I have a plan (marathon)

FL_Hiker

Howdy!
I am hoping to run my first marathon on November 25, currently i'm only running 20 miles a week but know I can go much further... I was suggested this training program by another MFP user and i'm just curious to know what you think of it. I'm not looking to have a great time (well I am looking to have fun LOL) or anything... just finish the race and avoid getting injured! I also live in a very flat state with no hills so I am wondering what I can do differently on those days?
https://www.nyrr.org/sites/default/files/Marathon Training Plans - Conservative.pdf

Thank you for your insight!

MobyCarp

The obvious question is, what is the course for your marathon like? If it has hills, you need to find hills to train on. If it's as flat as where you can easily train, lack of hill work shouldn't be a problem. Run as many of your training miles as you can manage on terrain similar to what you'll see on race day.

When avoiding injury is the priority, I would replace the "AYF" runs with "easy," meaning, "don't run fast." Save the fast stuff for the designated tempo and interval runs. With no hills to train on, substitute intervals for hills but perhaps don't make the intervals as challenging as the days when intervals are really assigned.

That schedule has a good chance of taking you from 20 miles per week to being able to finish a marathon. Expect to be really wiped out at the end of the marathon, and expect to need substantial recovery time after the marathon. This might mean one to four days of no running after the marathon, and a full month of running only easy pace after the race. More people get messed up working too hard before fully recovered from a marathon than get messed up from actually running the marathon.

Given the low weekly mileage of this training plan, I would be very reluctant to take a flex day and swap it out for something else. If you get sick or hurt during the training cycle, that's a different story; if you're sick enough to miss a run, don't try to make it up. Every training plan in the world assumes you will stay healthy for the entire training cycle. In the real world, the first training challenge most beginning marathon runners face is how to adapt the plan when injury or illness strikes during the training cycle.

WickAndArtoo

You can also simulate hills on a treadmill that has incline options. Will your race be flat or hilly? Generally if you go to the website for your race it will tell you what the terrain will be like, that will be a huge help in knowing how to train.

Also if you are just hoping to finish and run the entire thing mileage and consistency (in addition to knowing what the terrain is like for the race) is more important than the speed work built into the training plans, since you aren’t trying to place but finish without hurting yourself.

spiriteagle99

It's a low mileage plan that should get you to the starting line healthy, but you will likely struggle toward the end of the race. I agree about doing the runs on the flex days. Three miles shouldn't be that hard to do. On the speed days, you should start with at least a mile warmup, preferably more, so you won't actually be doing all that much hard running if the total mileage is only 5 miles. Do it if you feel strong, otherwise just run the distance easy with some pickups during the run.