5 Month Training Plan

I have come up with a rough 5 month training plan with the obvious focus for peaking in the fall. The mileage is somewhat figured out though not exact of course. It will, and should, average out to 95-100 miles per week for the entire 5 month cycle.

June: June is base building, just general running with not many workouts. The mileage will average out to 100-110 miles/week with a weekly high of 120 miles.

July: July will average a little lower in mileage with emphasis on introducing workouts again and speed/turnover. The weekly high should be around 100 miles and the weekly low will be about 45-50 miles. The lower week should allow my body to recover and prepare for the next high mileage cycle in August. July should average about 80 miles/week with some races I have such as the MCRRC MidSummer Night's Mile 7/8, Rockville Twilight 8K 7/16, and Crystal City 5K 7/23. Track workouts will be regularly done in this month.

August: With a solid base from June, and speed/turnover from July, August will ramp up again to be peak mileage training with the addition of emphasis on strong lactate threshold workouts/marathon pace workouts. The weekly low is projected to be 90 miles and the weekly high will be up to 140 miles. I will probably average up 120 miles per week for this month.

September: In September, the mileage will average about 90/week, with a weekly high of 100-110 miles and the low will be 60 miles(which will be a recovery week following the Philly 13.1 Race week). This month is a quality month. The 13.1 will be an all out race. The Marathon Specific Workouts will continue to be the real focus leading into the next month.

October: This is the final month with some final high quality marathon specific workouts and will average out to 90 miles per week. There will be one final high mileage/peak week of 120 miles and a quality 22 mile long run 3 weeks out before tapering for the Marine Corps Marathon. The Taper WILL BE 3 WEEKS. This is something I must do and have failed to do in the past. Marathon week is to be between 55-65 miles or so.

When looking at this on paper, it seems daunting, so I must take one week at a time. And it probably isn't exact either. But it's time to "go for it" and really take the next step in my running career.

If I can do this type of training over the summer, I see no reason why I cannot attain the goals below this fall:

Half Marathon: 1:05:00-1:08:00
Full Marathon: 2:22:00-2:26:00

Time to go after it again...