At some point during my 3+ hour walk with Kirsten on Saturday, I came to the realization that the Portland Marathon is quickly approaching. And that scared the sh*t out of me.
I really just hope I’m in as good a mood as I was for the Rock ‘n Roll Seattle Half.
One can hope.
When I got back to South Jesus, I knew I needed to get some sort of training plan together so it (hopefully) won’t take me 8 hours to cross the finish line.
The race is 15 weeks from this Sunday…so I looked online, browsed a couple of training plans and took the final 15 weeks of the Beginner Marathon Program on Cool Running’s website. I’m going to focus on getting one long run in each week and hopefully doing 2 or 3 other (short) runs during the week. I’ll do the long runs on either Friday, Saturday or Sunday, depending on when I have time. These are the long runs I have planned for the next 15 weeks:
1: 10 miles
2: 12 miles
3: 5 miles
4: 15 miles
5: 7 miles
6: 18 miles
7: 9 miles
8: 20 miles
9: 10 miles or 10k
10: 22 miles
11: 10 miles or 10k
12: 26 miles
13: 12 miles
14: 12 miles
15: PORTLAND MARATHON!!!
I might modify those long 20+ mile runs down, but for now, I’ll try to do them. I think it will just make marathon day a little bit better. Also, I think I’m going to alternate running and walking and see how that goes…maybe 10:1.
Surprisingly, I’m already looking forward to seeing this d-bag when I cross the finish line:
Do any of you marathoners have any other suggestions?
CatasTrophy Wife 
Great job on the half!!! When looking at your schedule for long runs, I really think you should max out at the MAX 24 mile long runs. My coach tells me if you can run 18, you can run 26. My training plan goes up to 22 with NO taper after each long run. I go from 12, 14, 16, 18, 22, 16, 14, 12 for my long runs. I really don’t recommend doing the 26 miler long run, there is no point because then that’s your marathon!
In my last marathon, I only went up to a 20 mile long run and I asked for a 22 miler this time around because I havent been running long at all the past 3 months and I plan on taking 30 minutes off my marathon time. And you can see, I go from 18 straight to 22 with no set back week or a 20 miler inbetween.
Any other questions, I would be happy to help!
Happy Marathon Training!
Yeah, I thought that 26-er was messed up! Thanks for the tips!!
a 26 mile training run may wear you out before the big day, you don’t need more than 22. I know from experience ;-).
You’re the second one to say this, so I’m totally taking that off my training schedule…and this makes me so excited!!!
I used somewhat of a run/walk plan for my last marathon (my 2nd but whatever)…I would walk for 1 minute every 2 miles. Even though at the beginning it was tough to make myself take a break (“I have energy! I don’t need to stop now!”) I know it helped me from going into total death march mode later in the race. In full disclosure by the time I got to 20 or 21 it was more like a 2 minute walk every mile marker but I was actually able to run more than I walked toward the end which was an improvement over marathon #1 🙂
Best of luck with your training!
I also would make week 10 into a 20 miler, and week 12 into only a 22 miler (maybe 23 if you really feel you want/need it). Def not 26. The other suggestion I’d have is not to make your low weeks quite so low. Basically I’d always keep your recovery week at about 10 or more miles.
Super exciting! If you plan to run/walk the marathon just be sure to train that way during your 20 milers. For me walking during my first marathon was not going to happen if I wanted to keep forward momentum the last 9 miles or so. Then again I didn’t train run/walk style so maybe that’s why! Just train as you plan to run the big event and you’ll be fine. 🙂
I’m totally planning on training with the run/walk intervals. Any reason to take a break, right?!!
I agree to not do that 26 miler! I don’t think I’ve ever gone more than 20 during training (I’ve run 5 marathons so far). I usually make certain I get that long run in, but don’t worry as much about the runs during the week. I don’t go for time, just to finish 🙂