My marathon Training Program

Starting this month, I will be following the 16 week program to train for a full marathon. Given this will be the first time I am doing it, I have no idea in terms of finding the right program for a full marathon so I went immediately to http://www.runnersworld.com/ to look for one.

It lead me to three choices:

1) The Rookie Marathon Training Program: A marathon training program designed for first time marathoners who seldom run or race beyond six miles.

This had you running for 5-days in a week with a quality day put in that mixes Fartlek, Track ladders, Kenyan Outbacks and Yasso 800s. No idea what they were!! Good thing there was a description for each of them.

2) Marathon Training Program For Slackers: How to get in Shape for 26.2 if you haven't been training.


This was done by coach and Olympian runner Ed Eyestone to a person who has never ran in his life. This one I found in an old issue of Runners World magazine (August 2006) and had you running 6-days in a week with tempos, intervals, and doing farts... i mean fartleks.


The bad thing about this article was that the author was injured while doing it so it may have been too hard for him. Though he did finish his full marathon after resting for a bit, injury is one path I do not want to take.


I initially wanted this one as thought who better to give advice than a Olympian runner but upon reading the forum on this article , I opted to go for something less difficult as my goal here is just to finish race.

3) Runner's World Smart Coach. Through this program, you input your current race time, goal and mileage per week and it would design a plan for you for 16-weeks. My program has only 3 Runs in a week with run pace slower than my average race pace. The 3 runs are broken down into easy, tempo/speedwork and a long run at the end of the week. Rest of the week are either for resting or crosstraining.

Not too stressful given target is just 3 days but still had enough weekly mileage given the 20miles long runs! Good reviews too from other people who have tried this plan.


So I am sticking to the Smart Coach. Now, comes the hard part: following it !


This will be my PRIMARY RUNNING GOAL for 2009.

Some other running goals for 2009:

1) Lose weight from running - it also helps if I eat and drink the right food!
2) Try and get New Couple PR and/or New PR for 10km races
3) Try and get New PR for 15km race
4) Convince Per to try for a 15km race. Hehe!
5) Do the Skyway 21km race by Condura (and hope to beat PR too) and have a great time! Perfect for the long runs that I need to do too! I hope there will be more 21km races next year for me to join so won't get bored doing a long run.