The New Boston Marathon Training Plan

The times we are living are nothing like we have seen before. The most historic marathon in the world, the Boston Marathon has been postponed until the fall. That means there are now approximately twenty-three weeks until the marathon. This past weekend we would have begun our taper. Now that all is on hold, so what as marathoners should be doing now. I have developed a three phase plan that will get you to starting line in Hopkinton stronger and ready to tackle the 26.2 trek to Boylston Street.

Here’s my plan.

Phase 1

April 1^st to April 13^th-maintain current mileage, spread it out over the week. So, if you are running 50-60 miles a week with a long run on the week of 16- 20 miles, maintain the total only run 6 days a week with an average of 7 to 9 miles day with a 10 to 15 long run on the weekend. Your daily runs can be at an easy pace with heart rate zone of 3 or 4 of maximum heart rate. These runs should be 1 minute to 1.5 minutes slower than marathon pace. This is great opportunity to try new things by mixing in some hill workouts, fartleks and tempo runs or just run.

Phase 2

April 13^th May 25th

This is a good opportunity to give the legs a little bit of a rest and build strength in the rest of your body Building strength reduces the chance of injury later in the year. Reduce mileage down to post marathon levels, which may even mean taking some time off from running completely. A week’s rest won’t kill your fitness level. Training for 25% to 35% less than your Phase 1 mileage. In the above example of 50 to 60 miles, you would run only 30 to 45 miles per week and introduce some strength, yoga or a stretching program. This cross training should last at least 30 minutes and the goal should be to increase flexibility and build strength. This will prevent injury and give your body time to recover from an intense training program. Especially for older runners like me I have always found that if I didn’t do some strength training, I usually got some nagging injury later in the year. Even though your body didn’t take the usual beating from the actual race but the training itself has worn it down.

Phase 3

May 25^th-September 13

Return to your normal marathon training, begin long runs, and the regular marathon training including a slight build up. You should be in top shape going into this training cycle, so be careful not to do too much too fast even though you feel good. There are two reasons to go easy at first, first off you don’t want to get injured and fatigue you body too soon. The second is that you don’t want to peak too early. A slow build up will allow you to arrive at the starting line at your training peak. I plan on continuing the strength training for the first month and I usually do a 15 minute core routine 3 days a week throughout my 16 week marathon plan.

I have always found the summer to more challenging to train than the winter months. The weather is much hotter and the social activities are in abundance.