Marathon Training Program: Weeks 4 - 5

Two more weeks closer to marathon!  The program continues to follow the same cycle as the first three weeks, two weeks of increasing mileage followed by a step back week of reduced mileage.  The pattern  is cross-training Monday, short run Tuesday, medium run Wednesday, short run Thursday, rest Friday, medium run Saturday, and a long run Sunday.

The past two weeks raised the medium runs from 5 to 6 miles, and the long runs to 11 miles and 12 miles.  It  feels pretty comfortable, as it is now getting up to the mileage I was accustomed to in last several months of 2009.  In the past week, with the help of continued strengthening excercises, my sore knee feels almost 100% recovered.  Encouraged by this improvement, I have added just a few miles to my published schedule here and there.  I've been running 4 miles on most of the 3-mile days, and yesterday, I ran 13.1 miles instead of the scheduled 12, and managed to work in some hills.  I'm well aware of the dangers of overtraining; I'm just trying to enhance the training program slightly.

I initially wanted to try the Intermediate 2 program, but decided that it might be slightly more than I could manage, and settled on the Intermediate 1.  The main reason I decided against the Intermediate 2 was that the mid-week medium-distance run goes up to 10 miles at the peak of the program, and I just wasn't willing go get up early enough to run that long in the morning before work.  Other than that, the main difference between Intermediate 1 and 2 is that Intermediate 2 goes a couple of miles longer on the Saturday and Sunday runs.  So, I figure that I can add up to 2 miles on my weekend runs and actually run a hybrid of the two Intermediate programs without overtraining.  The feature I liked best in the Intermediate 2 is that it peaks at a 10-mile Saturday run followed by a 20-mile Sunday run!  I think the 30-mile weekend total would be better preparation for the rigors of the 26 mile race than the 25-mile weekends in the Intermediate 1 program.  So, depending on how strong I feel as the schedule progresses, I may stretch the weekend portion of the #1 to either equal or approach the #2 program.

The coming week brings the second step back week, and will reduce mileage slightly. 

Five weeks down, 13 to go!