Marathon Training Plan

Posted on Posted in Fitness

I’ve had some people ask me what my specific Marathon Training plan is. I modified a 16 week beginner plan that I found on Runner’s World to fit into my basic Body For Life training schedule as well as my real life needs.

Here is how I will spend the next 19 weeks. Some of the shorter runs on weight lifting days may be modified to time spent on either a bike or elliptical to give my knees a break. I just joined our local fitness center to facilitate adding some cross training. But the basic schedule, especially the long runs, is fixed. I need to adjust this to add more uphill training since the marathon course has a number of long hills.

The abbreviations: UBWO (upper body work out), LBWO (lower body work out), TUT (total uphill time), HIIT (high intensity interval training also known as the 20 minute aerobic solution in the body for life book), AI (aerobic intervals; 2-3 minutes at faster pace but not hitting anaerobic).

Plan Edited: 5/23/05 based on expert feedback; one week of taper removed as this was thought to be too much. A second recommendation was to add Yasso 800’s. I’ll probably fit them in as recommended in the article for some of the HIIT plus days.

Maintenance running
Date Sat Sun Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri total
5/21/2005 6 miles UBWO & 2 miles HIIT + 2 miles LBWO HIIT + 3 miles Full body 2 miles off 19
5/28/2005 8 miles UBWO & 2 miles HIIT + 2 miles LBWO HIIT + 3 miles Full body 2 miles off 21
6/4/2005 6 miles UBWO & 2 miles HIIT + 2 miles LBWO HIIT + 3 miles Full body 2 miles off 21
Modified Marathon Plan
Date Sat Sun Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri total
6/11/2005 6 miles UBWO & 2 miles 4 miles, including 4:00 TUT LBWO 6 miles Full body 2 miles off 19
6/18/2005 7 miles UBWO & 2 miles 4 miles, including 4:00 TUT LBWO 6 miles Full body 2 miles off 20
6/25/2005 8 miles UBWO & 2 miles 4 miles, including 5:00 TUT LBWO 6 miles Full body 2 miles off 22
7/2/2005 9 miles UBWO & 2 miles 4 miles, including 5:00 TUT LBWO 6 miles Full body 2 miles off 23
7/9/2005 8 miles UBWO & 3 miles 4 miles, including 3×2:00 AI LBWO 4 miles Full body 3 miles off 22
7/16/2005 10 miles UBWO & 2 miles 5 miles, including 6:00 TUT LBWO 7 miles Full body 2 miles off 26
7/23/2005 12 miles UBWO & 2 miles 5 miles, including 6:00 TUT LBWO 7 miles Full body 2 miles off 28
7/30/2005 12 miles UBWO & 2 miles 5 miles, including 7:00 TUT LBWO 8 miles Full body 2 miles off 29
8/6/2005 14miles UBWO & 2 miles 5 miles, including 7:00UTUT LBWO 8 miles Full body 2 miles off 31
8/13/2005 10 miles UBWO & 2 miles 5 miles, including 3×3:00 AI LBWO 4 miles Full body 2 miles off 23
8/20/2005 16 miles UBWO & 2 miles 5 miles, including 8:00 TUT LBWO 9 miles Full body 2 miles off 34
8/27/2005 18 miles UBWO & 1 mile 5 miles, including 8:00 TUT LBWO 9 miles Full body 1 mile off 34
9/3/2005 20 miles UBWO & 2 miles 5 miles, including 9:00 TUT LBWO 10 miles Full body 2 miles off 39
9/10/2005 10 miles UBWO & 2 miles 5 miles, including 9:00 TUT LBWO 10 miles Full body 2 miles off 29
9/17/2005 5 miles UBWO & 2 miles 3 miles, including 3X3:00 AI LBWO 5 miles Full body 2 miles off 17
9/24/2005 2 mile jog Marathon UBWO 3 mile jog LBWO Full body 2 miles off 33

3 Comments on “Marathon Training Plan”

  1. You still have Friday as your free day, right? Once you get into thoses really long LSD runs you might find that you need an extra day of rest in the middle of the week. In print your schedule looks very doable, but you won’t know how your body will react until you get to those LSD’s, ususally the 14, 16, 18, & 20 milers. I look forward to reading about your marathon training. In addition, keep us posted on the phenomenon called carb loading (LOL) and what end up working for you.

  2. Hi Irene,
    Yes Friday is still my free day. Typically I eat about 2300 to 2400 calories with 40:30:30 (carb:prot:fat)ratios. So far, that has been OK for setting me up for my Saturday long runs. My Saturday calories also tend to be pretty high (2200 or so). We’ll see once I break the 1/2 marathon barrier in August. Right now, I can’t really envision those 14,16, 18 & 20 mile runs, so if my body needs to drop a lifting day or two those weeks, I’ll adjust as needed. I do want to keep the majority of lifting days just to minimize the loss of lean mass (I have so little!) that often happens with running. I’m also closely following your experience since your marathon is sooner than mine. I see that you have also found the blog “26.2 miles vs. Naomi.” I just found her blog yesterday. It’s nice to see other marathon novices getting ready so I can see what is coming.
    I’m having a hard time adding more carbs. I keep planning to but so many of my easy to make meals are pure 40:40:20. Even when I splurge at dinner out and eat some fresh hot bread, it gets balanced out with the rest of the meals for the day. I’m sure that it will get easier as the runs get longer. Good luck with your last few days before your marathon. I can’t wait to see how you do.
    Cathy

  3. I’m at a different computer today so I can now see your entire schedule… Friday was not showing up on my home office computer. I also had a hard time adding carbs early in training, but when the LSD runs came along it was then that I really understood the point of the carb load. It blew my mind that I could gain up to 8 pounds in just a few days and loose it all after a few hours of running. I sent the article about the 800’s to my brother, and he agreed with it completely, since it follows suit with his training. Gotta go run!