How to train for marathons

I forgot how to train for a marathons, so I looked up my Strava history.

Just like I forgot how to replace all occurrences of _ on a line or document in vim… so I just looked it up and its :%s/str1/str2/g with the g option if you want to replace all instances globally.

Back in the day when I did not know how to run long distances I used a book The Non-Runner’s Marathon Trainer by David A. Whitsett. It tells basically how to run a marathon. I like the training plan of:

I don’t remember much else from the book but it was good to recount having that guide for my first marathons.

Back then it was pretty revolutionary, as it only gives the bare minimum of training to complete and someone have fun during the race.

Then last year I tried something new; Running Monday though Friday but the same mileage every day. The first weeks I started at 5, then went up to 7 or 8 miles for that Monday though Friday. I think most of the training was on treadmill.

This gave me a huge base to work from for the marathons and week long running I did along the West Highland Way. It was a risk doing this kind of training plan but it seemed to just work in getting my legs used to high mileage, if not pretty slow pace.

For this year, I am at a 17 fitness score, compared to 26 last year. So I feel like I am really not ready for marathons. The half marathons that I have done for training were pretty brutal, and I pretty much bonked or had horrible weather conditions when running. This means I had to never to ultra training techniques where you to half the run in the morning and the other half in the afternoon.

The altitude of my training is not helping either in the enjoyment of the sport.

I look forward to when the races are done and I am back. I miss running up the mountain along the trails and roads. I hope to do more of that later this summer.