5 Months to Go!

Five months from today I will be crossing the finish line of my first Boston Marathon, and I have, technically speaking, officially, kinda sorta, informally started my training plan. I'm still about 21 weeks away, but I can't wait to get started. I've had Boston on my mind a lot lately. I had been thinking that I would start training after Christmas, giving me about 4 months to get in shape, but I don't think I can wait that long. Plus, I'm getting tired of explaining to people that I am running the marathon, but haven't started training yet, but will start soon, and that's still enough time, etc.

Enough of my rambling, this is what I have planned so far:
For my last marathon, I kind of followed the FIRST marathon training program from the Furman Institute of Running, the plan I first read about in Runner's World magazine a year or two ago. In a previous post, I explained how this plan worked for me. I was very pleased with the results--PR and Boston qualifying time. I have now set the high goal of breaking 3 hours in Boston this year. I think this plan (or a slight variation thereof) will get me there.

This plan is 16 weeks long, so between now and the first week in January (16 weeks from the race), I plan to work on my speed and get my long run to about 10 miles. At that point, I will begin the FIRST plan of running three days a week (speed work, tempo run, long run). Last night, I started working out some of the details, and I hope to have things written down and a specific plan made in the next few days. And, of course, I will post the plan here for all to see. Maybe it will work for you when you formally, unofficially start your own training.