The Marathon PR Plan

Last weekend I looked around at marathon race plans online then came up with this one for myself.  I mostly based it off a Hal Higdon plan just because I thought it looked closest to what I thought would work best for me.  I have never really had a race plan other than mileage goals and long run goals that I usually fell short of.  This time I have the whole thing planned out with higher mileage, speed work, hill work, tempo runs, race pace runs and long runs.  I am also doing some cross training.  The cross training is mostly strength and flexibility not too much more cardio.

Week	MON	TUE	WED	THU	FRI	SAT	SUN	mileage
1	5	3	4 X 800	rest	5	10	3m
2	6	3	35t	rest	6	12	3m
3	7	4	5 X 800	rest	6	8	3m
4	7	4	5 X hill	rest	7	12	3m
5	8	4	40t	rest	7	14	3m
6	8	4	6 X 800	rest	8	16	3m
7	9	5	6 X hill	rest	8	12	4m
8	9	5	45t	rest	9	18	4m
9	6	5	7 X 800	rest	10 easy	20	4m
10	10	5	7 X hill	rest	rest	Half Mar	5m
11	6	5	45t	rest	6	20	5m
12	10	5	8 X 800	rest	10	22	5m
13	8	5	6 X hill	rest	4	12	4m
14	6	4	30t	rest	4 easy	8	3m
15	4	3	rest	rest	2 easy	Marathon

Monday: run

Tuesday: Easy run

Wednesday:  Tempo, 800’s, and hill

Thursday:  Rest day

Friday:  Race pace

Saturday:  Long run 30-45 seconds above marathon goal pace

Sunday:  Easy run

Week one is almost over and so far so good.  I've already switched days around which I figure I'll need to do the whole time and not worry to much about which day of the week I do which workout.  I have to do a lot of my runs on the treadmill but plan on using a babysitter or family for my long runs and a few of the other ones that are over 7 miles long.