Marathon Training Plans

I've gotten a lot of questions about marathon training plans, what I chose and why.  So, here is the plan that I chose:  http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/marathon-training-program.html.

I looked through A LOT of plans before I found this one.  For my first marathon, since I didn't want to do the Galloway method, which is what the marathon was associated with, I downloaded the plan for the Chicago marathon.  It was great for a first marathon plan, and it got me through.  Weekly mileage didn't destroy me or burn me out, and I finished, which was pretty much my goal.

For this one, I feel like I've learned a lot, just in the past 6 or 8 months.  With E's training for Cedar Point, I started doing running drills with him, which I had never done before.  Strides, intervals, bridge repeats, I tried it all.  And for the first time...I noticed a difference in my running.  My stride improved, and I actually got a little faster.  Which, as most of you know, I'm like turtle-fast when I run, so I was pretty stoked about this development.  Granted, I know some of this improvement is also from strength training and cross training, but still.  It's made me a firm  believer in drills and not just going out and running, which is what I've always done.

That's a really long way of saying I chose the above plan because it caters to my new-found love of structured workouts.  It incorporates a track/interval day, a couple short runs at different paces, strength training and a recovery day.  It also has a Friday rest day, which I'm a  BIG fan of.  I don't know why, I just really, really like having Friday's off.

So, training starts September 5.  I've been bumping my runs up a bit on the weekends and during the week so it doesn't all start as a complete shock, but I'm pretty pumped.  Marathon #2, here we come!