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From Fellrnr.com, Running tips
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There are a vast number of training plans for the marathon distance, and choosing one can be daunting. This page gives an overview of several popular, proven plans. I have given a short textual description of the plan, then a list of the key attributes and a high level summary of each level of the plan. For the long runs, I start listing the lengths with the first run of 16 miles or longer and do not include the taper period. I've put the plans loosely in order of preference.
==Suitability Comparison==
The table below gives some high level guidance as to the suitability for the different plans for different types of runner. In the table, the number 1-5 indicate suitability with 5 being more suitable. As always, I'd like to hear from anyone that disagrees ;}
{| {{table}}
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''First'''
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Jack Daniels'''
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''SmartCoach'''
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Advanced Marathoning'''
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Jeff Galloway'''
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Hal Higdon'''
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Runners World'''
|-
| Novice||2||3||3||1||4||3||2
|-
| Maintenance ||2||2||3||1||3||4||2
|-
| Improver||4||4||3||2||1||2||3
|-
| Enthusiast||5||5||3||4||1||2||2
|-
| Elite||5||5||2||4||1||1||2
|}
* Novice: A first time marathon runner, or someone who not run a marathon for some time.
* Maintenance: A regular marathon runner who is looking to keep their performance, but not intending to work hard on improving their time.
* Improver: A runner who has run several marathons and is hoping to improve their performance. An improver will have not trained hard in the past, so may have the ability to improve significantly.
* Enthusiast: This is a runner who has trained hard for marathons in the past and is looking for ways of optimizing their performance.
* Elite: A runner who is prepared to work 'as hard as it takes' to improve performance.
== [[FIRST]] (Furman Institute of Running and Scientific Training) ==
The FIRST plan is my preferred training approach and is available in the book [http://www.amazon.com/Runners-World-Less-Faster-Revolutionary/dp/159486649X Run Less, Run Faster]. The FIRST plan builds on the Jack Daniels approach of providing specific training paces based on fitness level, which provides clearly defined workouts. The unique attribute of FIRST is running only 3 days per week, with two days of cross training. This tends to make FIRST a tougher training plan, as every run is a hard workout.
|-
| ||12 Week Plan||||||||||||||||||||||||||||17||18||19||17||20||17(12@MP)||22||18||20||17||13
|}
