3 day marathon training program.

Should be great. Just make sure you are doing the hour easy jog on off days.

The only sport you can train for on 3 days a week is bowling. Im sure Lets Bowl will be glad to field your questions! Or Runners world have plenty of these discussions.

This is exactly why peoople are dieing in marathons! I truly think you should need to qualify in order to run any distance over 10k, so you need to run a certain time in a 10k to run a 10 miler or half marathon, and you def need to have a certain time in the half or 20 k to run a marathon.

I know a guy in his 30's who almost qualified for Boston on the 3-day a week plan. Yeah, you're probably not gonna run under 3 hours on it, but it can get you through the marathon. I'm planning to train for Boston that way, since I'm just getting back to running after knee surgery, and I'll do some hard x-training on the "off" days.

fromer track star wrote:

I know a guy in his 30's who almost qualified for Boston on the 3-day a week plan. Yeah, you're probably not gonna run under 3 hours on it, but it can get you through the marathon. I'm planning to train for Boston that way, since I'm just getting back to running after knee surgery, and I'll do some hard x-training on the "off" days.

Wow, he almost qualified, I bet he is so happy about that.

What's the goal for the marathon? Just finish or a time goal?

The FIRST program is not really a time saver; you have to do the cross training for it to be effective.

I started this program because I got injuried early in marathon training. By the time I was healthy I didn't have the time to build back up to high weekly mileage(3months) so I made the decision to follow the FIRST plan. This allowed me get quality work in followed by dramatic recovery to avoid injuries. (i.e. if you try to go from 0mi to a 20mi long run immediately, the long run won't hurt you, but your muscles, joints and tendons will be completely tight and if you try to run the next day you'll get hurt). So, I did the long run, then rested until the next workout. Everything has to be really intense and faster though because you're not doing anything on fatigue from the previous several days.

Basically this plan allowed me to run 2:47 when my PR with optimal training was 2:40. I did struggle A LOT in the final miles as I ran out of glycogen stores. Ultimately you need the high mileage and low glycogen training that comes with it in order to do your best. But if you're just looking to do well but not your best, this plan works great.

I know a guy who got close to his marathon PR training 3 days per week.

He was at a busy time of life with a couple of little kids, a full time job, and whatever else.

Each week he ran:

1 easy 20 mile run

1 hard 20 mile run

1 session of mile repeats

Could be worse.

My wife and her friend tried something similar a few years ago. The big problem is your legs aren't conditioned to taking 26 miles of pounding with only 3 days a week. That's one reason why you'll die all over the place with only 3 runs a week.

Had Some Myself wrote:

I know a guy who got close to his marathon PR training 3 days per week.

He was at a busy time of life with a couple of little kids, a full time job, and whatever else.

Each week he ran:

1 easy 20 mile run

1 hard 20 mile run

1 session of mile repeats

Could be worse.

Come on! If you have time to do two 20 mile runs a week (which take at least 3 hours out of your day) then you must have time to fit in 40 minute runs on another 2 or 3 days.

A friend of mine was in the top 10 at Boston in the mid-70s doing a 20 miler on Sundays and two or three 10 milers during the week. That was all but he did the runs pretty quickly.

A few years before that he did 2:16 on a similar routine but on 5-6 days a week. A few years after his Boston race and following a long layoff he ran 2:29 on a Sunday 20 and either nothing else or with a Wednesday 10.

KISS Method wrote:

Come on! If you have time to do two 20 mile runs a week (which take at least 3 hours out of your day) then you must have time to fit in 40 minute runs on another 2 or 3 days.

Sure, he probably could have made time for a few other easy runs, but he didn't want to. He wanted to have days where all of his time outside of work was spent with his family (wife and two little kids).

That's what he felt like doing, and that's what he did. That's all I'm saying.

3 days seems a little short. I would take at least 6 weeks to get ready for a marathon.

I sometimes revert to a three day week in a Marathon buildup.

I am an oldie (57)and if I am a little jaded or my lead up races are not going well then changing to 3 days can sometimes make a huge difference.

You must understand that this is done off a good solid base(if you consider 45 mpw is about it for someone my age) and I maintained overall mileage although running less days.

Here,s an example:Ran half April 30 in 1:54

MAY 1--rest

2--19 miles

3--rest

4--11 m

5--rest

6--20 miles

7--rest

May

8--5x1mile 10 mile total

9--rest

10--12miles @ marathon racepace

11--rest

12--rest

13--22 miles.

14--rest

Start back at day one and repeat.

In this in Case I went from a 1:54 half on 30 april

to a 1:32 just 5 weeks later

Had 3 days total rest as a taper.

I managed a 2.57 marathon (pb 2.43)at age 40 off (generally) 3 days of running per week. Certainly not ideal. I had a special interest in doing the race but was very, very busy in the 6 months leading in. I was commuting by bike so had that extra fitness and I had a long history of distance running in the bank.

Typical week, tuesday I didn't start work until either 1pm or 3pm. I'd get out straight after getting the kids to school and run. Usually 2-3 hours of rugged xc across steep cow paddocks. Creek crossings, rock scrambles, shin deep mud etc.

Thursday or friday I'd usually have a 20-30 min run which would include a 1600m effort at near top pace plus a few sprints or a couple of flat out 400s. Sometimes I'd get a chance to run both days so would run say 5k in 20mins on the other one.

Sunday morning was a 5-10k road/xc race in the morning before work in the afternoon. With warmup and down 15-20kms. for the day.

5-7 days per week would be bike commutes 2 x 40-50 min rides.

If you have a fair background of kms in the bank then a short term program like this would work ok to reach a conservative goal. I'm sure that the 150-200kms of mtn biking with a heavy pack I was doing also made a huge difference.

If you look at the training of marathon runners in the early part of the 20th century you see a few three or four day a week schedules. I forget if it was Johnny Hayes or Les PAwson who did a 5, 10, and 15 each week and nothing else. A friend who knew OLd John Kelly told me he did about 45 mpw and usually had 3-4 days off each week.The thinking then was that running was too stressful to do daily. There was a guy called Tony Medieros who worked two full time jobs at one stage of his career and managed 2:40 off one 20 mile run each Sunday.

Of course people were generally more active then and probably a lot fitter than most of today's novices are.

Yes, the 3 day marathon training works great. I have run 12 marathons using that program with no issues.

I tried to use the FIRST program to qualify for Boston because I am injury-prone. Ironically, I developed ITBS, likely as a result of the track workouts which I guess my legs just couldn't handle those paces. I ran the marathon which was a horrible experience, then I started running every day like a normal person and qualified for Boston 5 months later.

I am amazed when I hear of people running sub-3 with such little training.

Peace Out wrote:

I am amazed when I hear of people running sub-3 with such little training.

I was going to try and run sub 3 on 2 days running per week a couple years ago when I was 46.

The day I should have been attempting it, I did a 30k instead. I ran 2:06 (6:46 pace) which McMillan says equates to a 3:01 marathon.

I would usually race half marathon to 16 miles on the weekends and do a 12-14 miler in the middle of the week. I trained 6 months averaging 30 miles a week on 2 runs.

In the winter I did a 24 mile run on the treadmill in 3 hours and it wasn't that hard an effort.

My first run at Boston in 2008 was my first sub-3 (I had run sub-3:05 3 times the previous fall). I mostly just ran 3 days a week training for it due to winter laziness and time constraints with an extremely strenuous college semester, but I had a weekly 18-25 miler, a weekly very hard tempo run, and usually one more run of around 15 or so. I ran 2:58:57 off this schedule compared to a 3:00:10 PR from the Fall. For what it's worth, I was probably in marginally better shape in the Fall, but I was stupid and consistently went out way too hard in all my races (it was as bad as a 1:23 open with a 1:40 close), so I never quite ran what may have been slightly faster than my Boston time a few months earlier.