@taeliesyn nailed it re: 20 mile max long run. For most beginning runners, that's going to be the longest they can run during training and have time to recover/resume training. By the time you get to the race, you've done some 18 and 20 mile runs, you've tapered and are rested, and you can trust that your training will get you through the final 6.2 miles.

That said, I used Hal Higdon plans for my first two marathons, modifying them to my preferred schedule, and they prepared me well for race day. If you've used his plans for HM before and liked it, I'd recommend sticking with him.

Ditto what everyone has already said, but also wanted to add that the number one thing you can do to best prepare yourself for your training is to go into it with a decent base mileage in your routine leading up to beginning your plan. The number one thing that is going to dictate the ease of your marathon is going to be your overall cumulative mileage, not how far you run on your long run. The more weekly miles you average in training, the easier the run will be. If you find a plan you like, but it feels like you are ahead of it in mileage, don't be afraid to add a mile or two to some of the midweek easy runs.

As others have mentioned, 20M is a reasonable distance to get the adaptations needed for a full, without all of the wear-and-tear on the body. For my first full, I followed a Jeff Gaudette plan available on RunKeeper. It gradually built up to three 20M longs, a couple of which also had a 10M the day before to simulate fatigue, without beating you up quite as much as a full 26.2 will. It went pretty well the first time around. After tapering, your legs will feel ready and the base you've built up will bring you the last 10K of the way.

My marathon training plans always peak at 20/21 miles. The last 6 miles are totally doable on race day. Like others have said, the cumulative miles you run are far more important than the length of individual runs. Good luck with training!!!

At one point my open marathon PR came off of a training block that had my longest run at 18 miles. However I did a bunch of 18 mile runs on consecutive weekends. Also had a Half Ironman in there. And it came at the end of a very long season of training.

Going all the way to 20 for the long run is not at all necessary. Running is hard on your body, especially long runs. 20 miles for a beginner is sure to beat you up pretty badly and will take a few days to recover from. Best to only do that once in your plan if at all. Running a marathon is all about the 700-1000+ miles you run in preparation, not about any single long workout.

That 2.5hr mark is probably a good starting point for figuring out how long should your longest run be. If you are looking at taking 3hrs for any one training run you need to consider if that is a good idea, or if it will really wreck you.

It also depends on what speeds you hold, though, I guess. I will do a 22 mile training run in just a shade over 2.5hrs so for me that works, but I wouldn't recommend doing a 22 mile run for someone running in the 9:00 or 10:00mm range.

veganbettie wrote: »

this is scary. I have my first Marathon on the books of May of next year and halfs are taking me 2 hours and 40 freaking minutes....

that's still a respectable pace.

moyer566 wrote: »

veganbettie wrote: »

this is scary. I have my first Marathon on the books of May of next year and halfs are taking me 2 hours and 40 freaking minutes....

that's still a respectable pace.

I agree. Generally speaking, as you train for the full marathon, you are likely to find that your times for the shorter races improve with increasing endurance.

Runningman_78 wrote: »

I just signed up for my first marathon in June so this thread has already been helpful...now to get out running!

This thread has made me want to start training for a full marathon... I'm fully crazy. I just did a half a few months ago and swore I'd never run again when I was done. Yup... I be crazy. *runs off to find a beginner marathon training plan*

JustSomeEm wrote: »

This thread has made me want to start training for a full marathon... I'm fully crazy. I just did a half a few months ago and swore I'd never run again when I was done. Yup... I be crazy. *runs off to find a beginner marathon training plan*

lol yep once the pain and bad memory wears off it doesnt seem so bad haha

I'm signed up for R'n'R NOLA too, although just the HM....I want to party a bit while I'm there

I am going to offer this advice for what it is worth. Do not wait till 16 or 18 weeks before your marathon to start building up mileage. If you know you have many many months away for your marathon and you are pretty much healthy today, then start building up that mileage now. You will thank me later.

Keep everything at a slow pace as you build mileage. No intervals, no tempos, or hill sprints. Just run at your easy conversational pace and slowly build up that weekly mileage as well as your long run. Build up your long run in a way that your long run distance is no more than 25-35% of your weekly mileage. if you need to take a cutback week, take one. If you need to repeat the same mileage again for the week, then feel free to do so.

There are a few of problems I feel with the strict adherance to the 18 week plans.
1) What happends if you miss a week here or there? All of a sudden, you are 3 weeks away from your marathon and you are stressed out because life got in the way of your training and you only did a 15 mile long run when by now you should have done 18 or 20. How do you catch up? You catch up by getting ahead of the game early. The longer you can stretch out that 18 week schedule the less pressure there is to actually keep that schedule. So if I have 6 months till my marathon and I actually start the plan today, then I can stretch that 18 week plan into 27 weeks. I can repeat weeks. I can skip a week for a long run and not feel pressured into making up the difference some how.
2) The 18 weeks, I personally feel does not give your body enough time to actually adapt to the increase mileage. I compare it to like cramming for your finals in that last weekend. To go from 20 miles per week to 45 miles per week in only 18 weeks? For some people that is not enough time for the body to get stronger to handle those miles, and they either end up getting hurt during training or end up with an injury right after their race.
By starting the plan sooner rather than later allows you to take extra cut back weeks if your body is telling you that it needs more rest.
3) Also, the normal 18 week plans don't give you enough time spent at the longer distances. These plans are designed more to allow you to survive a marathon, not train you to be efficient at that distance. So by the time you get to your 18 mile or 20 mile long runs, they will take you 3-1/2 to 4 hours to complete. If you take your time building up to that distance, you will have more time to build your aerobic base, and therefore by the time you do get to 18-20 mile long runs, they should take you less time.
4) A lot of plans, because you have to build up your long run by 18 weeks, violate the long run limited to 25-35% of your weekly mileage. If your longest run is 20 miles in training, you should also be running 60-80 miles per week as well. Most plans don't have you running that much. Most plans have you running only 40 and maybe even less miles per week even with a 20 mile long run. This is a big mistake and increases your chances for injury. More miles per week to support your long run reduces your risk to injury. Because when you **slowly** build your weekly mileage, you not only build on your aerobic base, but you are allowing your body to physically adapt and get stronger to handle the bigger distances. You need to spread this mileage out over the week and not dump it on 1 single run.

BTW, I am only criticizing most of the free beginner online marathon plans that i found in the past. I never paid for a custom plan, and I personally really don't have any experience with the more experienced level marathon plans.

Now some reasons why you may not follow my advice:

1) You decided that you just had to sign up for that marathon and you only have 18 or 20 weeks to train for it.
2) Your spouse (or other life commitment) has graciously allowed you to train for this marathon in only 18 weeks.
3) You think I am a knuckle head and don't know what i am talking about.
4) I need to follow something. I don't have the ability to just adapt something on my own. I need something to strictly tell me what to do. And this 18 week plan I found is the only thing that makes sense to me.

In the case of #4: This can still work.

#1 You don't have to start at week #1. If you are currently running more than what Week #1 tells you to do, then find the week to start on that matches closely what you are already doing now and start there.
#2 You don't have to skip to the next week if you feel like you are not ready to. You can repeat weeks or even go back a week. This is a very good reason as to why don't wait to start the plan. If you have more than 20 weeks time to train, use that time starting NOW! Don't wait to start. If you start when they tell you to start, then you have no choice but to progress onto the next week when they tell you to.
#3 If you never ran the distance the plan is telling you (if you never ran 30 miles in a week before), you have no business running any faster than easy conversational pace. So you don't have to run tempos, or intervals, or hill sprints, or repeats. Fartleks and some strides are ok. But mostly easy running. Work on building the distance. After you ran the distance, then you can work on your specific workouts. So find a plan that only focuses on mileage and if they dictate in the plan a certain speed, just remember to only run at conversational. Only run faster if you are already used to the distance.

Ofcourse if you already ran 2 or 3 marathons before or you are already running 30+ miles a week, and you already done the comprable marathon training distance, you will then want to work on more than just the distance this time around. Tempos and interval training will be more valuable to you than they will to a beginner. Just because you never actually ran a marathon before does not necessarily make you a beginner marathoner (from a plan's prospective).

Just my $0.02

I agree with Stoshew re. beginner plans - they're designed to get you from nothing to being able to complete a marathon, but I think no-one[ should use them who isn't a beginner. And if you start building up mileage way in advance, you won't be a beginner and you can find a better plan that is aimed at people who are already running the weekly miles you're running. If you're an actual beginner, fair enough. But if you've been running for a little while, have done some halves, continued running regularly in between and are just a beginner at marathons then you don't need something labelled 'beginner'.

glevinso wrote: »

Wow. @Stoshew71 nailed it. Excellent post/advice.

Marathons are horrible. I hate them personally. Ironman? I love it. I don't mind running 26.2 in an Ironman. 26.2 standalone? That effing hurts.

Many people decide they want to tackle a marathon early in their running "careers", and I was one of them. I dutifully downloaded the Hal Higdon plan and stuck to it as best I could. Yes it got me to the finish line of my first marathon in about 4:30ish. Had I known then what I know now I probably would have waited another year to try to run that first marathon.

A year after that first one, I did another and came in just under 3:30. Yes an entire hour improvement in a year. What did that tell me? It told me that I probably wasn't ready to tackle the distance that first time. Even that 3:28 I ran still wasn't my best potential, but at least I felt ready for that one. I remember running strong through 20 miles and then falling apart a bit. It wasn't the best execution.

You need to you quite a lot more miles on your body before really being "ready". Don't take this to mean I don't think any "beginner" shouldn't attempt a marathon if they want to. I certainly don't think that. I guess what I am trying to say is there is no reason to actually be in a hurry to do one. Put all those miles on your body first, then dive into training for a marathon at something other than the beginner level.

I think I finally have figured out this marathon thing after 10 of them (if you can count IM runs). And now that I have I am happy to say I don't "have to" do one in 2016... but I have my sights set for a specific one in early 2017

It's so funny. I don't get it but you certainly aren't the first one I've heard say that. A friend who has placed in her AG at Kona has said the same thing.

I'm debating my first marathon this year. It would be in September, I am planning to do a HIM in early July. I'm not sure that leaves me enought time to build up enough mileage.