What is the minimum number of weekly miles that you would recommend for a marathon training program? I have one long day (14 or 21 miles), one day at the track, and one recovery day per per week. My average is 48 miles total (without the track included) with the most being 66 miles in a week. I’m shooting for a low 3:00 stand alone marathon.
Am I light on my weekly totals?
What are some of your weekly mileage?
Your long run shouldn’t make up more than 50% of your weekly mileage.
So, you’re above the minimum.
The 21 miles only happens on the last few weeks when I will be at 66 miles per week.
I went 2:59 in Chicago never going above 50 miles in any given week. Some people need lots of miles, some don’t. Running too much gets me hurt. Different strokes for different folks. As long as race times leading up to your marathon indicate that you’re on pace, I wouldn’t worry too much about your weekly totals since at 48 mpw, you’re by no means a “low mileage” runner.
If you vote Republican in the next election you will break 3 hours with 25 miles per week 
.
That’s similar volume to what I am planning - also shooting to break 3:00. There’s a nice 16 week marathon training plan on the Boston Marathon’s website.
Are you swimming and biking any?
I did Boston in 3:14 on 25-30 mpw but was also doing 3 bike workouts and 2-3 swim.
Minimum to finish without walking for most people? Maybe 20mpw.
Yes, I’m also biking about 100 miles per week, which is really light. My swimming is now ad hoc.
My last marathon was a 3:00:34, three years ago. I was running about 25 to 30 miles a week at the time. Usually 4 runs per week of 5 to 10 miles each. No long runs at all. I was swimming 5 times a week, and doing just a little biking. I did a half marathon a few weeks before the marathon, in 1:23.
My recollection of the marathon was that it was about as tough as the run on a half IM.
Stopped Clock
Best reply ever.
Swimming or running?
It’s hard to know if what you are doing is enough for a sub 3 hour, unless we know where you are at now. Are you a 35, 36, 37 minute 10k runner right now?? Were you previously a runner, or come from a different sports background? How do you do with high quality and low quanity?? When I was about a 33:30 10k runner, I trained for 6 weeks to try and do a good marathon, averaging 42 miles a week, with one 3+ hour ride per week for my long endurance. I ran almost all of my runs so that they would average out at what I thought I could do for race pace, long run being 17 miles…I managed to better my race pace for the first 24 miles, then hit the provebial wall… My training pace average was about 6:00 per mile, and felt good running 5:50 for those first 24, but ended up at 5:58 average for the race… And I was not a runner by trade, came from the H20 world…
What I’ve got left between now and the marathon… miles are as follows:
45, 39, 25, 46, 37, 31, 23, marathon