Rest | Rest | Marathon |
Postpone your marathon three weeks
In adding three weeks to your marathon program, it becomes more than a 6-week taper. You have time now to include some quality training. I’m not going to send you out for an added 20-miler on the day you had planned to run your marathon, but probably you should go at least 16. And if you have an opportunity to do a shorter-distance race, take it. A half marathon would be the best choice, but if it is more convenient to run a 5-K or 10-K, that’s fine too. You can race the shorter distances full speed if you want, but I’m inclined to run anything longer as a pace run, possibly picking up the pace in the last 3 miles if you feel invigorated.
Week | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
16 | Rest | 5 mi run | 8 mi run | 4 mi run | Rest | 12 | Cross |
17 | Rest | 4 mi run | 6 mi run | 4 mi run | Rest | 8 | Cross |
18 | Rest | 5 mi run | 8 mi run | 4 mi run | Rest | 16 | Cross |
19 | Rest | 5 mi run | 6 mi run | 4 mi run | Rest | 12 | Cross |
20 | Rest | 4 mi run | 6 mi run | 3 mi run | Rest | 8 | Cross |
21 | Rest | 3 mi run | 4 mi run | 2 mi run | Rest | Rest | Marathon |
Postpone your marathon a month or more
I’m not going to provide a specific training schedule, because “a month or more” could mean anything from four weeks to eighteen weeks. In this case, simply count the appropriate number of weeks back from your substitute marathon and begin again at that week. If this means doing a second 20-miler or more, accept that burden. As with schedules above, doing a race at sub-marathon distance might add to your preparation. If you have more specific questions, I’ll be glad to answer them on one of my interactive forums.