Marathon FIRST – 12 Weeks

About the plan

A 12-week plan for a runner with a ready base who wants to run a marathon training three days per week. Twelve weeks do not build a marathon base — this plan assumes you already run around 25 miles (40 km) per week and can do a 90-minute long run today. The method is FIRST/Furman: three runs per week, all of them quality — one interval session, one threshold workout and the long run. No filler runs, because anyone with three days cannot waste any. The other four days are rest or the sport you already practice. Marathon pace is rehearsed four times, in blocks that grow from 40 to 60 minutes within the Thursday workout. The Sunday long run goes from 90 to 165 minutes. Weeks 4 and 8 are lighter, week 11 is the taper and week 12 ends at the race. The 16-week FIRST marathon in the catalog is the safest path if you have that time; this one is for those who don't. Paces come from your times in the magic calculator; update the reference race time in your profile before starting so that threshold, interval and race paces come out calibrated.