Marathon training plan?

[Runnr]

I’ve recently secured a place in a spring marathon. I ran a fair amount in my early 20s for a couple of years including a marathon but was never (super) fast. In recent years I’ve been a sporadic runner, in part due to being in an emotionally abusive and controlling relationship (he would tell me there was no point in running as I wasn’t a natural runner nor particularly fast and actively made my life difficult whenever I tried to exercise). I’m finally free and some friends have encouraged me to enter and participate.

I am currently running a couple of times a week, along with doing some strength training and I’m trying to find a suitable marathon plan. I used the novice hal Higdon one before but it doesn’t include any speed work (which I understand is important). A friend recommended another one which I looked at but the most distance covered is 16 miles which doesn’t seem enough. Does anyone have any recommendations? At this point I don’t have a time to aim for.

I admit I'm not a marathon person, but what about a plan from Ben Parkes? The beginner version is free and the others are only £7, so you can pick your level.

When I was training for Manchester Marathon this year, I used the one they provided on their website.

You may be able to find one on the one you've entered for or they may still have last year's on their page to download.

I did my own based off a basic plan from Jeff Galloway. I did a two-week cycle of long runs, alternating a long run every other week and a mid-length run between. This suited me as it gave some wriggle room for life, and was a low injury approach.

I didn't do specific speed sessions, but I did stick with doing parkrun at a decent pace most weeks. I did a 5:15 marathon (Jeffing) and two weeks later, came within 10s of my parkrun pb, so hadn't lost speed at shorter distances.

For a first, novice marathon, the long run matters, but the plan doesn't need high milage on the other runs. Recovery is important too. Also look for plans with strength and conditioning.

I really started using features on my garmin during marathon training, setting up "workouts" and putting them in the calendar for live instructions on the run. Particularly useful for long runs with out and backs as it could tell me where turning points were rather than manually working it out.

Thanks. That’s super helpful.

@BogRollBOGOF in my head there is the fact you have to complete X miles but also I guess you’re meant to do most of your runs easy so that you can perform better. This is something I am really working on. Thanks for the garmin tip - I definitely don’t use the full functionality on mine. I had another look at the recommended plan from my friend and it actually has two 16 milers scheduled and they are the day after a 6 miler. It’s also a much longer plan - 28 weeks and really has the different phases set out. I might give that a go.

Good luck with your training. I am also going to be hopefully doing my first one in April 24. A piece of advice I heard recently for slow runners (as I am very much a slow runner) was to be careful about your maximum length "long run" and maybe just cap it at 3 hours rather than achieving a specific run length goal. This is so you can factor in sufficient recovery time before the big day. So your 16 miles after 6 miles long run sounds pretty good actually, it will build a lot of endurance without having to be out for 4 hours trying to cover sufficient distance.

Runners world plans are generally comprehensive Marathon training – free marathon training plans for every goal (runnersworld.com)

The runners world ones are FANTASTIC. I wouldn’t use anything else. Better than any of the paid for ones.
Id not bother with any of the plans you pay a tenner for or whatever, there are hundreds like them free online

You can set garmin to your favoured pace to help with running slow, and not burning out too early.

One of the things I'm proud of from the training phase is how consistently I ran my long runs at (7 min/km zone, I normally do 6:30 for a casual parkrun, and 5s-low 6s if I'm pushing it). On race day, I was fresh and tapered and mindful not to get too swept along. I used my watch, and also was behind the 5:00hr pacer in the first 10k and used her as a brake to not go past and burn out. It worked and mile 25 was run at the same pace that I was at 10k in, and my fastest "lap" was at the end past 42km to the finish. It was certainly a challenge, but was managable and enjoyable and the recovery was better than some faster HMs I've done.

Good luck too @DCINightingale! I have heard that too and actually the plan I am thinking of doing says that as well.

That’s amazing @BogRollBOGOF - thanks so much for sharing. One thing I do find a bit difficult is that I am slower than I used to be but that’s to be expected given how inconsistent I have been. I know I need to go slow to be able to go faster. The plan my friend told me about is a paid for plan written by a reputable running coach and very much a go slow to go faster.

Check out fellrnr website. He rates a whole raft of marathon plans from Jack Daniels to Jeff Galloway.