Life V. Marathon Week One-Four

There's a huge difference between racing and finishing a marathon. While finishing a marathon is a great achievement, it can be accomplished with a fairly basic training plan and lots of easy miles. To race a marathon, however, requires a much greater commitment.That's why I'm calling this project "Life V. Marathon". The quest is to figure out a way to train at a high level with minimum disruption to my everyday responsibilities and activities.

Over the next 20 weeks I will be training for the Space Coast Marathon, which takes place on Nov. 27th. I ran this race back in 2009 finishing in 2:53:04, I came in 9th overall and grabbed an age group win. I'm setting a pretty high goal for myself for this years race; finish in under 2:40. I'm hoping that telling all of you this will give me the motivation to accomplish this and keep me on track.

The first 4 weeks will be devoted to solidifying my base and the last 16 weeks I will be focusing like a laser on hitting my goal marathon pace of 6:05 per mile. This will be my 5th marathon, so I've already put in my base work, and I'm coming into this plan already running from 50 to 60 miles a week. Please, if you are thinking about following along, you should have a year of consistent running behind you and a base of about 40 miles per week. Also, talk to your doctor, I will not be held responsible for what you crazy people (I hold crazy people in high regard) choose to do.

Below is my plan for the next 4 weeks. Due to my pacing I will end up doing about 70 miles a week. Here are my paces for the workouts (you plug in your paces):
Easy = 7min or slower pace
Speed= 5:15 pace
10k pace= 5:30
Tempo= 5:40
Marathon= 6:05 pace 

Monday- Easy 50-60 mins.
Tuesday- 25 min warm-up; 3 miles speed work; 25 min cool-down.
Wednesday- Easy to moderate 50-60 mins.
Thursday- Midweek longer run of 75-90 mins. Progressive run with last 15 mins at 10k pace.
Friday- Recovery day of 30 easy jog or day off.
Saturday- 6 miles easy, 4 miles marathon pace, 1mile easy, 4 miles tempo, 1 mile easy.
Sunday- Long run of 120-150 mins easy.

Alternate weekends with:
Saturday- 5k warm-up, 5k race, 10k easy.
Sunday- 50- 60 minutes easy.