TRAINING SCHEDULES

The following advice and schedules are from Art Liberman (Thanks ART!), who was kind enough to let me put them up on my site. If you would like schedules from anyone other than Art as on this site, you can go to www.halhigdon.com or www.runnersworld.com just to name a few. Personally, I have found that Art's schedules work great and recommend them to all!

Building a Base - Without question, the most important area one should focus upon prior to beginning marathon training is to safely build a mileage base. I believe that one should be running four to five days a week with minimum mileage totals of 25 miles per week before considering training for a marathon. From that point, long run and weekly mileage can be added in small increments.

The Ten Percent Rule - Do not increase either your (1) weekly mileage and/or (2) long run mileage by more than 10 percent a week. Doing so greatly increases the chances of incurring an injury, thereby delaying or stopping your training all together.

Where to Start - Please refer to the "Mileage Buildup Chart" (Chart I) below to find the level of training which most closely matches your present training routine/volume. Start training at that point and follow the schedule. When you have reached the end of Chart I, you have now developed a base from where you may now consider training for a marathon. Since the Marathon Training Schedule (Chart II) is a 17 week program, continue to train at the concluding levels of Chart I until the marathon you wish to run is four months down the road.

Mileage Buildup Chart (Chart I)

Week #	Sun.	Mon.	Tues.	Wed.	Thurs.	Fri.	Sat.	Total
1	4	Rest	3	Rest	4	Rest	3	14
2	4	Rest	4	Rest	4	Rest	4	16
3	5	Rest	3	4	3	Rest	3	18
4	4	Rest	3	Rest	4	Rest	3	14
5	6	Rest	4	3	4	Rest	3	20
6	6	Rest	4	4	4	Rest	4	22
7	7	Rest	4	5	4	Rest	4	24
8	5	Rest	4	Rest	5	Rest	4	18
9	8	Rest	5	4	5	Rest	4	26
10	8	Rest	6	4	6	Rest	4	28
11	9	Rest	6	5	6	Rest	4	30
12	6	Rest	5	4	5	Rest	5	25
13	10	Rest	6	7	5	Rest	5	33

Mileage Buildup Chart (Chart II)

Week #	Sun.	Mon.	Tues.	Wed.	Thurs.	Fri.	Sat.	Total
1	10	Rest	6	8	6	Rest	5	35
2	12	Rest	6	8	6	Rest	5	37
3	8	Rest	4	6	4	Rest	4	26
4	14	Rest	6	8	6	Rest	5	39
5	16	Rest	6	8	6	Rest	5	41
6	18	Rest	6	8	6	Rest	5	43
7	12	Rest	4	6	4	Rest	4	30
8	20	Rest	6	8	6	Rest	5	45
9	16	Rest	6	8	6	Rest	5	41
10	12	Rest	4	6	4	Rest	4	30
11	21	Rest	6	8	6	Rest	5	46
12	16	Rest	6	8	6	Rest	5	41
13	12	Rest	4	6	4	Rest	4	30
14	22-23	Rest	6	8	6	Rest	5	47-48
15	12	Rest	6	8	6	Rest	4	36
16	16	Rest	5	7	5	Rest	4	37
17	10	Rest	6	Rest	4	Rest	2	22 (Taper)
18	26.2	1 Opt.	Rest	1-2 Opt.	2-3 Opt.	Rest	3	Marathon Week