Marathon FIRST – Run Less, Run Faster

About the plan

A 16-week plan based on the FIRST method for runners who want to prepare for a marathon running only 3 days per week. It is the original plan that made the Furman University program famous — in the 2005 study, 21 of the 25 participants completed the marathon, with the veterans improving their times by almost 20 minutes on average. The plan challenges the conventional wisdom that you need to run 5-6 days a week to complete a marathon. Instead of accumulating mileage with easy runs, each of the 3 weekly sessions is a quality workout with a clear purpose. Cross-training on the days in between maintains aerobic conditioning while drastically reducing the risk of repetitive-impact injuries. The long run progresses from 1:10 to 2:40 — with long runs above 2:00 in weeks 8, 10, 11, 13 and 14, for a total of 5 long runs over 2 hours. The tempo runs reach 40 minutes of sustained threshold. The intervals progress from 30-second repeats to 8-minute blocks at VO2max pace.