Advanced Marathoning

As we note in the preface, many readers want to get right to the training schedule of their choice and start working. That’s fine, but before getting too far into your training, you’ll want to read this chapter. In it, you’ll learn the best way to do each of the types of runs called for in the schedules. You’ll also see what to do with your schedule when the almost inevitable roadblocks pop up during your training.

The training schedules in chapters 8 through 12 include the specific workout for each day as well as the category of training for that day. The workouts are divided into the following eight categories: long runs, medium-long runs, marathon-pace runs, general aerobic runs, lactate-threshold runs, recovery runs,O₂max intervals, and speed training. Each run is explained here, including how to get the most benefit from a given workout. For an in-depth explanation of the physiological benefit and role of each type of training, see chapter 1.

Long Runs

In the training schedules, a long run is any run of 16 miles (26 km) or longer. The intention of long runs is (obviously) to improve your endurance in preparation for the marathon’s 26.2 miles (42.2 km).

To gain the most from your long runs, do them in the correct intensity range. Long runs shouldn’t be slow jogs during which you just accumulate time on your feet. As discussed in chapter 1, the appropriate pace for a specific long run depends on the purpose of that run within your training program. The most beneficial intensity range for most of your long runs is 10 to 20 percent slower than your goal marathon race pace. For most marathoners, this pace range coincides with about 74 to 84 percent of maximal heart rate or 65 to 78 percent of heart rate reserve. In this intensity range you find the optimal balance between running hard enough to simulate the muscle patterns and posture you will use at marathon race pace and running moderately enough that you can recover relatively quickly for your other important training sessions.

Start out at the slow end of the range. Gradually pick up the pace so you run the last 5 to 10 miles (8 to 16 km) at about 10 percent slower than your goal marathon race pace. Gradually picking up the pace during your long runs and finishing strongly will also provide positive psychological reinforcement that you’re in control of the marathon. To gain the greatest benefit, design your long-run courses to simulate the hill profile of your marathon. (See the section on hill running later in this chapter.) If your long-run course is much hillier than your marathon, then your pace will be somewhat slower.

The schedules also include marathon-specific long runs at goal marathon race pace (discussed later in the chapter) and slower long runs the day after a tune-up race. After a race or hard workout on Saturday, your Sunday long run should be at a relaxed pace because you are likely to be somewhat tired and have stiff muscles, which will increase your likelihood of injury. Start these long runs like a recovery run. If your muscles loosen up as the run progresses, increase the training stimulus by increasing your pace to about 15 to 20 percent slower than marathon race pace.

Medium-Long Runs

A medium-long run is any run of 11 to 15 miles (18 to 24 km). Medium-long runs reinforce the physiological benefits of your long runs. To gain the greatest physiological benefits, the pace for these runs should be similar to the pace for long runs. If you do a hard training session the day before a medium-long run, do the medium-long run toward the slower end of the intensity range.

Avoid the temptation to do your medium-long runs too hard on days when you feel fresh, because this will prolong your recovery time and reduce the quality of your other key workouts. As with long runs, design your courses for medium-long runs to simulate your marathon.

Marathon-Pace Runs

Marathon-pace runs are medium-long or long runs during which you run most of the miles at your goal marathon pace. These runs provide the precise physiological benefit of allowing you to practice the pace, form, and so on of race day. They’re also a great confidence booster.

Ryan Hall

Fastest Marathon: 2:06:17

Marathon Highlights:

First place,

2008 U.S. Olympic Trials;

fastest American debut marathon.

It’s said that marathoners are made, not born. If so, then Ryan Hall is the proverbial exception that proves the rule.

After all, how many other marathoners ran a 15-miler at altitude as the first run of their life? That was Hall’s initiation. After pleading with his father to let him join him on a run, Hall was told he could go along, but only if he made it the whole way. Oh, and no whining. When Hall made it through the run at 9,000 feet in Big Bear Lake, California, it was obvious to his father that his son was meant to run, and run long.

It took the younger Hall a little longer to figure that out. Even though in high school he regularly did 10-mile runs at a bit slower than 5:00 per mile (again, at altitude), he considered himself a miler. As a collegiate runner at Stanford, his longest serious race on the track was 5,000 meters, and when he made the U.S. team in that event for the 2005 World Championships, his belief that his destiny was in middle-distance running was reinforced. Yet over the next two summers, Hall came nowhere near meeting his expectations in world-class track races.

After a disappointing 2006 outdoor track season, Hall ran the New Haven 20K on Labor Day, winning what was at the time the longest race of his life. The following month, he set an American record of 57:54 for the distance while placing eleventh in the world championships. When he emerged from another three months of altitude training in January 2007, Hall ran a solo 59:43 to win the Houston Half Marathon, becoming the only American to break an hour for the distance and completing his transformation to an elite road racer.

That status has been more than sealed by the first four marathons of his life: an American-debut record of 2:08:24 at London in April 2007; a dominating win at the Olympic Marathon Trials in November 2007, where he ran the second half solo in 1:02:45 in hilly Central Park; a 2:06:16 at London in 2008; and a tenth-place finish at the Olympics in Beijing.

One key to Hall’s success is that he has found the event that best suits his physical and mental make-up. He enjoys and thrives on long runs with solid stretches at marathon race pace. Psychologically, he’s more suited to focusing on one race for a long time and then producing a supreme effort than to alternating between training and racing several times a season, as a track racer would do. If you find that, like Hall, you simply like marathon training more than preparing for other events, then that’s probably a good sign that the marathon and you are a good match.

Another factor that contributes to Hall’s success is the confidence he gains from his training. He runs few, sometimes no tune-up races before a marathon, and instead gauges his fitness from the patterns in his training. As his coach, Terrence Mahon says, “We know more about his marathon preparation from our training runs than from any single race that he could do. Watching how he progresses as a whole in the marathon training buildup allows us to throw out the ebbs and flows, and to see where the average is. If he raced on a day that when he was on a high or a low, then we could get some false data as to how he is really doing, and that could prove confusing.” While we advocate a few tune-up races before a marathon, we wholeheartedly agree that the overall quality of your training – especially your marathon-pace runs and tempo runs – is the best way to determine your progress toward your marathon goal.

Related to this focus on the overall pattern is Hall’s composure. He says, “One day I will be doing a 13-mile tempo run feeling strong and filled with energy. The very next day I will be doing close to two hours of running (split between two runs) and feel like I couldn’t take on a recreational jogger.” Rather than despair that the fatigue he felt on the second day meant that he was overtrained or out of shape, Hall recognizes that there will be ebbs and flows during a marathon buildup, both from day to day and week to week. What matters most is accurately assessing the big picture.

Over the past few years, the benefits of marathon-pace runs have become more fully recognized, and we have included more of these sessions in this edition of Advanced Marathoning.

Start these runs comfortably, as you would other medium-long or long runs, and then run the last portion at marathon race pace. For example, if the schedule calls for 16 miles (26 km) with 12 miles (19 km) at marathon race pace, gradually pick up the pace during the first 4 miles (6 km), and then run the last 12 miles (19 km) at marathon goal pace. The objective of these runs is to prepare your body as specifically as possible for your upcoming marathon, so design your course to simulate your marathon as closely as possible. For most marathoners, marathon pace coincides with about 79 to 88 percent of maximal heart rate or 73 to 84 percent of heart rate reserve.

General Aerobic Runs

General aerobic runs include your standard, moderate-effort runs of up to 10 miles (16 km). They are slower than lactate-threshold runs, shorter than medium-long runs, and faster than recovery runs. The intention of general aerobic runs is to enhance your overall aerobic conditioning through boosting your training volume; these runs improve your marathon readiness because many of the beneficial adaptations that improve endurance are related to the total volume of your training.

For most runners, the optimal intensity range for these runs is about 15 to 25 percent slower than marathon race pace. Usually, this pace range coincides with about 70 to 81 percent of maximal heart rate or 62 to 75 percent of heart rate reserve. Because the primary purpose of these runs is to increase your training volume, if you’re too tired to do a hard training session the next day, then you’re doing your general aerobic runs too hard.

Lactate-Threshold Runs

Lactate-threshold runs are tempo runs in which you run for at least 20 minutes at your lactate-threshold pace. This coincides closely with your current 15K to half marathon race pace. For most marathoners, this pace range corresponds with about 82 to 91 percent of maximal heart rate or 77 to 88 percent of heart rate reserve. Tempo runs provide a strong stimulus to improve your lactate-threshold pace, which leads to similar improvements in your marathon race pace. The lactate-threshold sessions are done after a 2- to 3-mile (3 to 5 km) warm-up and should be followed by a 10- to 15-minute cool-down. The tempo runs in the schedules range from 4 to 7 miles (6 to 11 km) long. As an example, if the schedule calls for 10 miles (16 km) for the day and a 5-mile (8 km) threshold run, warm up for 3 miles (5 km), do the tempo run, then cool down for 2 miles (3 km). Slower runners should run closer to their 15K race pace on tempo runs, whereas faster runners should run closer to their half marathon race pace during these workouts.

Recovery Runs

Recovery runs are relatively short runs done at a relaxed pace to enhance recovery for your next hard workout. These runs aren’t necessarily jogs, but they should be noticeably slower than your other workouts of the week. The optimal intensity for recovery runs for most marathoners is to stay below 76 percent of maximal heart rate or 70 percent of heart rate reserve. On a subjective basis, on recovery runs you should feel as if you’re storing up energy rather than slowly leaking it. You should finish the run refreshed. Going too hard on recovery days – when your body is most tired – means you’ll be more tired than you should when it counts later in the week.

Try to find flat courses for your recovery runs, but if your recovery runs include some hills you will need to extend the range by a few beats per minute on the uphills or run exceedingly slowly. Whenever possible, do your recovery runs on soft surfaces to help speed recovery that much more.

O₂max Intervals

TheO₂max intervals in the schedules range from 600 meters to 1,600 meters in duration and are run at current 5K race pace. ThoughO₂max work is an important part of your marathon preparation, it’s not as crucial in the marathon as it is in races such as the 5K and 10K. TheO₂max sessions in these schedules, then, feature repeats that strike a balance between being long enough to provide a powerful training stimulus and short enough to leave you fresh for your other important workouts of the week.

The same reasoning applies for the prescribed pace in theseO₂max workouts: Whereas runners focusing on shorter races need to do some of their intervals closer to 3K race pace, marathoners gain maximum benefit from sticking to 5K race pace. By sticking to the lower to middle end of the effective intensity range (i.e., about 93 to 95 percent of maximal heart rate or 91 to 94 percent of heart rate reserve), you’ll provide a strong stimulus to improve yourO₂max while recovering quickly for your other important workouts. For that reason, the training intensities forO₂max workouts in table 7.1 (see page 144) call for only the more conservative 5K-pace ranges.

The optimal amount of rest between intervals is debatable. One school of thought is to minimize rest so that your metabolic rate stays high during the entire workout. This strategy makes for very difficult workouts (which can be good), but you risk shortening your workouts. Another school of thought is to allow your heart rate to decrease to 70 percent of your maximal heart rate or 65 percent of your heart rate reserve during your recovery between intervals, which provides close to the optimal balance of effort and recovery.

For the lower-tech crowd, a useful rule of thumb is to allow 50 to 90 percent of the length of time it takes to do the interval for your recovery. For example, if you’re running 1,000-meter repeats in 3:20, you would run slowly for 1:40 to 3:00 between intervals. We use this method of measuring recovery in the schedules.

Speed Training

Speed runs are repetitions of 50 to 150 meters that improve leg speed and running form. These workouts train your nervous system to allow you to maintain a faster rate of leg turnover during your races.

Speed runs train your nervous system to allow you to maintain a faster rate of leg turnover during your races.

These sessions are done after a thorough warm-up and often toward the end of a general aerobic run or a recovery run. Allow yourself plenty of rest between repetitions so that you can run each one with good technique.

A typical session is 10 repetitions of 100 meters in which you accelerate up to full speed over the first 70 meters and then float for the last 30 meters. It’s critical to remain relaxed during these accelerations. Avoid clenching your fists, lifting your shoulders, tightening your neck muscles, and so on. Concentrate on running with good form, and focus on one aspect of good form, such as relaxed arms or complete hip extension, during each acceleration.

A typical rest is to jog and walk 100 to 200 meters between repetitions. The most important considerations are to maintain good running form and to concentrate on accelerating powerfully during each repetition.

The prescribed training intensities used in this chapter and in chapters 1 and 3 are summarized in table 7.1. These intensity ranges are appropriate for most experienced marathon runners. Less-experienced runners should generally train at the lower end of the recommended ranges, while elite runners will generally train at the high end of the ranges. (Heart rate isn’t relevant during the short speed sessions, so we’ve left them out of this table.)

Heart Rate Intensities for Marathon Training Workouts

Doing Doubles

Marathoners have a tendency to start running twice a day before their weekly mileage warrants it. Doing doubles sounds like serious training, so runners often assume it must be better marathon preparation. The reality is quite different; as you increase your training mileage in preparation for a marathon, you should resist the urge to switch from single runs to doubles.

In chapter 1, we discussed the various training adaptations that are specific to improving your marathon performance. Marathon training focuses on endurance-based adaptations such as depleting your glycogen reserves to provide a stimulus for your body to store more glycogen and training your muscles to utilize more fat at a given speed. You’ll provide a greater stimulus for these adaptations through a single 12-mile (19 km) run than by doing a 7-miler (11 km) and a 5-miler (8 km) at the same pace.

It might sound counterintuitive, but runners preparing for shorter races should run more doubles at a given level of weekly mileage than marathoners. Runners focusing on 5Ks, for example, should start adding doubles when their weekly mileage gets above 50. That’s because the 5K specialists’ main training emphasis is high-quality interval sessions, and more frequent, shorter runs will help keep their legs fresh for these workouts.

For marathoners, the basic guideline is to not do double workouts until you’ve maximized the amount you’re running in single workouts. If you’re preparing for a marathon and are running less than 75 miles (121 km) a week, then you shouldn’t regularly be running doubles. If you’re running less than 75 miles (121 km) a week, by the time you get in your long run and a midweek medium-long run, there’s no reason to double more than once or twice a week to get in the remaining miles. It’s better to get in longer runs and give your body 22 or 23 hours of recovery between runs.

Once you get above 75 miles (121 km) a week, however, double workouts have a definite role in your marathon program. As with any other aspect of training, doubles should be introduced gradually. Start by adding one double per week and then another, as you gradually increase your mileage. The schedules in chapters 8 through 12 reflect this approach to adding doubles, with double days called for only in the higher-mileage programs.

The minimum time for an added second run should be 25 minutes. If you run less than that, it’s hardly worth the extra time and effort – both physiologically and in taking time from your busy life – to change, get yourself out the door, stretch, shower, and so on. That’s especially the case if a too-short, not-crucial run means cutting into precious sleep time. In some situations, it’s wiser to add cross-training to your program than to increase your risk of injury with more miles of running. Various options for cross-training are discussed in chapter 4.

How, then, should you introduce doubles into your program? The training schedules in this book add second runs to a day’s training for specific reasons. One main category of second runs is on hard days. An easy run in the morning will loosen you up for an eveningO₂max session or tempo run. Similarly, 30 minutes of easy running in the evening will help you recover from a morning tempo run.

A second main use of doubles in the schedules is on recovery days. When your mileage increases to where your recovery days call for more than 8 miles (13 km) of running, it’s time to switch those days to easy doubles. It’s easier on your body, and your recovery will be enhanced, if you do two runs of 5 miles (8 km) rather than a single 10-miler (16 km). Avoid the temptation to add mileage to your recovery days for the sole purpose of boosting your weekly mileage. Extra mileage on these days is counterproductive because your recovery will be less complete for your subsequent hard days.

The schedules may also call for an easy second run on the day of your medium-long run. These runs will provide an incremental training stimulus by depleting your carbohydrate stores and training your muscles to rely more on fat at a given speed. It’s preferable to do the second, short run in the evening after a medium-long run in the morning. If your schedule is such that you’ll be doing your medium-long run in the evening, be sure to run very easily in the morning. As we discuss earlier in this chapter and in chapter 1, medium-long runs bring you the most benefit if they’re done at a good pace, so don’t let a short morning run detract from the medium-long run’s quality. A better-quality medium-long run is preferable to a double in which the medium-long run is a slog.

The schedules never call for a second run on the day of your weekly long run. This is a perfect example of mileage for mileage’s sake because an evening run after your long run will only slow your recovery. As soon as you finish your long run, your objective switches to recovering as quickly as possible for your upcoming hard training days.

A Word About “Hard” Days

Looking at these schedules, you might be wondering, Where are all the “speed” workouts? After all, it’s normal to think that anyone preparing for a marathon should be training as hard as possible, and what better way to be sure that you’re doing so than by hitting the track at least once a week for lung-searing intervals, right?

In chapter 1, we explained at length the principles underlying these schedules. Briefly put, we designed the schedules to provide the optimal stimuli to the physiological systems that most determine marathoning success – endurance, lactate threshold, andO₂max, in that order of importance. In the long run, so to speak, it’s your long runs and tempo runs that have the most relevance to your performance on marathon day, not how often you’ve churned out a sterling set of half-mile repeats.

During your long buildup, understanding the components of marathon success can provide confidence that you’re training properly. Use the explanation of marathon physiology from chapter 1 not only to explain to your training buddies why you won’t be joining them for quarters next week but also to remind yourself why you’re doing yet another 15-miler (24 km) in the middle of the workweek. If your running friends continue to chide you that you’re not training hard enough, invite them to follow the schedules with you for a few weeks, then report back. We suspect they’ll have gotten the message by then.

What About Hill Workouts?

In the training schedules, we don’t prescribe specific hill training sessions. That’s because how much to focus on hill training depends on the topography of your marathon. For one of the pancake-flat courses designed to yield fast times, such as London, Chicago, or Berlin, you’ll need to be prepared to run for more than 2 hours over unvarying terrain. If, however, you’ll be racing on a hilly course, then the more closely you can simulate the terrain of the race in your training, both up and down, the better. (The classic course for which race simulation is essential is the Boston Marathon, which has sucked the lifeblood from many an unprepared runner.) By planning training runs to include hills of roughly the same length and steepness as your upcoming race, you’ll give yourself the best chance for an optimal performance on race day.

Any of the workouts in the training schedules can be run on hills. Once or twice per week, your tempo runs, long runs, medium-long runs, and general aerobic runs should mimic the hill profile of your upcoming marathon. Simply adjust your pace to keep the effort at the correct intensity. (Allow your heart rate to increase by 5 to 8 beats per minute on the uphills, but be sure to ease up after the hills to get back into the appropriate range.) You can even do some of yourO₂max sessions up and down hills, although it’s easy to blow up by going too hard early in the workout.

If you live in the flatlands but are training for a hilly marathon, don’t despair – with a bit of creativity you can gain the benefits of hill running. Runners in Miami have been known to run the ramps of a parking garage on Sunday mornings, and you can replicate almost any hill workout on a treadmill.

Correct uphill running technique is relatively simple. The most common error running uphill is leaning forward, which is counterproductive to maintaining speed. Looking ahead and not down will help you retain a more-upright posture. Let your stride shorten and your knees lift naturally so that you feel as efficient as possible. You will tend to use your arms more as you lift your knees, but try to keep your shoulders and arms relaxed. On downhills, try not to brake. Keep your center of gravity perpendicular to the hill so that gravity can help you get down it as quickly as possible.

Tweaking the Schedules

Part of the challenge of the marathon is that preparing for it takes so long and the training required is so demanding that roadblocks along the way to your goal are nearly inevitable. It’s important not only to organize your training and life so that as few impediments as possible crop up but also to deal with the ones that nevertheless occur. The most common roadblocks are injuries and illnesses, bad weather, and outside commitments. Let’s consider each of these intrusions into your marathon preparation to see how to adjust the schedules for them. Also, let’s look at what, if any, adjustments older marathoners, who might need more recovery than younger runners, should make to the schedules.

Injuries and illnesses are best caught early. Successful marathoners have the ability to recognize an injury or illness at an early stage before it becomes serious. Returning to training after an injury or illness requires careful analysis – too much too soon will result in additional time off. During this period, it’s important to avoid the factors that caused the injury or illness in the first place, such as worn-out shoes, running on concrete, overtraining, or a lack of sleep. Be sure to carefully read chapter 3 to learn how to stay on top of your recovery so that your chances of getting hurt or sick are lessened.

If you’re forced to miss more than a few days of training, then you need to decide whether to try to catch up or revise your marathon goal. This decision will be influenced by how much time you missed, how long you’ve been preparing, and how many weeks are left until your marathon. Missing 2 1/2 weeks of preparation when you have 16 weeks to go is no big deal, but missing that amount of time during the last 2 months of preparation will likely require you to modify your goal.

Table 7.2 provides guidelines for when you may need to revise your goals after an injury or illness. Typically, if you’ve lost less than 10 days of training, then you can safely start back where you should have been on the schedules. If you’ve missedO₂max workouts, however, you may need to slow your pace during your next fewO₂max sessions to reflect the lost time. If you’ve lost 10 or more days of training in the 8 weeks before your marathon, be open to revising your goal. When you resume full training, gather information from your timed sessions to get a sense of how much fitness you’ve lost and whether your marathon goal pace needs to be slowed by at least a few seconds per mile (per 1.6 km).

Making Up for Lost Time

In general, you’ll just have to deal with bad weather. Sometimes, however, Mother Nature dishes up a blizzard or blistering-hot weather that’s counterproductive to continued healthy training. If you can, find a treadmill indoors or choose an appropriate cross-training activity for a couple of days until the weather becomes bearable.

As with other factors influencing your marathon preparation, weather might necessitate some not-minor changes in your life. For example, you might need to alter your normal schedule during oppressive summer heat so that you can get in reasonable training early in the morning. Or if your area has been snowed under for weeks, you’ll probably need to find a few well-paved stretches where you can safely do multiple laps to get in your miles.

Try to anticipate weather when picking your marathon goal. If you don’t run well in the heat and live in a sultry climate, it makes little sense to plan for a September marathon because your hardest training will need to occur during the least conducive weather of the year. Similarly, Boston in April can be a tough goal if you live in an area where winter running is a daily challenge.

There’s really no excuse for outside commitments to regularly interfere with your marathon preparation. Put more gently, don’t set an ambitious marathon goal when you know the rest of your life will be busier than usual. Once you’ve picked your marathon and have decided how long you’ll prepare for it, try to anticipate and eliminate factors that would significantly interfere with your training.

Of course, regardless of how focused you are on your training, you’re going to have the occasional day when meeting your training goal is exceedingly difficult, if not impossible. A sick child, an unsympathetic boss, or a traffic accident all have a way of dashing plans for a high-quality tempo run. If necessary, juggle the days in the training schedule you’re following so that you get in the most important workouts while still allowing for adequate recovery. A good rule of thumb is that if you can do 90 percent of the planned training schedule, then your preparation is going well.

The training schedules in the following chapters are based on the classic stress/recovery principle of adaptation. That is, all runners need easy days after their key training sessions before they’re ready to benefit from more hard work. Many older runners find that they need more of those easy days between long or fast workouts than their younger counterparts.

Because there’s such great variance in how quickly masters runners recover, we’re reluctant to offer hard-and-fast recommendations on how to adjust the schedules for age. After all, a runner in her early 50s who has been running for 5 years probably has fresher legs than a man in his 50s in his third decade of running. What we can say to our older readers is to pick which schedule to follow based on a sound assessment of your current capabilities rather than memories of how you could train in your glory days. That might mean aiming for a lower peak mileage, and it almost certainly means taking it very easy on your recovery days. You might find that you can better hit the key workouts – the long runs, the medium-long runs, the tempo and marathon-pace runs – by substituting cross-training for running on some recovery days. (See chapter 4 for more on this approach.)

If, after making these adjustments, you’re still too tired to do the key sessions in the correct intensity range, then add in extra recovery days. You could, for example, convert the 12-week schedule into a 14-week schedule, thereby getting in the important workouts but spreading the stress over a longer buildup.

Older marathoners should pay special attention to the section in chapter 3 on accelerating recovery. We can well attest that less-than-ideal choices about training, stretching, diet, sleep, and so on take far more of a toll now than they did when we were in our late 20s. If you want to continue to aim high as a marathoner in middle age and beyond, we salute you. Maximize your chances of success by consistently doing the little nonrunning things that younger runners often ignore.

Now that we’ve looked at the principles behind successful marathon training and racing and how to implement those principles, let’s get to what you probably care most about – the training schedules, which constitute the rest of this book.

This chapter is for runners who typically train less than 40 miles (64 km) per week but who are willing to up their mileage to 55 miles (88 km) per week during marathon preparation. It includes two schedules: an 18-week schedule that starts at 33 miles (53 km) per week and a 12-week schedule that starts at 35 miles (56 km) per week. Each of these schedules increases weekly mileage progressively to a peak of 55 miles (88 km).

As discussed in chapter 1, it’s useful to divide your overall training schedule into phases, called mesocycles. The training schedules consist of four mesocycles that focus on endurance, lactate threshold and endurance, race preparation, and tapering, respectively. A final schedule, which contains a 5-week postmarathon recovery program, can follow either of the training schedules.

Of the two training schedules presented in this chapter, we recommend the 18-week schedule for most situations. Eighteen weeks is plenty of time to stimulate the necessary adaptations to improve your marathon performance. At the same time, 18 weeks is short enough that you can focus your efforts without becoming bored with the process.

At times, however, you simply don’t have 18 weeks to prepare for your marathon. The 12-week schedule includes the same mesocycles as the 18-week schedule, but because of the short time for preparation, each of these mesocycles is abbreviated. If you go into a marathon in a rush, you must realize that your preparation won’t be as thorough as if you had longer to prepare. The 12-week schedule takes into account that sometimes circumstances don’t allow you the optimal length of time for preparation and strives to provide a compact yet effective training program.

Before Starting the Schedules

These schedules are challenging right from the start and get harder as your marathon approaches. So that you can progress as the training increases in quantity and quality, and to minimize your chances of injury, you should be able to complete the first week of the schedule without too much effort.

Be realistic in assessing whether you’re ready for the first week of the schedule. For example, if you’ve been running 20 miles (32 km) per week and your longest run in the last several weeks is 6 miles (10 km), now isn’t the time to suddenly jump to a 33-mile (53 km) week containing a 12-mile (19 km) run and a 4-mile (6 km) tempo run, as the first week of the 18-week schedule calls for. The idea behind the schedules isn’t to make you as tired as possible as soon as possible but to apply repeated training stress that you absorb and benefit from.

As a rule, you should be running at least 25 miles (40 km) a week before starting these schedules, and in the last month you should have comfortably completed a run close in length to the long run called for in the first week of the schedule.

Reading the Schedules

The schedules are presented in a day-by-day format. This is in response to requests from readers of our first book, Road Racing for Serious Runners, to provide schedules that specify what to do each day of the week.

The main limitation with this approach is that it’s impossible to guess the myriad of outside factors that may influence your day-to-day nonrunning life. Work schedules, family life, relationships, school commitments, and Mother Nature all play a part in determining when you get to do your long runs and other aspects of marathon preparation. You’ll no doubt require some flexibility in your training and will need to juggle days around from time to time. That’s expected, and as long as you don’t try to make up for lost time by doing several hard days in a row, you should be able to avoid injury and overtraining. By following the principles covered in the earlier chapters, you’ll be able to safely fine-tune the training schedules to suit your circumstances.

The schedules express each day’s training in miles and kilometers; use whichever you’re accustomed to. The mile and kilometer figures for each day (and the weekly total) are rough equivalents of each other, not a conversion from one to the other accurate to the third decimal point.

Following the Schedules

Each column of the schedules represents a week’s training. For example, in the 12-week schedule, the column for 11 weeks to goal indicates that at the end of that week you have 11 weeks until your marathon. The schedules continue week by week until race week.

We have included the specific workout for each day as well as the category of training for that day. For example, in the 18-week schedule, on the Friday of the 7-weeks-to-goal column, the specific workout is a 12-mile (19 km) run, and the category of training for that day is medium-long run. This aspect of the schedules allows you to quickly see the balance of training during each week and the progression of workouts from week to week. Look again at the 18-week schedule – it’s easy to see that with 7 weeks to go until the marathon, there are four recovery days (two of running, two of rest or cross-training), along with a lactate-threshold session, a long run, and a medium-long run. Looking at the row for Sunday, it’s easy to see how the long runs progress and then taper in the last few weeks before the marathon.

The workouts are divided into the following eight categories: long runs, medium-long runs, marathon-pace runs, general aerobic runs, lactate-threshold runs, recovery runs,O₂max intervals, and speed training. Each of these categories is explained in depth in chapter 7, and the physiology behind the training is explained in chapter 1.

The 18-week schedule is recommended for most situations and is ideal for preparing for a marathon of great personal importance, like the New York City Marathon.

Racing Strategies

We discussed marathon race strategy at length in chapter 6. If you follow one of the schedules in this chapter, you’re probably a midpack runner. Unlike the situation the runners at the front of the field often face, you’ll probably have plenty of people around you to run with from start to finish. This can be good and bad.

On the plus side, obviously, you’re less likely to face lonely stretches with nobody to run with. Use this probability to your advantage – soon after the start, try to find other runners who look capable of maintaining your goal pace through at least 20 miles (32 km), and encourage them to work with you. (If they fall apart at 21 miles, that’s their problem, right?)

By following one of this chapter’s schedules, you’ll be better able to hold up past 20 miles (32 km) than most of the runners who begin the race at your pace. Your superior preparation will mean you’ll have the pleasure of continually passing people until the finish. Look forward to this time. Pick a runner a few hundred yards or meters up the road, and set the short-term goal of catching him or her. Then go after your next victim, and keep doing so until the finish.

On the not-so-good side, you’re more likely than those at the front of the field to feel crowded in the early miles. Try not to let this upset you. Tell yourself that the crowds are helping you not to go out too fast, and if need be, work up gradually to your goal pace.

Don’t try to make up lost time suddenly if a break in the crowd appears. Instead, when you have clear running room, run no more than 10 seconds per mile (per 1.6 km) faster than goal pace until you’re back on schedule; you will burn less glycogen and be less likely to accumulate lactate by catching up gradually. If the deficit you have to make up isn’t too great, 5 seconds per mile (per 1.6 km) faster than goal pace is an even safer approach. Once you’re back on track, ease back to goal pace.

After the Marathon

The final schedule in this chapter is a 5-week recovery schedule for after the marathon. This is the fifth mesocycle; it completes the training program and leaves you ready to prepare for future challenges.

The recovery schedule is purposely conservative. You have little to gain by rushing back into training, and your risk of injury is exceptionally high at this point, owing to the reduced resiliency of your muscles and connective tissue after the marathon.

The schedule starts with 2 days off from running, which is the bare minimum of time away from running you should allow yourself. If you still have acute soreness or tightness so severe that it will alter your form, or if you just don’t feel like running, certainly feel free to take more than 2 days off. If ever there was a time to lose your marathoner’s mind-set, the week after your goal race is it. Even most of the top runners in the world take days off after a marathon. They know that the nearly negligible benefits of a short run at this time are far outweighed by the risks. Not running now also increases your chances of being inspired to resume hard training when your body allows it.

Of course, some people don’t consider themselves real runners unless they run pretty much every day of their lives. Plod through a few miles if you must, but be aware that you’re prolonging your recovery.

What better aids recovery during this time is light cross-training, such as swimming or cycling. These activities increase blood flow through your muscles without subjecting them to pounding. Walking will also achieve this in the week after the marathon.

One way to ensure that you don’t run too hard too soon after your marathon is to use a heart rate monitor. As discussed in chapter 3, a heart rate monitor can help prevent you from going too fast on recovery days. During the first few weeks after the marathon, keep your heart rate below 76 percent of your maximal heart rate or 70 percent of your heart rate reserve. Running at this intensity will help your body overcome the stress of the marathon as quickly as possible.

During this 5-week recovery schedule, the number of days of running per week increases from 3 to 5. At the end of the 5 weeks, you should be fully recovered from the marathon and, with a little luck, be injury free and mentally fresh.

Mesocycle 1 – Endurance

Mesocycle 2 – Lactate Threshold + Endurance

Mesocycle 3 – Race Preparation

Mesocycle 4 – Taper and Race

Mesocycle 1 – Endurance

Mesocycle 2 – Lactate Threshold + Endurance

Mesocycle 3 – Race Preparation

Mesocycle 4 – Taper and Race

Mesocycle 5 – Recovery

This chapter is for mid- to high-mileage marathoners who train 55 to 70 miles (88 to 113 km) per week. It includes two schedules: an 18-week schedule that starts at 54 miles (87 km) per week and a 12-week schedule that starts at 55 miles (88 km) per week. Each of these schedules increases weekly mileage progressively to a peak of 70 miles (113 km).

As discussed in chapter 1, it’s useful to divide your overall training schedule into phases, called mesocycles. The training schedules consist of four mesocycles that focus on endurance, lactate threshold and endurance, race preparation, and tapering, respectively. A final schedule, which contains a 5-week postmarathon recovery program, can follow either of the training schedules.

Of the two training schedules presented in this chapter, we recommend the 18-week schedule for most situations. Eighteen weeks is plenty of time to stimulate the necessary adaptations to improve your marathon performance. At the same time, 18 weeks is short enough that you can focus your efforts without becoming bored with the process.

At times, however, you simply don’t have 18 weeks to prepare for your marathon. The 12-week schedule includes the same mesocycles as the 18-week schedules, but because of the short time for preparation, each of these mesocycles is abbreviated. If you go into a marathon in a rush, you must realize that your preparation won’t be as thorough as if you had longer to prepare. The 12-week schedule takes into account that sometimes circumstances don’t allow you the optimal length of time for preparation and strives to provide a compact yet effective training program.

Before Starting the Schedules

These schedules are challenging right from the start and get harder as your marathon approaches. So that you can progress as the training increases in quantity and quality, and to minimize your chances of injury, you should be able to complete the first week of the schedule without too much effort.

Be realistic in assessing whether you’re ready for the first week of the schedule. For example, if you’ve been running 30 miles (48 km) per week and your longest run in the last several weeks is 8 miles (13 km), now isn’t the time to suddenly jump to a 54-mile (86 km) week containing a 15-mile (24 km) run and a 4-mile (6 km) tempo run, as the first week of the 18-week schedule calls for. The idea behind the schedules isn’t to make you as tired as possible as soon as possible but to apply repeated training stress that you absorb and benefit from.

As a rule, you should be running at least 45 miles (72 km) a week before starting these schedules, and in the last month you should have comfortably completed a run close in length to the long run called for in the first week of the schedule.

Reading the Schedules

The schedules are presented in a day-by-day format. This is in response to requests from readers of our first book, Road Racing for Serious Runners, to provide schedules that specify what to do each day of the week.

The main limitation with this approach is that it’s impossible to guess the myriad of outside factors that may influence your day-to-day nonrunning life. Work schedules, family life, relationships, school commitments, and Mother Nature all play a part in determining when you get to do your long runs and other aspects of marathon preparation. You’ll no doubt require some flexibility in your training and will need to juggle days around from time to time. That’s expected, and as long as you don’t try to make up for lost time by doing several hard days in a row, you should be able to avoid injury and overtraining. By following the principles covered in the earlier chapters, you’ll be able to safely fine-tune the training schedules to suit your circumstances.

The schedules express each day’s training in miles and kilometers; use whichever you’re accustomed to. The mile and kilometer figures for each day (and the weekly total) are rough equivalents of each other, not a conversion from one to the other accurate to the third decimal point.

Following the Schedules

Each column of the schedules represents a week’s training. For example, in the 12-week schedule, the column for 11 weeks to goal indicates that at the end of that week you have 11 weeks until your marathon. The schedules continue week by week until race week.

We have included the specific workout for each day as well as the category of training for that day. For example, in the 18-week schedule, on the Tuesday of the 7-weeks-to-go column, the specific workouts are a 6-mile (10 km) run and a 4-mile (6 km) run, and the category of training for that day is recovery. This aspect of the schedules allows you to quickly see the balance of training during each week and the progression of workouts from week to week. Look again at the 18-week schedule – it’s easy to see that with 7 weeks to go until the marathon, there are four recovery days that week, along with a lactate-threshold session, a long run, and a medium-long run. Looking at the row for Sunday, it’s easy to see how the long runs progress and then taper in the last few weeks before the marathon.

The workouts are divided into the following eight categories: long runs, medium-long runs, marathon-pace runs, general aerobic runs, lactate-threshold runs, recovery runs,O₂max intervals, and speed training. Each of these categories is explained in depth in chapter 7, and the physiology behind the training is explained in chapter 1.

As discussed in chapter 4, sometimes marathoners benefit from running twice a day. This is obviously the case for elites cranking out 130-mile (209 km) weeks, but it isn’t necessary on a regular basis if you’re running 50 to 70 miles (80 to 113 km) per week. In these schedules, doubles are called for only on the occasional recovery day, with a total of 10 miles (16 km) for the day. On these days, your recovery will be enhanced by doing a 6-miler (10 km) and a 4-miler (6 km) rather than putting in one 10-mile (16 km) run. Instead of making you more tired, splitting your mileage like this on easy days will speed your recovery because each run will increase blood flow to your muscles yet take little out of you.

Racing Strategies

We discussed marathon race strategy at length in chapter 6. Part of that discussion centered on running with a group when possible. If you follow one of the schedules in this chapter, you might well be finishing within the top quarter or third of the field in your marathon. That means you’re likely to have runners around you throughout the marathon, especially in a big-city race, but there won’t be so many people in front of you at the start that you’ll spend the first few miles navigating around crowds. Make use of this probable position within the field; once you feel as if you’re running comfortably at your goal pace, look around for other runners who appear able to sustain the pace until the end. Talk to them, ask what their goals are, and try to find others to run with.

During the race, try to find others who appear to be able to sustain your pace until the end and run with them.

In chapter 6, we also discuss the importance of a conservative early pace. Although you’ll be well trained if you follow one of these schedules, you won’t have as large a margin of error as those who have regularly put in 85 miles (137 km) a week or more. If you run intelligently in the early part of the race, then you’ll have runners to pick off regularly in the last 10 miles (16 km) or so because others who are either less prepared or more foolhardy will come back to you.

After the Marathon

The final schedule in this chapter is a 5-week recovery schedule for after the marathon. This is the fifth mesocycle; it completes the training program and leaves you ready to prepare for future challenges.

The recovery schedule is purposely conservative. You have little to gain by rushing back into training, and your risk of injury is exceptionally high at this point, owing to the reduced resiliency of your muscles and connective tissue after the marathon.

The schedule starts with 2 days off from running, which is the bare minimum of time away from running you should allow yourself. If you still have acute soreness or tightness so severe that it will alter your form, or if you just don’t feel like running, certainly feel free to take more than 2 days off. If ever there was a time to lose your marathoner’s mind-set, the week after your goal race is it. Even most of the top runners in the world take days off after a marathon. They know that the nearly negligible benefits of a short run at this time are far outweighed by the risks. Not running now will also increase your chances of being inspired to resume hard training when your body allows it.

Of course, some people don’t consider themselves real runners unless they run pretty much every day of their lives. Plod through a few miles if you must, but be aware that you’re prolonging your recovery.

What better aids recovery during this time is light cross-training, such as swimming or cycling. These activities increase blood flow through your muscles without subjecting them to pounding. Walking will also achieve this in the week after the marathon.

One way to ensure that you don’t run too hard too soon after your marathon is to use a heart rate monitor. As discussed in chapter 3, a heart rate monitor can help prevent you from going too fast on recovery days. During the first few weeks after the marathon, keep your heart rate below 76 percent of your maximal heart rate or 70 percent of your heart rate reserve. Running at this intensity will help your body overcome the stress of the marathon as quickly as possible.

During this 5-week recovery schedule, the number of days of running per week increases from 3 to 5. At the end of the 5 weeks, you should be fully recovered from the marathon and, with a little luck, injury free and mentally fresh.

Mesocycle 1 – Endurance

Mesocycle 2 – Lactate Threshold + Endurance

Mesocycle 3 – Race Preparation

Mesocycle 4 – Taper and Race

Mesocycle 1 – Endurance

Mesocycle 2 – Lactate Threshold + Endurance

Mesocycle 3 – Race Preparation

Mesocycle 4 – Taper and Race

Mesocycle 5 – Recovery

This chapter is for high-mileage marathoners. It includes two schedules: an 18-week schedule that starts at 65 miles (105 km) per week and a 12-week schedule that starts at 67 miles (108 km) per week. Each of these schedules increases weekly mileage progressively and builds to a peak of 87 miles (140 km).

As discussed in chapter 1, it’s useful to divide your overall training schedule into phases, called mesocycles. The training schedules consist of four mesocycles that focus on endurance, lactate threshold and endurance, race preparation, and tapering, respectively. A final schedule, which contains a 5-week postmarathon recovery program, can follow either of the training schedules.

Of the two training schedules presented in this chapter, we recommend the 18-week schedule for most situations. Eighteen weeks is plenty of time to stimulate the necessary adaptations to improve your marathon performance. At the same time, 18 weeks is short enough that you can focus your efforts without becoming bored with the process.

At times, however, you simply don’t have 18 weeks to prepare for your marathon. The 12-week schedule includes the same mesocycles as the 18-week schedule, but because of the short time for preparation, each of these mesocycles is abbreviated. If you go into a marathon in a rush, you must realize that your preparation won’t be as thorough as if you had longer to prepare. The 12-week schedule takes into account that sometimes circumstances don’t allow you the optimal length of time for preparation and strives to provide a compact yet effective training program.

Before Starting the Schedules

These schedules are challenging right from the start and get harder as your marathon approaches. So that you can progress as the training increases in quantity and quality and to minimize your chances of injury, you should be able to complete the first week of the schedule without too much effort.

Be realistic in assessing whether you’re ready for the first week of the schedule. For example, if you’ve been running 40 miles (64 km) per week and your longest run in the last several weeks is 12 miles (19 km), now isn’t the time to suddenly jump to a 65-mile (105 km) week containing a 17-mile (27 km) run, as the first week of the 18-week schedule calls for. The idea behind the schedules isn’t to make you as tired as possible as soon as possible but to apply repeated training stress that you absorb and benefit from.

As a rule, you should be running at least 55 miles (88 km) a week before starting these schedules, and in the last month, you should have comfortably completed a run close in length to the long run called for in the first week of the schedule.

Reading the Schedules

The schedules are presented in a day-by-day format. This is in response to requests from readers of our first book, Road Racing for Serious Runners, to provide schedules that specify what to do each day of the week.

The main limitation with this approach is that it’s impossible to guess the myriad of outside factors that may influence your day-to-day nonrunning life (assuming you still have one at this level of volume). Work schedules, family life, relationships, school commitments, and Mother Nature all play a part in determining when you get to do your long runs and other aspects of marathon preparation. You’ll no doubt require some flexibility in your training and will need to juggle days around from time to time. That’s expected, and as long as you don’t try to make up for lost time by doing several hard days in a row, you should be able to avoid injury and overtraining. By following the principles covered in the earlier chapters, you will be able to safely fine-tune the training schedules to suit your circumstances.

The schedules express each day’s training in miles and kilometers; use whichever you’re accustomed to. The mile and kilometer figures for each day (and the weekly total) are rough equivalents of each other, not a conversion from one to the other accurate to the third decimal point.

Following the Schedules

Each column of the schedules represents a week’s training. For example, in the 12-week schedule, the column for 11 weeks to goal indicates that at the end of that week you have 11 weeks until your marathon. The schedules continue week by week until race week.

We have included the specific workout for each day as well as the category of training for that day. For example, in the 18-week schedule, on the Monday of the 7-weeks-to-go column, the specific workouts are a 6-mile (10 km) run and a 4-mile (6 km) run, and the category of training for that day is recovery. This aspect of the schedules allows you to quickly see the balance of training during each week and the progression of workouts from week to week. Look again at the 18-week schedule – it’s easy to see that with 7 weeks to go until the marathon, there are two recovery days that week, plus two general aerobic runs, a lactate-threshold session, a long run, and a medium-long run. Looking at the row for Sunday, it’s easy to see how the long runs progress and then taper in the last few weeks before the marathon.

The workouts are divided into the following eight categories: long runs, medium-long runs, marathon-pace runs, general aerobic runs, lactate-threshold runs, recovery runs,O₂max intervals, and speed training. Each of these categories is explained in depth in chapter 7, and the physiology behind the training is explained in chapter 1.

Doing Doubles

As discussed in chapter 4, sometimes marathoners benefit from running twice a day. This is obviously the case for elites cranking out 130-mile (209 km) weeks, but it can also be true for anyone running more than 70 miles (113 km) a week. In these schedules, for example, recovery days of 10 miles (16 km) are often broken into two short runs. Rather than making you more tired, splitting your mileage like this on easy days will speed your recovery because each run will increase blood flow to your muscles yet take little out of you.

As we mention at the beginning of this chapter, we know that not everyone will be able to follow these schedules exactly as they appear. That applies on the days that call for a lactate-threshold workout in the morning and an easy recovery run in the evening. If your schedule makes it more likely that you’ll do a high-quality tempo run in the evening rather than the morning, then simply flip the workouts prescribed for these days. Just be sure to make the short morning run a true recovery run.

When a second run is called for on the day of a medium-long run, however, try to stick to the schedule as written. As explained in chapter 4, a short evening run on these days provides an additional endurance boost, whereas doing a short morning run and a medium-long run in the evening will likely detract from the quality of the medium-long run. Again, though, use your best judgment. If your schedule means that you’ll have to do a midweek medium-long run at 4:30 a.m., you’re probably better off making time for it in the evening.

Racing Strategies

We discussed marathon race strategy at length in chapter 6. If you follow one of the schedules in this chapter, you’ll probably find yourself near the front part of the field once everyone settles into their paces. Still, you might be running with people who aren’t as well prepared as you (e.g., a fit-looking man in his late 20s whose goal is to break 3:00, more because it’s a nice round number than because that’s what his training has prepared him for). If you wind up in a group early on, talk to the others to get a sense of whom you can count on still being there with 10 miles (16 km) to go.

Because of your strong preparation followed by an effective taper, you’ll probably find your goal pace in the early miles quite easy. After all, you were doing long runs with lengthy sections at goal pace in the midst of your heaviest training. Now that you’re rested and are filled with race-day excitement, goal pace should feel eminently doable. You’ll need to be disciplined and resist the temptation to go too fast so that you can use your fitness in the second half of the race and run even splits. Although your outstanding preparation makes you less likely than most to blow up late in the race from a too-hasty start, there’s still no point in squandering months of hard work with an overly ambitious early pace.

After the Marathon

The final schedule in this chapter is a 5-week recovery schedule for after the marathon. This is the fifth mesocycle; it completes the training program and leaves you ready to prepare for future challenges.

The recovery schedule is purposely conservative. You have little to gain by rushing back into training, and your risk of injury is exceptionally high at this point, owing to the reduced resiliency of your muscles and connective tissue after the marathon.

The schedule starts with 2 days off from running, which is the bare minimum of time away from running you should allow yourself. If you still have acute soreness or tightness so severe that it will alter your form, or if you just don’t feel like running, certainly feel free to take more than 2 days off. If ever there was a time to lose your marathoner’s mind-set, the week after your goal race is it. Even most of the top runners in the world take days off after a marathon. They know that the nearly negligible benefits of a short run at this time are far outweighed by the risks. Not running now will also increase your chances of being inspired to resume hard training when your body allows it.

After the big race, you have little to gain and may risk injury by rushing back into training.

Of course, some people don’t consider themselves real runners unless they run pretty much every day of their lives. Plod through a few miles if you must, but be aware that you’re prolonging your recovery.

What better aids recovery during this time is light cross-training, such as swimming or cycling. These activities increase blood flow through your muscles without subjecting them to pounding. Walking will also achieve this in the week after the marathon.

One way to ensure that you don’t run too hard too soon after your marathon is to use a heart rate monitor. As discussed in chapter 3, a heart rate monitor can help prevent you from going too fast on recovery days. During the first few weeks after the marathon, keep your heart rate below 76 percent of your maximal heart rate or 70 percent of your heart rate reserve. Running at this intensity will help your body overcome the stress of the marathon as quickly as possible.

During this 5-week recovery schedule, the number of days of running per week increases from 3 to 6. At the end of the 5 weeks, you should be fully recovered from the marathon and, with a little luck, injury free and mentally fresh.

Mesocycle 1 – Endurance

Mesocycle 2 – Lactate Threshold + Endurance

Mesocycle 3 – Race Preparation

Mesocycle 4 – Taper and Race

Mesocycle 1 – Endurance

Mesocycle 2 – Lactate Threshold + Endurance

Mesocycle 3 – Race Preparation

Mesocycle 4 – Taper and Race

Mesocycle 5 – Recovery

This chapter is for true high-volume marathoners who can devote their full energy to training. It includes two schedules: an 18-week schedule that starts at 80 miles (129 km) per week and a 12-week schedule that starts at 82 miles (132 km) per week. Each of these schedules increases weekly volume progressively, building to a peak of at least 105 miles (170 km).

As discussed in chapter 1, it’s useful to divide your overall training schedule into phases, called mesocycles. The training schedules consist of four mesocycles that focus on endurance, lactate threshold and endurance, race preparation, and tapering, respectively. A final schedule, which contains a 5-week postmarathon recovery program, can follow either of the training schedules.

Of the two training schedules presented in this chapter, we recommend the 18-week schedule for most situations. Eighteen weeks is plenty of time to stimulate the necessary adaptations to improve your marathon performance. At the same time, 18 weeks is short enough that you can focus your efforts without becoming bored with the process.

At times, however, you simply don’t have 18 weeks to prepare for your marathon. The 12-week schedule includes the same mesocycles as the 18-week schedules, but because of the short time for preparation, each of these mesocycles is abbreviated. If you go into a marathon in a rush, you must realize that your preparation won’t be as thorough as if you had longer to prepare. The 12-week schedule takes into account that sometimes circumstances don’t allow you the optimal length of time for preparation and strives to provide a compact yet effective training program.

Before Starting the Schedules

These schedules are challenging right from the start and get harder as your marathon approaches. So that you can progress as the training increases in quantity and quality and to minimize your chances of injury, you should be able to complete the first week of the schedule without too much effort.

Be realistic in assessing whether you’re ready for the first week of the schedule. For example, if you’ve been running 60 miles (97 km) per week and your longest run in the last several weeks is 12 miles (19 km), now isn’t the time to suddenly jump to an 82-mile (132 km) week containing a 17-mile (27 km) run, as the first week of the 12-week schedule calls for. The idea behind the schedules isn’t to make you as tired as possible as soon as possible but to apply repeated training stress that you absorb and benefit from.

As a rule, you should be running at least 70 to 75 miles (113 to 121 km) a week before starting these schedules, and in the last month, you should have comfortably completed a run of at least 15 miles (24 km).

Reading the Schedules

The schedules are presented in a day-by-day format. This is in response to requests from readers of our first book, Road Racing for Serious Runners, to provide schedules that specify what to do each day of the week.

The main limitation with this approach is that it’s impossible to guess the myriad of outside factors that may influence your day-to-day nonrunning life (assuming you still have one at this level of volume). Work schedules, family life, relationships, school commitments, and Mother Nature all play a part in determining when you get to do your long runs and other aspects of marathon preparation. You’ll no doubt require some flexibility in your training and will need to juggle days around from time to time. That’s expected, and as long as you don’t try to make up for lost time by doing several hard days in a row, you should be able to avoid injury and overtraining. By following the principles covered in the earlier chapters, you will be able to safely fine-tune the training schedules to suit your circumstances.

The schedules express each day’s training in miles and kilometers; use whichever you’re accustomed to. The mile and kilometer figures for each day (and the weekly total) are rough equivalents of each other, not a conversion from one to the other accurate to the third decimal point.

Following the Schedules

Each column of the schedules represents a week’s training. For example, in the 12-week schedule, the column for 11 weeks to goal indicates that at the end of that week you have 11 weeks until your marathon. The schedules continue week by week until race week.

We have included the specific workout for each day as well as the category of training for that day. For example, in the 18-week schedule, on the Monday of the 5-weeks-to-go column, the specific workouts are two 6-mile (10 km) runs and the category of training for that day is recovery. This aspect of the schedules allows you to quickly see the balance of training during each week and the progression of workouts from week to week. Look again at the 18-week schedule – it’s easy to see that with 5 weeks to go until the marathon, there are two recovery days that week with a lactate-threshold session, a long run, a medium-long run, and two general aerobic runs. Looking at the row for Sunday, it’s easy to see how the long runs progress and then taper in the last few weeks before the marathon.

The workouts are divided into the following eight categories: long runs, medium-long runs, marathon-pace runs, general aerobic runs, lactate-threshold runs, recovery runs,O₂max intervals, and speed training. Each of these categories is explained in depth in chapter 7, and the physiology behind the training is explained in chapter 1.

For high-mileage weekly training, sometimes splitting your runs on easy days is a good idea. Rather than making you more tired, this can speed recovery because each run will increase blood flow to your muscles yet take little out of you.

Doing Doubles

As discussed in chapter 7, sometimes marathoners benefit from running twice a day. This is obviously the case for anyone cranking out 100-mile (161 km) weeks. In these schedules, for example, recovery days of 10 to 12 miles (16 to 19 km) are often broken into two short runs. Rather than making you more tired, splitting your volume like this on easy days will speed your recovery because each run will increase blood flow to your muscles yet take so little out of you.

As we mention at the beginning of this chapter, we know that not everyone will be able to follow these schedules exactly as they appear. That applies on the days that call for a recovery run in the morning and a lactate-threshold workout in the evening. If your schedule makes it more likely that you’ll do a high-quality tempo run in the morning rather than the evening, then simply flip the workouts prescribed for these days.

When 105 Miles per Week Just Isn’t Enough

The hardy few among you might want to do more volume than what’s prescribed in the schedules. If you’re in this group, be sure to follow the spirit of the schedules when adding miles – that is, your volume should build gradually during mesocycle 1, peak at the end of mesocycle 2, come down slightly during mesocycle 3, and fall dramatically during mesocycle 4.

Where should you add miles to the schedules? Try adding a bit of volume to the general aerobic runs and medium-long runs if you sense that doing so doesn’t detract from your week’s most important sessions. (Remember, volume is a means to a goal, not a primary goal in itself. At your volume level, the risk of injury increases rapidly if additional distance is added haphazardly.) You could also add miles to your warm-ups and cool-downs onO₂max and lactate-threshold workout days. If you’re going to do more doubles than the schedules stipulate, refer to the section on two-a-day runs in chapter 7.

Racing Strategies

We discussed marathon race strategy at length in chapter 6. If you follow one of the schedules in this chapter, you will be more thoroughly prepared for your marathon than most of the other runners in the race. Few others in the field will have done the combination of volume and targeted quality that you have.

Despite your commitment and eagerness, though, you’ll need to not get carried away in the early miles, even if your goal pace in the first half feels quite easy. The temptation to try to capitalize on that good feeling will be strong. Perhaps more than any other readers of this book, you will need to be disciplined in the early miles to stick to your goal pace so that you can use your fitness in the second half of the race and run even splits. Although your outstanding preparation makes you less likely than most to blow up late in the race from a too-hasty start, there’s still no point in squandering months of hard work with an overly ambitious early pace.

At the same time, it’s likely that among readers of this book you’ll be attempting to race the marathon at the greatest differential from your normal training pace. For that reason, in the days before your marathon, your goal pace might seem especially daunting. Draw confidence from your long runs, tempo runs, and marathon-pace runs that you can sustain your ambitious goal pace for 26.2 miles (42.2 km). Also, focus on your goal-pace splits to increase your chances of running the first half of the race intelligently and thereby vastly increasing your chances of being able to hold goal pace past 20 miles (32 km) all the way to the finish line.

After the Marathon

The final schedule in this chapter is a 5-week recovery schedule for after the marathon. This is the fifth mesocycle; it completes the training program and leaves you ready to prepare for future challenges.

The recovery schedule is purposely conservative. You have little to gain by rushing back into training, and your risk of injury is exceptionally high at this point, owing to the reduced resiliency of your muscles and connective tissue after the marathon.

The schedule starts with 2 days off from running, which is the bare minimum of time away from running you should allow yourself. If you still have acute soreness or tightness so severe that it will alter your form, or if you just don’t feel like running, certainly feel free to take more than 2 days off. If ever there was a time to lose your marathoner’s mind-set, the week after your goal race is it. Even most of the top runners in the world take days off after a marathon. They know that the nearly negligible benefits of a short run at this time are far outweighed by the risks. Not running now will also increase your chances of being inspired to resume hard training when your body allows it.

Of course, some people don’t consider themselves real runners unless they run pretty much every day of their lives. Plod through a few miles if you must, but be aware that you’re prolonging your recovery.

What better aids recovery during this time is light cross-training, such as swimming or cycling. These activities increase blood flow through your muscles without subjecting them to pounding. Walking will also achieve this in the week after the marathon.

One way to ensure that you don’t run too hard too soon after your marathon is to use a heart rate monitor. As discussed in chapter 3, a heart rate monitor can help prevent you from going too fast on recovery days. During the first few weeks after the marathon, keep your heart rate below 76 percent of your maximal heart rate or 70 percent of your heart rate reserve. Running at this intensity will help your body overcome the stress of the marathon as quickly as possible.

During this 5-week recovery schedule, the number of days of running per week increases from 3 to 6. At the end of the 5 weeks, you should be fully recovered from the marathon and, with a little luck, injury free and mentally fresh.

Mesocycle 1 – Endurance

Mesocycle 2 – Lactate Threshold + Endurance

Mesocycle 3 – Race Preparation

Mesocycle 4 – Taper and Race

Mesocycle 1 – Endurance

Mesocycle 2 – Lactate Threshold + Endurance

Mesocycle 3 – Race Preparation

Mesocycle 4 – Taper and Race

Mesocycle 5 – Recovery

This chapter is for those occasions when, for whatever perverse reason, you’ve decided to do two marathons with 12 weeks or less between. Though doing two (or more) marathons in rapid succession generally isn’t the best way to go after a personal best time, this chapter focuses on structuring your training to maximize your likelihood of success. It includes five schedules, covering 12, 10, 8, 6, and 4 weeks between marathons.

These schedules are substantially different from the schedules in chapters 9 through 11; the schedules in chapter 12 must start with helping you recover from marathon number 1 and then help you train and taper for marathon number 2. The number of weeks between marathons dictates how much time you devote to recovery, training, and tapering. For example, the 12-week schedule allows a relatively luxurious 4 weeks for recovery, whereas the 6-week schedule can allocate only 2 weeks to recovery.

The schedules in this chapter are written for marathoners who typically build to 60 to 70 miles (97 to 113 km) per week during marathon preparation. The 10- and 12-week schedules build to a peak weekly mileage of 67 (108 km), whereas the 8-, 6-, and 4-week schedules peak at 66(106 km), 60 (97 km), and 48 miles (77 km), respectively. If your mileage during marathon preparation is typically more than 70 miles (113 km) per week, then scale up the volume in these schedules moderately. Similarly, if your mileage typically peaks at less than 60 miles (97 km) per week, then scale the training back proportionately.

The schedules assume that you want to do your best in your second marathon. Though this might not mean running a personal best or even running as fast as in the first race in your double (or triple, or whatever), it does mean toeing the line with the intention of running as fast as you can that day. If your multiple-marathoning goal is to cruise comfortably through a second or third marathon soon after a peak effort, then ignore these schedules. Simply focus on recovering from your first race while interspersing enough long runs to maintain your endurance until your next one.

Why Multiple Marathoning?

Olympic gold medalist Frank Shorter said that you can’t run another marathon until you’ve forgotten your last one. If that’s so, then a lot of runners out there have short memories.

Although statistics in this area are hard to come by, anecdotal evidence suggests that many runners choose to circumvent the conventional wisdom – which is to do, at most, a spring and a fall marathon – and are running three, four, or more marathons a year. Some run a marathon a month. And we’re not just talking about middle-of-the-packers here. Gete Wami won the Berlin Marathon in September 2007. Five weeks later, she was back at it, battling Paula Radcliffe for victory at the New York City Marathon and fading only in the last few hundred meters. Still, she hung on for second and followed her Berlin time of 2:23:17 with a 2:23:32 on the much tougher New York City course.

Of course, Wami ran both so that she could win the $500,000 World Marathon Majors jackpot. You probably won’t have that financial incentive. So should you be a multiple marathoner? We can’t answer that question for you other than to describe why some people are drawn to multiple marathoning.

It’s rare to finish a marathon and – after the obligatory utterance of “Never again” – not think you could have run at least a little faster, if only X, Y, and Z hadn’t occurred. If you’ve run a less-than-satisfying marathon, but it didn’t seem to take too much out of you, and if another likely site for a good race looms several weeks ahead, then you might want to consider drawing on your horse-remounting skills.

A marathon run at a controlled but honest pace a few months before a peak effort can provide a significant training boost and a good measure of your fitness. If you run a race too hard or too close to your real goal race, of course, this is akin to pulling up roots to see how your carrots are growing. Certainly these are excellent opportunities to test your marathon drink, shoes, and the like in battle conditions.

As the growing popularity of destination marathons shows, a special knowledge of an area comes from covering it at length on foot. Many runners plan vacations around a scenic marathon for a chance to view the scenery in a way you can’t experience from a tour bus. When you combine such trips with a standard marathon schedule, you’re likely to run into instances of short turnaround times.

Some runners simply like to run marathons and to experience them in all their permutations, from intimate affairs such as the Green River Marathon (no entry fee and 52 finishers in 2007) in Kent, Washington; to medium-size marathons such as Napa Valley (1,800 runners traversing California wine country) and Twin Cities (8,000 runners along the Mississippi River at peak fall foliage); on up to the mega-events such as Chicago and Berlin. Even though marathons are held throughout the year, the traditional spring and fall clustering can mean that sampling the marathon world requires becoming a multiple marathoner.

How can we put this gently? Some runners are drawn to challenges for no better reason than because they sound good. This would include such undertakings as running a marathon a month for a year, running a marathon in all 50 U.S. states plus the District of Columbia, running one in every province and territory in Canada, and completing a marathon on every continent. The marathon-a-month goal obviously requires scant time between efforts, but so can the geographically based ones, given that you’ll be at the mercy of marathon planners.

“Normal” marathoners should check the amount of glass in their houses before throwing stones at multiple marathoners. After all, the bulk of this book has been devoted to detailing how to maximize your chances of success at an activity that the human body isn’t really suited for. So if some runners want to give the standard reason for undertaking such a challenge – “Because it’s there” – several times a year, well, it’s not as if they’re clubbing seals.

Reading the Schedules

The schedules are presented in a day-by-day format. This is in response to requests from readers of our first book, Road Racing for Serious Runners, to provide schedules that specify what to do each day of the week.

The main limitation with this approach is that it’s impossible to guess the myriad of outside factors that may influence your day-to-day nonrunning life. Work schedules, family life, relationships, school commitments, and Mother Nature all play their part in determining when you get to do your long runs and other aspects of marathon preparation. You’ll no doubt require some flexibility in your training and will need to juggle days around from time to time. That’s expected, and as long as you don’t try to make up for lost time by doing several hard days in a row, you should be able to avoid injury and overtraining.

The schedules express each day’s training in miles and kilometers; use whichever you’re accustomed to. The mile and kilometer figures for each day (and the weekly total) are rough equivalents of each other, not a conversion from one to the other accurate to the third decimal point.

Because of the large variation between runners in the time required for marathon recovery, you should approach these schedules with a high degree of flexibility. Also, if, in your first marathon, the weather was hot, you became severely dehydrated, or you became unusually hobbled, then your recovery is likely to take longer than usual. When a conflict arises between what the schedule says to do and what your body indicates it’s willing to do, listen to your body. With these tight time frames between marathons, your best strategy is first to focus on recovery and then to worry about the other aspects of training. If you’re not able to follow the schedules closely for one reason or another, then follow the priorities discussed later in this chapter in choosing which workouts to do and which to miss.

For all the schedules in this chapter, remember that in the first few weeks after marathon number 1, recovery is your primary objective, and that during the last 3 weeks, tapering to consolidate your energy reserves is paramount. If you’re worn out or injured going into marathon number 2, then any extra workouts you’ve squeezed in won’t have been worth the effort.

One way to ensure that you don’t run too hard during the first few weeks after your previous marathon is to use a heart rate monitor. As discussed in chapter 4, a heart rate monitor can help prevent you from going too fast on your easy days. During the first few weeks after the marathon, keep your heart rate below 76 percent of your maximal heart rate or 70 percent of your heart rate reserve to help speed your recovery.

In 1983, I ran three high-quality marathons in 17 weeks. Nine weeks after winning the San Francisco Marathon in 2:14:44, I finished second in the Montreal Marathon in 2:12:33. Eight weeks after that, I won the Auckland Marathon in 2:12:19. At the time, the last two races were personal bests.

I did a few things wrong between San Francisco and Montreal but was able to hold my body together through a combination of luck, enthusiasm, and youth (I was 26). After San Francisco, I was remarkably stiff for several days. I’m not sure whether that was from standing around in the cold for a couple of hours after the race or because it was my first marathon in almost 2 years because of surgery on my plantar fascia. I hobbled a 2-miler (3 km) 2 days after the race and racked up 46 miles (74 km) for the week. Regular massage helped bring my legs around.

Fortunately, my body bounced back really well after that first week, and I was up to 100 miles (161 km) in the third week after, including a session of eight 800-meter repeats on the track. My mileage climbed to 116 (187) and 122 (196) for the fourth and fifth weeks, which was about as high as I used to get back then. (I hadn’t made an Olympic team yet, so I was working full time.) There was just enough time to fit in two tune-up races, a 5-miler (8 km) in 23:35 and a third-place finish in the New Haven 20K, and then it was time to taper again. Eight days before Montreal, I went to the track and did two repeats of 1,600 meters in 4:24 and 4:23, which was really fast for me and a good omen. The last 2 weeks before the race I tried to get caught up on sleep, and I felt really ready going into Montreal.

The night after Montreal, I stayed out until 5:00 a.m., took an 8:00 a.m. flight back to Boston, and caught a cab directly to work. This didn’t help my recovery. After that, though, I settled down, and in the first 3 weeks after Montreal covered 48, 72, and 97 miles (77, 116, and 156 km). Lots of sleep and weekly massage kept me injury free, and, except for the occasional “Felt like hell” notation in my diary, training went pretty well.

Three weeks before the Auckland Marathon, I started my leave of absence from work at New Balance to prepare for the Olympic trials and flew to New Zealand with my training partner, Tom Ratcliffe, who was also running Auckland. We got a bit carried away with the excitement and probably overtrained the first week there. The second week in New Zealand, I ran a 10K tune-up race in 29:12, which I was very pleased with. During the last week before the marathon, however, I could tell that my body was on a fine edge, and I decided to back right off. Three days before the race, I was still feeling pretty tired. Fortunately, on race day, I felt strong and broke away after 17 miles (27 km). It had been a very positive experience in multiple marathoning that was excellent practice for the following year’s Olympic trials and marathon.

– Pete Pfitzinger

Following the Schedules

Each column of the schedules represents a week’s training. For example, in the 10-week schedule, the column for 9 weeks to goal indicates that at the end of that week you have 9 weeks until your second marathon. The schedules continue week by week until race week.

We have included the specific workout for each day as well as the category of training for that day. For example, in the 10-week schedule, on the Friday of the 5-weeks-to-go column, the specific workout is a 9-mile (14 km) run, and the category of training for that day is general aerobic conditioning. This aspect of the schedules allows you to quickly see the balance of training during each week and the progression of workouts from week to week. Look again at the 10-week schedule – it’s easy to see that with 5 weeks to go until the marathon, there are three recovery days that week along with aO₂max session, a long run, a medium-long run, and a general aerobic conditioning run. Looking at the row for Sunday, it’s easy to see how the long runs progress and then taper in the last few weeks before the marathon.

The workouts are divided into the following eight categories: long runs, medium-long runs, marathon-pace runs, general aerobic runs, lactate threshold runs, recovery runs,O₂max intervals, and speed training. Each of these categories is explained in depth in chapter 7, and the physiology behind the training is explained in chapter 1.

Multiple-Marathoning Priorities

The following sections explain the priorities for the training schedules in this chapter. But what if you don’t have 12, 10, 8, 6, or 4 weeks between marathons?

If you have less than 4 weeks between marathons, you’re on your own. Your main concern should be recovery, recovery, and more recovery, not only from your first marathon but also from the lobotomy that led you to come up with this plan.

For other amounts of time between marathons, follow these guidelines:

• For 11 weeks between, do the 12-week schedule, but skip the week “6 weeks to goal.”

• For 9 weeks between, do the 10-week schedule, but skip the week “5 weeks to goal,” and with 35 days to go, increase the distance of the run to 18 miles (29 km).

• For 7 weeks between, do the 8-week schedule, but skip the week “3 weeks to goal,” and with 21 days to go, increase the distance of the run to 18 miles (29 km).

• For 5 weeks between, do the 6-week schedule, but skip the week “2 weeks to goal,” and with 14 days to go, increase the medium-long run to 16 miles (26 km).

On May 26, 1984, I ran 2:11:43 to win the Olympic marathon trials, and then on August 12, I placed 11th in 2:13:53 in the Olympics. Here’s how I approached the 11 weeks in between.

I was on a bit of a high after winning the trials, to say the least. I took the next day off and went for a relaxed swim and a pathetic 3-mile (5 km) shuffle 2 days after the race. The next day, I had my weekly massage, and my muscles weren’t too bad. Building toward the Olympics, massage each week helped keep me injury free despite the short recovery. I ran 45 miles (72 km) the week after the trials. Using the philosophy that I needed to get the training in as quickly as possible to be able to taper again and be in top form for the Olympics, I initially ran as I felt and got in 112 miles (180 km) the second week and 151 miles (243 km) the third week. During the second week after the trials, I started doing a few strideouts every couple of days to try to get my legs turning over. This seemed to help quite a bit.

In retrospect, I should have run 80 to 90 miles (129 to 145 km) the second week and 110 to 120 miles (177 to 193 km) the third week. Doing the amount I did showed a lack of confidence because I wouldn’t have lost fitness by doing fewer miles. In fact, if I had run a bit less mileage right after the trials, I probably would have performed better at the Olympics. But I didn’t understand that at the time.

The problem I faced was that in 11 weeks I couldn’t very well do a 4-week recovery and a 3-week taper because that would have left only 4 weeks to train to compete against the best runners in the world. I got around that by cutting back the recovery and getting back into fairly high-quality long intervals by the fourth or fifth week posttrials. The beauty of the short recovery after the trials was that I was fit enough to do my long intervals at a good clip right away, so I didn’t need as long to build into them. For example, in the fifth week posttrials, I did a 3-mile (5 km) time trial on the track in 14:02.

I did continue, however, to train according to how I felt, with flexibility both ways. For example, one day I headed out for a 15-miler (24 km), felt good, and wound up going 26 miles (42 km). On other days, I would postpone a track workout for a day or two until my legs felt as if they could give a good effort without getting injured.

I tapered more for the Olympics than for the trials. This was somewhat necessitated by tightness that I developed in my back during the last 3 weeks before the race. It was also out of a realization that I had trained a bit too hard in the weeks after the trials and that my energy level needed time to come up a notch. This is a very subjective matter, but I could tell during my training runs that a bit of zip was missing and that it was better to cut back and regain my strength. I did this by making my easy days – in terms of speed and distance – easier. I also trimmed the volume of my long runs and my speed workouts. This taper became the model that I followed for the rest of my racing career.

– Pete Pfitzinger

12-Week Schedule

A period of 12 weeks between marathons isn’t too bad. There’s a real risk, however, of either taking it too easy and gradually losing marathon-specific fitness or overdoing it and finding yourself at the starting line of marathon number 2 feeling tired and wondering why you’re there. You need to find the perfect balance for your individual situation. The best strategy is to really take it easy for the first 3 or 4 weeks after your previous marathon to ensure that your body is fully recovered. That leaves 8 or 9 weeks until the next marathon, including 5 or 6 weeks of solid training and a 3-week taper.

The key training time is the 6-week period lasting from 7 weeks to go through 2 weeks until the second marathon. The most important workouts during those weeks are the tune-up races with 29 and 15 days to go; the marathon-specific run with 42 days to go; the long runs with 49, 35, 28, and 21 days to go; theO₂max sessions with 39, 33, and 25 days to go; and the medium-long runs with 52, 44, 38, 32, and 24 days until marathon number 2.

10-Week Schedule

Allowing 10 weeks between marathons is almost reasonable, and the schedule reflects this by providing 3 weeks of solid recovery, 4 weeks of solid training, and a 3-week taper.

The key training weeks are those that end with 6, 5, 4, 3, and 2 weeks until your second marathon. The most important workouts during those weeks are the tune-up races with 29 and 15 days to go; the long runs with 35, 28, 21, and 14 days to go; the lactate threshold session with 44 days to go; theO₂max sessions with 39 and 25 days to go; and the medium-long runs with 38, 32, and 24 days until marathon number 2. The only word of caution concerning a 10-week time frame between marathons is to allow yourself to recover fully from your previous marathon before training too intensely for the next one.

8-Week Schedule

The 8-week schedule allows you to recover thoroughly from your previous marathon, train well for about 3 weeks, and then taper for marathon number 2. A period of 8 weeks between marathons is far less risky than 4 or 6 weeks. Even if your first marathon was in hot weather, or if you came out of it with a minor injury, with a bit of luck you should still be okay for marathon number 2.

The key training weeks are those that end with 4, 3, and 2 weeks until the second marathon. The most important workouts during those weeks are the tune-up race with 15 days to go; the long runs with 28, 21, and 14 days to go; the lactate threshold session with 30 days to go; and the medium-long runs with 24 and 18 days until the marathon. Try to avoid doing more than the schedules call for because 8 weeks between marathons is still brief enough that you don’t have much room for error.

6-Week Schedule

The 6-week schedule was difficult to put together because 6 weeks is just enough time to start to lose fitness if you don’t train enough, but it is also just barely enough time to recover from marathon number 1 before you need to taper for marathon number 2. The most important training weeks are those that end 3 weeks and 2 weeks before marathon number 2. Those weeks provide a small window during which you can train fairly hard without wearing yourself out for the second marathon.

The key workouts during those weeks are the tune-up race with 15 days to go, the long run with 14 days to go, theO₂max sessions with 23 and 19 days to go, and the medium-long runs with 21 and 18 days until the marathon. This brief training stimulus will keep you in peak marathon fitness so that after tapering, you should be close to your best.

4-Week Schedule

The 4-week schedule is about as compact as you can get. This program consists of 2 weeks of recovery merging into 2 weeks of taper. The objective is to get you to the starting line injury free, fully recovered from your previous marathon, and still in top shape. The mileage for this program starts at 25 miles (40 km) and builds to 48 miles (77 km) during the third week. Unfortunately, that’s also the penultimate week before the marathon, so mileage and intensity building abruptly halt and merge into a taper.

The most important workouts in this schedule are the medium-long runs with 14 and 10 days until marathon number 2 and theO₂max session with 12 days to go. If you need to do two marathons just 4 weeks apart (and need is a relative term), then this schedule should maximize your chances of success.

Racing Strategies

Don’t do it!

Just kidding. You should definitely set a clear goal for the second (or third, or fourth,) marathon you’re running within a brief time frame. Otherwise, you might very well find yourself a few miles into it already wondering, What am I doing here? Being able to state what you want to accomplish in your multiple marathoning will provide en route direction and motivation. The longer you’ve allowed between marathons, the more precisely you should be able to state your goals for marathon number 2 (beyond “to get through it”).

Once you’ve picked your goal, map out the splits you’ll need to hit. Throughout this book, we’ve stressed the merits of showing restraint early in the marathon to maximize your chances of being able to run a strong second half. That advice is especially pertinent if you’ve already finished one marathon in the last 12 weeks or sooner. Your multiple-marathoning experience will almost certainly become a self-fulfilling death march if you run too fast early in the race in the hope of building a cushion against an inevitably slower second half.

Wait until the week before your second marathon to decide on a time goal. Be realistic, taking into account how your recovery from your first race went; the quality of your long runs, tempo runs, and interval sessions in the interim; and whether you’ve felt your energy level rise during your taper for marathon number 2.

Also consider the circumstances of your previous marathon. For example, if you ran a huge personal record (PR) off of negative splits, then there’s probably room for improvement this time around. Or say you wilted over the last 10K the last time around and realize in retrospect that this was because of a too-aggressive first 10 miles (16 km); you should be able to make another attempt at your goal time for the first marathon. If, however, you prepared with monk-like devotion for 24 weeks for your previous marathon and shaved 3 seconds off your lifetime best, and your second marathon is 4 weeks later, well, sorry, but this probably isn’t the time to try for a 10-minute PR.

If you’ve never consciously tried to run a marathon with negative splits, this might be the occasion to do so. Give yourself the first several miles to get an accurate feel for how your body is responding to the challenge you’ve set for it, and pick up the pace only when you’re fairly confident that you can sustain it to the end.

After the Marathon

If you’ve just run two or more marathons within a brief time span, your best strategy for future success is to take a well-deserved break. A few weeks of no running or easy training will help your body to recover and your mind to develop new challenges. You have little to gain by rushing back into training, and your risk of injury is exceptionally high at this point, owing to the reduced resiliency of your muscles and connective tissue after running multiple marathons. If you choose to keep training, then the 5-week recovery schedule (mesocycle 5) in chapter 10 will help you recover and rebuild your training safely.