You're going THE DISTANCE! This 20-week "finish strong" marathon training plan will build your volume and endurance all the to finishing a marathon, 26.2 miles/42 km!! This plan is designed for first-time marathoners and lower-volume runners and focuses purely on DISTANCE-BUILDING with an emphasis on EASY effort running to build your aerobic capacity and endurance.
 
This plan starts with 4 runs per week + 1 cross-training session and builds to 5 runs per week. The starting weekly mileage is 17 miles/27 km/3 hours per week and peaks at 43 miles/68 km/6.5-7 hours per week. The longest long runs in this plan are 16 miles/26 km/3.5 hours long, and the rest of the plan is built around supporting that distance as your longest long run.
 
This plan also contains a 4-week post-race recovery schedule, a Race Day planner worksheet, recommended warm-up & cooldown routines, core exercises and lower body strength training exercises, information on goal setting/pace calculators, hydration, fueling, and more!
 
"Why isn't there a 20 mile/32 km run on this plan?" Research supports designing long runs with two parameters in mind: as approximately a quarter to a third of your total weekly volume, and also 3-3.5 hours maximum. Because this plan maxes out at 43 mpw/68 kpw, it's not appropriate for your Long Run to be 20 miles/32 km. But remember, marathon training isn't about any single long run distance; it's about the entirety of your training cycle. Furthermore, there are ways to achieve the same adaptations over 2 runs instead of one longer run; this whole plan is built around those concepts!
 
This plan contains 3 VERSIONS of the 20-week schedule - miles, kilometers, and TIME-BASED -along with your Race Day Planner worksheet. 
 
This plan is a downloadable PDF and is nonrefundable.