Hi there,
Just curious if there are any great training programs out there for a marathon. It will be my first but my goal is not just to finish, but to finish in a DECENT time (~3:30). I have good fitness and some experience doing half marathon distance in training sessions. Is it just a matter of doing a search on the web and looking for something or are there any in particular that are better than others. What about Hal Higdon’s?
Thanks for any help
Advanced Marathoning - Pfitzinger + Douglas
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Ditto what she said.
If you want to shell out the extra cash Pete Pfitzinger does personal online training programs.
Most marathon training programs for novices are indistinguishable. The Pfitzinger/Douglas book stands out because they explain things very well and they don’t try to make a simple concept too complicated. IN the standard program you have a long workout, a tempo workout and a lot of easy miles in between. Space out your hard stuff…long run on the weekend, tempo work midweek and fill the rest of your time with easy mileage.
Your potential on race day will depend on how many miles you have in your legs, and will have little if anything to do with how you got them there.
If you have 2 equally talented novice marathoners and one runs 45 miles a week in training and has a world class coach drawing up his workouts, he loses every time to the novice running 60 miles a week who draws up his own schedule. At this early stage its a simple numbers game; more is always better.
Coaches and schedules become more important when you start to top out on the mileage you can run and you need to maximize those miles. Until that point, just run more and you’ll get faster.
Good luck. I ran a 3:38 first time out and managed to PR in every marathon I ran after than until number 11 and that was a weather issue…just by running more.
I did Hal Higdon’s for my second marathon (first serious one). I can’t remember which one I did but it did not have any hills or intervals - was basically all steady state running. While I liked the philosophies he had guiding the program, next time I would for sure mix in some of the advanced program material such as hills, intervals, etc.
And my biggest problem - I didn’t focus on nutrition during training or racing and it hurt me big time. I was right where I wanted to be at the half (on pace for a Boston Qualifier) but hit the wall hard with 10k to go. It wasn’t from a lack of miles, but lack of fuel in my body. But I’ll be back!
I’m using Pfitzinger, but you really have to have a good base. I overdid it and flared my ITB. The thing that killed me was doing the long runs the day after VO2 workouts. My legs simply weren’t ready for it. It’s hard to know how much prep work is needed before starting any plan. I guess that’s where a good coach comes in.