I'm running my 7th FM in April (Carmel Full).  I spent all of 2013 training for NC24 Ultra in September but have taken most of the last month off of running for a much needed mental and physical break (finally healed my Achilles.

Anyways, I'm in search of a plan.  I seem to do best with 45-60 mile weeks.

Docket keeps preaching about Pfitz so I'm considering one of those plans.  But would like to get ideas of other ones too.  Anyone?

I had good results with the Hansons Advanced plan and I'd highly recommend it.  And l will likely be at Carmel running the half 

  Lots of good stuff out there to compare and contrast. Pfitzinger, Daniels, Hudson.....

I was doing Daniels this year until my staunch reluctance to stretch (or refusal to make time for it) finally caught up with me and put me on the bench, but I will be back at it this fall.

Everyone has their thing but what I like about Daniels is it is completely adaptable to individual needs.  The quality workouts are based on a percentage of the amount of miles you run, which is determined by you.

And, because of his focus on the why, you are able to adjust on fly even within a run due to time constraints or other unforeseen issues like a snow covered track or forgetting to program the intended workout on your watch.  Not that that has ever happened to me. 

In the past I used a plan best described as "Train like you'll be racing a 5K". Lots of high quality speed on a base of 55-70 mpw...

How many weeks or months at that mileage?

I'm a Daniels advocate for several reasons.  First, it's based on the more modern notion of working on speed before stamina while Pfitz is based on the older model of developing stamina before speed.  Second, some of his workouts are absolutely brutal.  If you can survive them, you'll be able to hang in there at Mile 21 when it feels like someone is shoving hot pokers into your calves and a couple of gremlins are beating on your quads with baseball bats.  Finally, as noted, his plans are extremely adaptable.  He mentions tempo runs not exceeding 8 miles or 10% of weekly mileage whichever is less and VO2max intervals not exceeding 6 miles or 8% of weekly mileage whichever is less and Repetitions not exceeding 5 miles or 5% of weekly mileage whichever is less.  Thus, while the workout may call for 8 x 1,000, you can adjust to fit 8% of your weekly mileage.  He also tells you to limit VO2max intervals to 3-5 minutes and Repetitions to about 2 1/2 minutes and tempo runs to 40 minutes along with an adjustment chart if you make the tempo run last longer than 40 minutes.

Other plans don't do a good job of telling you how to adjust based on how much you are running.  I think that is frequently the reason people find those plans so difficult.  They try to do workouts (mile repeats anyone?) that are great if you are running tempo runs at a sub 5:00 pace but not so good if you are a recreational runner.

The critique of Daniels is that his workouts are damned tough.  Well yes, and they're unattainable if you're dumb enough to just attempt the workouts without reading the rest of the book and understanding how to modify them to fit your level of fitness.

The critique of Daniels is that his workouts are damned tough.  Well yes, and they're unattainable if you're dumb enough to just attempt the workouts without reading the rest of the book and understanding how to modify them to fit your level of fitness.

I never did attempt his 2 miles easy, 15 miles at MP, 2 miles easy workout for that reason.  I settled on 2, 11, 2 and didn't think twice about it!

Galloway - Marathon to Finish

Make sure to add plenty of Magic Miles in the program.  If it works for Disney, its gotta be good!!!!

BTW: Happy Holidays to you and your family

 I seem to do best with 45-60 mile weeks.

 

In looking at your log, I'd personally opt for the "Just do that ^ consistently" plan.