I knew that my plan was the right one for me because I wrote it. I've winged it a few times, I've written out workouts months in advance, but I think what has worked best for me is to plan what I want to do months in advance (or, technically, a year or two in advance) and then to set milestones w/where I need to be along the way. I only really plan workouts about 1-2 weeks in advance most of the time, other than the waypoints. For my last marathon, for example, I had a 10 mile race in early February, a half marathon in mid-march, and a marathon in late march that I used to figure out whether I was on pace for where I wanted to be for my goal marathon in early may. I wanted to run sub-60 at the 10 miler (ran 57:58) and wanted to run 76-77 in the half marathon (ran 76:31) and both of those should have felt hard but not all out racing. Then I wanted to be able to comfortable run the first marathon at a tempo pace (~3 hours). I made each milestone with the expected paces, and as I reached each one I planned out a little more what to do to reach the next one. Right now I am just finishing week 8 of a 5k training program that I designed to get me from a long winter training season into a late summer/early autumn 5k PR.

Here is another question...how many hard days of running should there be? I have my long day on Sunday, hills on Tues., would like to add in on Thurs. besides just my 2nd long run--I would like to add in a workout where I run 9 miles, but 4 of them at 1/2 marathon pace....So, are three hard days a week ok to do? CC

Depends upon how fast you recover and how much rest you get in between workouts, as well as how well you eat before/after your workouts.

Hi-jack just for a moment - I can't find where you plugged the article on eating before so I went to the website, but I still can't find it... I think I might be an idiot.

http://www.runtowin.com/newsletter.html It's actually a pdf report you can download for signing up for my newsletter; if you go to the http://www.runtowin.com site instead of http://news.runtowin.com it has the details listed (although the news.runtowin.com site has places to sign up all over the place as well.)

Here is another question...how many hard days of running should there be? I have my long day on Sunday, hills on Tues., would like to add in on Thurs. besides just my 2nd long run--I would like to add in a workout where I run 9 miles, but 4 of them at 1/2 marathon pace....So, are three hard days a week ok to do? CC Depends upon how fast you recover and how much rest you get in between workouts, as well as how well you eat before/after your workouts.

Give it a try. Just do everything you can to minimize risk of injury or burnout otherwise. Blaine's newsletter is a very good guide for doing this. Many elite and probably most top runners run 4 long/hard workouts a week, but they also typically don't work regular 40 hr week jobs so they have more time for sleep/ recovery and even employ a masseuse to help them recover faster. It looks like you are already doing a long, a hill and 1 medium long. So to turn the med long into a tempo is not too big of an increase. You can always cut back on that third hard day if you are not feeling good that day. If this becomes a consistent problem then maybe 2 hard days is right for you or maybe take your easy days down a notch further in intensity.

Ok, I think I'm going to do the long run Sundays, stay with hills Tuesdays (because I know my marathon is hilly) and turn the med. long run into my temp instead of trying to do that one day and a medium long run. I think I'm just to the point of doubt on the program, do I want to do this long of a race? all things are in doubt right now. I feel I just need to put more of myself into the program I'm following, go more with my own insincts on what I can do, and realize I've been going long enough to know what will and what won't work for me. Right? Ugh. If I can just make it through one marathon..... CC

You may already be doing this, but as you reach your highest goal distance for your long runs, then perhaps start doing them on hilly routes similar to the course of your goal marathon. This will get you used to running hills when you are really tired and will also give you more mental toughness.

Just had another brainstorm on run, how many people run their easy runs by time not milegae? I'm thinking of going that route on the days inbetween my hard workouts. Any thoughts on time vs. mileage? CC